traditional literature
ancient stories and set form. Passed down by word of mouth. Includes: parable, fable, fairy tales, folk tales,myths, legends recent literature; can also over lap with forms of traditional lit. novels, romance, confession, menipn-satire story that is realistic and has a moral, DIDACTIC (teaches a lesson), can be true, examples include parables by Jesus in the bible non realistic story with a moral, often has animals as main characters, examples in Aesop tales such as "the fox and the crane", and beast tales. Later on, develops into fairtales key characteristic is the element of magic, often present an ideal for instance "cinderella", "snow white", and "rapunzel" present proper woman.common features are wiches, wizards, and beasts. told in the language of the people, do not always have a moral but often entertainment as main purpose, another type is noodle-head folktales where the listener is superior to main character. stories designed to explain things the teller cannot understand for example, greeks and romans uses heros to explain thunder, fire or sun. Sometimes cultural, such as Native-American myths. stories usually exaggerated about real people, places, and things. Examples are legends about George Washington, paul bunyon presents idealized view of life in which characters and setting are better than what one would experience in real life. Always involve fantasy, usually have young, handsome, rich people One character reveals thoughts and ideas, this particular charcter is ROUND CHARACTER, whom the reader knows in detail. Example is Lauren Ingalles Wilders books, reader knows Lauars thoughts
modern literature
parable
fable
fairy tales
folktales
myths
legends
romance
confession
raditional LiteratureFolktales, Fables, Fairytales, Myths
2. Why learn about Traditional Literature? Serves as the building blocks for contemporary literature/framework for literature Provides a window on diverse cultures Provides moral models for children as the struggle between good and evil is applied to events in their own lives
3. FolktaleA story told by word of mouth to teach a lessonPassed down from generation to generation
4. Folk tale Folktales feature common people, such as peasants, and commonplace events. Characters representing human frailty (being fragile). Characters represent human qualities Good Evil Wisdom Foolishness Laziness Etc.
5. FolktalesThe conflict of the story is clear.The resolution usually has happy endingsGood is rewarded and evil is punishedElements of magic or magical characters may be incorporated, but logic rules so the supernatural must make sense in the story.
6. Fables Short stories that teach a moral (lesson) Plot is very brief, with one event. Animal characters with human characteristics Characters are flat, and stand for one human trait. Themes: cooperation, understanding, acceptance, etc. Morals sometimes are inferred. May be expressed in a proverb.
7. Aesops Fables This famous Book of Fables, which are always referred to as Aesops Fables, date back to the 5th Century BC. Lion and the Mouse The Fox and the Crow Goose with the Golden Eggs Wolf in Sheeps Clothing The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse Ant and the Grasshopper
8. FairytaleElements of a Fairytale Contains magic/enchantments Likely character types: Talking animals Witches Fairies Nobles (Kings, Queens, Princes, Princesses) Godparents
9. Fairy Tale- setting Setting does not have a definite location or time Familiar fairytales look like Germany
10. The best know tale in the WorldCinderella The oldest known version was found in China in the 9th century. It is basically a story of sibling rivalry. There are over 700 different versions.
11. Hans Christian Anderson Danish author and poet Wrote more than 160 Fairy Tales Many of Andersens fairy tales depict characters who gain happiness in life after suffering and conflicts Ugly Duckling theme of selfdiscovery, which Click on matched his own life Andersons Optimistic belief in the triumph of the good picture to see his stories Known as the father of the modern fairytale
12. Brothers Grimm Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm and Wilhelm Carl GrimmClickpicture for Wrote childrens tales and folklore toGrimm preserve German culture/heritagestories Wrote 211 stories together More stories
13. Fractured Fairy tale When authors modernize or change one or more of the elements of the story, the story is called a fractured fairy tale. Plot (conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution) Setting (time and/or place) Character (name, character traits) Point of View Theme
14. Fractured Fairy tales 15. Fracture Fairy Tales on the screen 16. Myths A mythology is a related body of stories which make up the official beliefs or explanations of a religious system. Myths attempt to explain the beginning of the world, natural phenomena, the relationships between the gods and humans, and the origins of civilization. Myths, like legends, are stories told as though they were true.
