Children\'s Literature Analysis of Hector

Children's Literature

Analysis of Hector Goes Fishing and Moke and Poki Build a House

In the first story, Hector Goes Fishing, a seven-year-old boy named Hector is bored and goes fishing. At the river, he meets a fish, then a duck, then a river rat, all who talk to him and are confused as to why he does not kill them. Hector becomes their friend right before two older boys come and try to kill the animals. Hector defends his friends and gets pushed into the river by the older boys. The animals then call all of their friends to scare the older boys and save Hector (Hallowell, 1958).

In the second story, Moke and Poki Build a House, two Hawaiian "little people" named Moke and Poki decide that they will build a house for Moke, who is sick of living in a bush. All of their animal friends help them build the house, and as a result they want to live in the house too. Poki, however, still lives in his bush. After a heavy rain comes, the house leaks and then collapses. All of the animals and Moke run to Poki's bush. Poki lets them all into the bush, where they can sleep warm and dry (Funai, 1972).

In Hector Goes Fishing, Hector is obviously the main character. Throughout the book he defines himself as a boy who acts out of the ordinary. His mother offers him worms for fishing, yet he says that he does not want to bother the worms since "they're busy" (Hallowell, 1958, 11). Later, when Hector encounters the animals, each one is shocked that Hector does not want to trap or kill them. Each of them suggests how happy Hector's mom and/or dad will be if he catches them and takes them home. Yet, Hector says that he does not want to kill anything that he can talk to (Hallowell, 1958).

Hector is obviously the child of a rural middle / working class family. From the pictures in the book we know that he is also white. When he leaves home to go fishing, his mother is working in the garden and his father is at work. His mother wants him to catch a nice fish that she can make for dinner. This and the home garden speak of a rural lifestyle as well as a family trend toward procuring their own food. Also, when Hector talks to the fish about scales, he says, "Do you have to have them patched often, the way Pa patches our roof?" (Hallowell, 1958, 18). Since his roof often needs repairs the reader can assume that his family is not very wealthy. Despite this, we see that his mom is home while his dad is at work. This establishes a gender role at work, since his mother is tending to home and garden in a typical nuclear family arrangement. Other indicators of gender are included in Hector's action and inaction; he does not do things that regular boys do. The older boys want to shoot the duck and rat, and the animals also find it strange that, as a young boy, Hector does not want to kill them. Even his mother recognizes that he is a strange boy, and is surprised that he does not want to bother the "busy" worms (Hallowell, 1958, 11). All of these factors show that a young boy in the country and from a working class background stereotypically likes to hunt and fish.

In Moke and Poki Build a House, the main characters are the two friends, Moke and Poki. Moke and Poki are Menehunes, a group of legendary little people who live in the rainforests of Hawaii. Though they are fictional, Moke and Poki show many traits that are associated with native people from Hawaii or otherwise. Both characters are male, though it is difficult to tell if they are adults or children. There are no parental figures and no females. Moke and Poki's friends are all animals and none of them are described using female or male pronouns. Instead they are simply called Crayfish, Nene-goose, Dog, and Cricket (Funai, 1972).

Moke and poki are portrayed in the illustration as having darker skin and, because they are in Hawaii and use Hawaiian words, are easily associated with Polynesian people. The first thing we learn is that they live in a bush, though Moke wants to live in a house. They look for a house but cannot find one. This perhaps suggests that, as native people, they are primitive and also far-removed from society or the real world (although this is probably not intentional on the author's part). Though they are the main characters and the only human-like characters, Moke and Poki are not in charge of the animals; after helping them build the house, all of the animals claim that they own it, too. This, too, can be attributed to the stereotype that native cultures or tribal cultures worship animals or have different relationships or respect for them (Funai, 1972).