17. Myths Ancient Civilizations stories and beliefs
TRADITIONAL LITERATURE Once Upon A Time, in a Land Far Away ELE 620 Childrens Literature Cambridge College
2. BACKGROUND Definition: Stories born of the oral tradition Origins: Stories handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth They come from any country, any culture Similarities can be found in tales from one country to another No identifiable author Recognizable literary patterns in all types
3. CATEGORIES Folktales Fables Myths Epics and Legends 4. FOLKTALES Types of folktales: Cumulative tales Pourquoi tales Beast tales Wonder tales Realistic tales
5. CUMULATIVE TALES Increased repetition of details building to a quick climax Can be found in all cultures Examples: Gingerbread Boy, Henny Penny, Old Woman and Her Pig
6. POURQUOI TALES Why stories that explain certain animal traits or characteristics or human customs Found in many African and Native American cultures Example: How the Animals Got Their Tales How Chipmunk Got His Stripes
7. BEAST TALES Animals act and talk like humans Often appear as tricksters weak outsmarts strong Common animal characters: Fish (Scandanavian, English, German) Bears, Wolves (Russian) Spiders, Rabbits, Monkeys, Tortoises, Crocodiles, Lions (African) Rabbits, Badgers, Monkeys, Bees (Japanese)
8. WONDER TALES Also called Fairy Tales Contain magic and supernatural Usually have fairies, or other magical characters such as witches, ogres, trolls, demons Often contain a quest, romance and adventure Once Upon a Time, Happily Ever After Truth, love, kindness will prevail Wickedness, hate, evil will be punished
9. REALISTIC TALES Stories that involve no magic Could really have happened, some actually may have happened Begins with a real person but is embellished from many retellings Examples: Zlateh the Goat The Boy of the Three-Year Nap
10. TALL TALES Most common in American folklore Superlatives biggest, highest, strongest Mixture of humor, bravado, and pioneer spirit Examples: Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, John Henry, Johnny Appleseed
11. FOLK TALE CHARACTERISTICS What are the common characteristics in all folktales? Plot Structure Characterization Style Themes Motifs
12. PLOT STRUCTURE Short, simple, fast moving Humorous, happy endings Good rewarded, evil punished Wishes come true, but a task must be accomplished Youngest child usually succeeds, oldest defeated Repetition, responses and chants Number 3 is significant Quick establishment of time and place, although indefinite
13. CHARACTERIZATION Flat dimensions (completely good or completely evil) Examples: Beautiful girl who is virtuous, humble, patient Stepmothers who are ugly, cross, mean Poor are long-suffering, kind, generous Rich are hardhearted, conniving and dishonest
14. STYLE Offer opportunities for children to hear rich qualitative language and language patterns Should maintain the flavor of the culture but still understood by a wide audience Figurative language but not much description Often imitate sounds of the story Written as though a storyteller is speaking directly to the reader Maintains atmosphere of the culture of origin
15. THEMES Tells an entertaining story, while presenting important ideas Values of culture expressed such as humility, kindness, patience, sympathy, hard work, and courage Usually portray harsh acts / some violence Goals are not accomplished easily
16. MOTIFS Patterns which appear frequently in folktales Folklorists number and label the motifs The smallest part of a tale that can exist independently Examples: youngest brother, clever trickster, fairy godmother, evil witch, terrifying giant, marvelous transformations, long sleep, 3 tasks, etc. Simple tales have several motifs, complex tales have many. Helps children to see patterns, compare and contrast across cultures
17. FABLES Usually associated with Aesop, a Greek slave born about 600 B.C. Brief tales that teach a lesson Mostly animal characters speaking as humans Examples: Lion and the Mouse, Tortoise and Hare, Crow and the Fox Characters are unnamed, impersonal Personalities not as lively as in trickster tales Represent aspects of human nature Plots based on single incident Quality based upon language and illustrations
18. MYTHS Evolved as primitive people sought to explain earth, sky, and human behavior Deal with human relationships with the gods, gods relationships with each other and human struggle with good and evil Contain action, suspense, and conflict Types of myths: Creation myths, Nature myths, Hero myths
19. EPICS AND LEGENDS A long narrative clustering around a single hero A story form that grew out of myths with gods intervening in some stories but mostly involve human heroes Heroes embodying all ideal characteristics of the time, highest morals of society Robin Hood (justice and freedom) King Arthur (chivalry) Knowledge of epics gives children understanding of different cultures, and models of greatness through the ages
20. ALL AROUND THE WORLD Every culture has produced folklore. The study of these tales can provide insights into the beliefs of these people, their values, their jokes, their lifestyles, histories. A cross-cultural study of folktales can provide children with an opportunity to discover the universal qualities of humankind.
Modernism
The Modernist Period in English Literature occupied the years from shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century through roughly 1965. In broad terms, the period was marked by sudden and unexpected breaks with traditional ways of viewing and interacting with the world. Experimentation and individualism became virtues, where in the past they were often heartily discouraged. Modernism was set in motion, in one sense, through a series of cultural shocks. The first of these great shocks was the Great War, which ravaged Europe from 1914 through 1918, known now as World War One. At the time, this War to End All Wars was looked upon with such ghastly horror that many people simply could not imagine what the world seemed to be plunging towards. The first hints of that particular way of thinking called Modernism stretch back into the nineteenth century. As literary periods go, Modernism displays a relatively strong sense of cohesion and similarity across genres and locales. Furthermore, writers who adopted the Modern point of view often did so quite deliberately and self-consciously. Indeed, a central preoccupation of Modernism is with the inner self and consciousness. In contrast to the Romantic world view, the Modernist cares rather little for Nature, Being, or the overarching structures of history. Instead of progress and growth, the Modernist intelligentsia sees decay and a growing alienation of the individual. The machinery of modern society is perceived as impersonal, capitalist, and antagonistic to the artistic impulse. War most certainly had a great deal of influence on such ways of approaching the world. Two World Wars in the span of a generation effectively shell-shocked all of Western civilization. In its genesis, the Modernist Period in English literature was first and foremost a visceral reaction against the Victorian culture and aesthetic, which had prevailed for most of the nineteenth century. Indeed, a break with traditions is one of the fundamental constants of the Modernist stance. Intellectuals and artists at the turn of the twentieth century believed the previous generations way of doing things was a cultural dead end. They could foresee that world events were spiraling into unknown territory. The stability and quietude of Victorian civilization were rapidly becoming a thing of the past. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was essentially the triggering event of the First World War, a conflict which swept away all preconceived notions about the nature of so-called modern warfare. In the world of art, generally speaking, Modernism was the beginning of the distinction between high art and low art. The educational reforms of the Victorian Age had led to a rapid increase in literacy rates, and therefore a greater demand for literature or all sorts. A popular press quickly developed to supply that demand. The sophisticated literati looked upon this new popular literature with scorn. Writers who refused to bow to the popular tastes found themselves in a state of alienation from the mainstream of society. To some extent, this alienation fed into the stereotype of the aloof artist, producing nothing of commercial value for the market. Its worth mentioning that this alienation worked both ways, as the reading public by and large turned their backs on many elitist artists. The academic world became something of a refuge for disaffected artists, as they could rub elbows with fellow disenfranchised intellectuals. Still, the most effective poets and novelists did manage to make profound statements that were absorbed by the whole of society and not just the writers inner circles. In the later years of the Modernist period, a form of populism returned to the literary mainstream, as regionalism and identity politics became significant influences on the purpose and direction of artistic endeavor. The nineteenth century, like the several centuries before it, was a time of privilege for wealthy Caucasian males. Women, minorities, and the poor were marginalized to the point of utter silence and inconsequence. The twentieth century witnessed the beginnings of a new paradigm between first the sexes, and later between different cultural groups. Class distinction remains arguably the most difficult bridge to cross in terms of forming a truly equitable society. Some would argue that class has become a euphemism for race, but thats another discussion. The point is that as the twentieth century moved forward, a greater variety of literary voices won the struggle to be heard. What had so recently been inconceivable was steadily becoming a reality. African-Americans took part in the Harlem Renaissance, with the likes of Langston Hughes at the forefront of a vibrant new idiom in American poetry. Women like Hilda Doolittle and Amy Lowell became leaders of the Imagist movement. None of this is to suggest that racism and sexism had been completely left behind in the art world. Perhaps such
blemishes can never be fully erased, but the strides that were taken in the twentieth century were remarkable by any measure. In Modernist literature, it was the poets who took fullest advantage of the new spirit of the times, and stretched the possibilities of their craft to lengths not previously imagined. In general, there was a disdain for most of the literary production of the last century. The exceptions to this disdain were the French Symbolist poets like Charles Beaudelaire, and the work of Irishman Gerard Manley Hopkins. The French Symbolists were admired for the sophistication of their imagery. In comparison to much of what was produced in England and America, the French were ahead of their time. They were similarly unafraid to delve into subject matter that had usually been taboo for such a refined art form. Hopkins, for his part, brought a fresh way to look at rhythm and word usage. He more or less invented his own poetic rhythms, just as he coined his own words for things which had, for him, no suitable descriptor. Hopkins had no formal training in poetry, and he never published in his lifetime. This model the selftaught artist-hermit who has no desire for public adulation would become synonymous with the poet in the modern age. This stereotype continues unrivaled to this day, despite the fact that the most accomplished poets of the Modern period were far from recluses. Even though alienation was a nearly universal experience for Modernist poets, it was impossible to escape some level of engagement with the world at large. Even if this engagement was mediated through the poetry, the relationship that poets had with their world was very real, and very much revealing of the state of things in the early twentieth century. Leading up to the First World War, Imagist poetry was dominating the scene, and sweeping previous aesthetic points of view under the rug. The Imagists, among them Ezra Pound, sought to boil language down to its absolute essence. They wanted poetry to concentrate entirely upon the thing itself, in the words of critic-poet T. E. Hulme. To achieve that effect required minimalist language, a lessening of structural rules and a kind of directness that Victorian and Romantic poetry seriously lacked. Dreaminess or Pastoral poetry were utterly abandoned in favor of this new, cold, some might say mechanized poetics. Imagist poetry was almost always short, unrhymed, and noticeably sparse in terms of adjectives and adverbs. At some points, the line between poetry and natural language became blurred. This was a sharp departure from the ornamental, verbose style of the Victorian era. Gone also were the preoccupations with beauty and nature. Potential subjects for poetry were now limitless, and poets took full advantage of this new freedom. No Modernist poet has garnered more praise and attention than Thomas Stearns Eliot. Born in Missouri, T. S. Eliot would eventually settle in England, where he would produce some of the greatest poetry and criticism of the last century. Eliot picked up where the Imagists left off, while adding some of his own peculiar aesthetics to the mix. His principal contribution to twentieth century verse was a return to highly intellectual, allusive poetry. He looked backwards for inspiration, but he was not nostalgic or romantic about the past. Eliots productions were entirely in the modern style, even if his blueprints were seventeenth century metaphysical poets. One of the distinguishing characteristics of Eliots work is the manner in which he seamlessly moves from very high, formal verse into a more conversational and easy style. Yet even when his poetic voice sounds very colloquial, there is a current underneath, which hides secondary meanings. It is this layering of meanings and contrasting of styles that mark Modernist poetry in general and T. S. Eliot in particular. It is no overstatement to say that Eliot was the pioneer of the ironic mode in poetry; that is, deceptive appearances hiding difficult truths. In American Literature, the group of writers and thinkers known as the Lost Generation has become synonymous with Modernism. In the wake of the First World War, several American artists chose to live abroad as they pursued their creative impulses. These included the intellectual Gertrude Stein, the novelists Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the painter Waldo Pierce, among others. The term itself refers to the spiritual and existential hangover left by four years of unimaginably destructive warfare. The artists of the Lost Generation struggled to find some meaning in the world in the wake of chaos. As with much of Modernist literature, this was achieved by turning the minds eye inward and attempting to record the workings of consciousness. For Hemingway, this meant the abandonment of all ornamental language. His novels are famous for their extremely spare, blunt, simple sentences and emotions that play out right on the surface of things. There is an irony to this bluntness, however, as his characters often have hidden agendas, hidden sometimes even from
themselves, which serve to guide their actions. The Lost Generation, like other High Modernists, gave up on the idea that anything was truly knowable. All truth became relative, conditional, and in flux. The War demonstrated that no guiding spirit rules the events of the world, and that absolute destruction was kept in check by only the tiniest of margins. The novel was by no means immune from the self-conscious, reflective impulses of the new century. Modernism introduced a new kind of narration to the novel, one that would fundamentally change the entire essence of novel writing. The unreliable narrator supplanted the omniscient, trustworthy narrator of preceding centuries, and readers were forced to question even the most basic assumptions about how the novel should operate. James Joyces Ulysses is the prime example of a novel whose events are really the happenings of the mind, the goal of which is to translate as well as possible the strange pathways of human consciousness. A whole new perspective came into being known as stream of consciousness. Rather than looking out into the world, the great novelists of the early twentieth century surveyed the inner space of the human mind. At the same time, the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud had come into mainstream acceptance. These two forces worked together to alter peoples basic understanding of what constituted truth and reality. Experimentation with genre and form was yet another defining characteristic of Modernist literature. Perhaps the most representative example of this experimental mode is T. S. Eliots long poem The Waste Land. Literary critics often single out The Waste Land as the definitive sample of Modernist literature. In it, one is confronted by biblical-sounding verse forms, quasi-conversational interludes, dense and frequent references which frustrate even the most well-read readers, and sections that resemble prose more than poetry. At the same time, Eliot fully displays all the conventions which one expects in Modernist literature. There is the occupation with self and inwardness, the loss of traditional structures to buttress the ego against shocking realities, and a fluid nature to truth and knowledge. The cynicism and alienation of the first flowering of Modernist literature could not persist. By midcentury, indeed by the Second World War, there was already a strong reaction against the pretentions of the Moderns. Artists of this newer generation pursued a more democratic, pluralistic mode for poetry and the novel. There was optimism for the first time in a long time. Commercialism, publicity, and the popular audience were finally embraced, not shunned. Alienation became boring. True, the influence of Modernist literature continues to be quite astonishing. The Modern poet-critics changed the way people think about artists and creative pursuits. The Modern novelists changed the way many people perceive truth and reality. These changes are indeed profound, and cannot easily be replaced by new schemas. This article is copyrighted 2011 by Jalic Inc. Do not reprint it without permission. Written by Josh Rahn. Josh holds a Masters degree in English Literature from Morehead State University, and a Masters degree in Library Science from the University of Kentucky. Major Modernist Writers
Bishop, Elizabeth (1911-1979) Conrad, Joseph (1857-1924) Doolittle, Hilda (1886-1961) Eliot, Thomas Stearns (1888-1965) Faulkner, William (1897-1962) Fitzgerald, F. Scott (1896-1940) Hemingway, Ernest (1899-1961) Hughes, Langston (1902-1967) James, Henry (1843-1916) Lawrence, D. H. (1885-1930) Lowell, Amy (1874-1925) Pound, Ezra (1885-1972) Shaw, George Bernard (1856-1950) Stevens, Wallace (1879-1955)
A Wrinkle in Time is the story of Meg Murry, a high-school-aged girl who is transported on an adventure through time and space with her younger brother Charles Wallace and her friend Calvin O'Keefe to rescue her father, a gifted scientist, from the evil forces that hold him prisoner on another planet. At the beginning of the book, Meg is a homely, awkward, but loving girl, troubled by personal insecurities and her concern for her father, who has been missing for over a year. The plot begins with the arrival of Mrs. Whatsit at the Murry house on a dark and stormy evening. Although she looks like an eccentric tramp, she is actually a celestial creature with the ability to read Meg's thoughts. She startles Meg's mother by reassuring her of the existence of a tesseract--a sort of "wrinkle" in space and time. It is through this wrinkle that Meg and her companions will travel through the fifth dimension in search of Mr. Murry.
On the afternoon following Mrs. Whatsit's visit, Meg and Charles Wallace walk over to Mrs. Whatsit's cabin. On the way, they meet Calvin O'Keefe, a popular boy in Meg's school whom Charles considers a kindred spirit. The three children learn from Mrs. Whatsit and her friends Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which that the universe is threatened by a great evil called the Dark Thing and taking the form of a giant cloud, engulfing the stars around it. Several planets have already succumbed to this evil force, including Camazotz, the planet on which Mr. Murry is imprisoned.
The three Mrs. W's transport the children to Camazotz and instruct them to remain always in each other's company while on their quest for Mr. Murry. On Camazotz, all objects and places appear exactly alike because the whole planet must conform to the terrifying rhythmic pulsation of IT, a giant disembodied brain. Charles Wallace tries to fight IT with his exceptional intelligence but is overpowered by the evil and becomes a robot-like creature mouthing the words with which IT infuses him. Under the control of IT, Charles leads Meg and Calvin to Mr. Murry and together they confront IT. However, they, too, are unable to withstand IT's power; they escape only at the last minute, when Mr. Murry appears and seizes Meg and Calvin, "tessering" away with them (traveling via another tesseract) to a gray planet called Ixchel inhabited by tall, furry beasts who care for the travelers. Charles Wallace remains possessed by IT, a prisoner of Camazotz.
On Planet Ixchel the three Mrs. W's appear once again, and Meg realizes that she must travel alone back to Camazotz to rescue her brother. Mrs. Which tells her that she has one thing that IT does not have, and this will be her weapon against the evil. However, Meg must discover this weapon for herself. When standing in the presence of IT, Meg realizes what this
is: her ability to love. Thus, by concentrating on her love for Charles Wallace, she is able to restore him to his true identity. Meg releases Charles from IT's clutches and tessers with him through time and space, landing in her twin brothers' vegetable garden on Earth, where her father and Calvin stand waiting. The family joyously reunites, and the Mrs. W's visit the happy scene en route to further travels. A Wrinkle in Time is published as a children's or young adult book, and like much children's literature, it features young protagonists who go off on a quest in the absence of their parents. In A Wrinkle in Time this quest takes them to other planets, where they meet strange and fantastical beings. At the end, the object of their quest is achieved, though in not quite the way they expected, and they return to the normal, every-day world.
A Wrinkle In Time By Madeleine LEngle
July 22, 2007
Filed under: Book Reviews,Books,Fantasy,Fiction,Juvenile,Newbery Medal,sci-fi Julie @ 8:36 pm
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine LEngle Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy Publication Date: First published 1962 this edition published by Dell in 1997 Recommended Age Group: Ages 12 and up Summary: A Wrinkle in Time is about three children, Meg and Charles Wallace Murry and Calvin OKeefe, who go on a mission to save the Murrys father. The story starts out describing Meg who thinks of herself as pretty average and is really smart but is distracted so she isnt doing very well in school. Her distraction comes from home. Her father who is a scientist who works for the government has been missing for quite some time and there are rumors that he ran off with another woman. These rumors upset the whole family and Meg finds herself unable to concentrate on what she needs to. Charles Wallace is a five-year-old boy who is anything but normal. He has the ability to read what people are thinking and feeling without asking them. He has some interesting friends that live in the woods. These friends go by the names of Mrs. Who Whatsit and Which. We find out later that they were stars who are able to transform themselves into different things (people, centaurs, etc.) and they are also able to Tesser and time travel. Tesser is a way of travel that instead of going from point to point they make things closer by bending space. In the book they explain it as a wrinkle, if an ant were to walk all the way along a piece of fabric it would take him a long time. However, if that same piece of fabric was wrinkled up the ant would not have as far to go. These three women help the children to go find the Murrys father on a distant planet and they help fight an evil call IT that has taken over the planet. IT is a big brain that has the ability to get into peoples minds and control them. Charles Wallace lets the brain take him over because he thinks he can defeat it that way and losses control. While he is under ITs control he takes Meg and Calvin to where their father is and eventually they are able to free him. Once they are free Charles Wallace
takes them to IT and he almost gets them all under his control when Mr. Murry tessers and frees them from it, but he is unable to take Charles Wallace along. They go to a planet full of giants who do not have eyes and therefore cannot see. These giants help Meg to recover who had a bad experience with the last tesser where she was frozen nearly solid. After they cure her she is sent back to the planet with IT on it and tries to get Charles Wallace back. She tries many ways of fighting IT but they all seem to fail until she remembers the hint that Mrs. Whatsit gave her before she left. Use the one thing he doesnt have and remember love. She kept telling Charles Wallace how much she loved him and eventually she broke through ITs powers and they were able to travel home with the help of the three women. The book ends with a happy family reunion and Mr. and Mrs. Murry seeing each other again after a long separation. Personal Notes: This was a great book for someone who already like Sci-fi/fantasy type books. I think it would be too involved for someone who didnt really know anything about this genre because it is a really involved book and if you werent already thinking without limits some of the contents would be hard to accept and get by. Other than that I thought it was a really good book. I read it when I was in seventh grade and I really enjoyed it a lot more now. I was able to understand a lot more and to appreciate the writing style. However, I do not think it would be too hard for a seventh grader to understand if they were used to reading these types of books.
Hi Can someone give me a short summary of Greek myth Persephone and Demeter?
thank you
4 years ago Report Abuse
{emma!}
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
Demeter and Zeus had a child, Persephone. Persephone was beautiful, and the minor deity of spring. One day, while she was out in the forest she wandered away from her mother/friends (the story can vary,) and Hades spotted her. He was so taken by her beauty that he kidnapped her, and brought her to the underworld, either by swooping down in a chariot and grabbing her or having the earth open and swallow her hole. When Demeter realized her daughter was missing, she began to worry, and when she couldn't find her she began to neglect her duties to taking care of the earth. The leaves of the trees began to fall off and die, flowers stopped blossoming, etc, as she traveled the world looking for her daughter. By then, Zeus realized that something must be done. Helios, a god of he sun, shared that he had seen Hades kidnap Persephone. Demeter demanded her back but there was a catch. During her time in the Underworld, Persephone had eaten one pomegranate. If a person eats a single bit of food while they're in the Underworld they must stay there forever. However, Persephone said she had really just been thirsty and had drunk the juice from the fruit, and only swallowed six seeds. Hades claimed her as his Queen, but Zeus ruled that she would spend six months in the Underworld with Hades for the six seeds she had swallowed, and six months with Demeter outside of the Underworld. Whenever Persephone returned to her mother, the earth began to thrive again, (spring and summer), because they were both happy, and Demeter was able to work. However, despite the deal and the
promised return of her daughter, Demeter couldn't stand to have Persephone away from her for six months, and once again neglected her duties so she could search for the entrance to the Underworld to see her. This lead to fall and winter. The story of Persephone and her mother was used to explain the change of seasons. Source(s): This isn't a very short summary, but I couldn't resit. The story of Persephone is one of my favorites. ^^
4 years ago
