This paper will examine the title characters of the beloved and revered children’s books Eloise, the Madeline series and Angelina Ballerina. This paper will explore the positive values that these female characters embody and how many of these positive traits are connected to the fact that they are a rejection of the traditional feminine archetypes. Neither Eloise nor Madeline nor Angelina are meek or submissive, and it is quietly likely that their boldness is in part why these books have become such classics for so long.
The book Eloise by Kay Thompson and illustrated by artist Hilary Knight was published in 1955 and has become a classic ever since. Much of the book’s more modern treatment of gender and gender roles is responsible for its popularity and its enduring quality. The main character is Eloise, who is a six-year-old girl who lives in the Plaza hotel. She has gone done in history for being sassy, but she is very much a subversive figure in children’s literature and was notably subversive for the decade that she debuted to the public. In the 1950s so many of the available characters that represented femininity for children were beholden to traditional gender roles. Consider the princesses portrayed in fairytales as a comparison to Eloise. Eloise was different in that she did not look traditionally beautiful and did not give her appearance much consideration. Her hair is stringy and unkempt and she has a potbelly. Rather than taking on the traditional role of the sad, abandoned or disappointed child, Eloise revels in her parent-less lifestyle. This character choice alone is very different and liberating and portrays Eloise as a very independent and fearless little girl. This created a shining example to so many young girls and has no doubt had a hand in her enduring popularity. Eloise has decided...
Eloise has to harass the front desk clerks, take and make several calls on the house phones of the hotel, ride the elevator up and down the hotel and inscribe her name all over the walls of the famous landmark. While these details might just seem like irreverent things that young people do, for Eloise they were assertions of her importance and her autonomy. These actions might have been her way of asserting herself and her value in the face of her absentee parents, regardless if she was conscious...…enrolled her in ballet class, so much of Angelina’s energy was a bit chaotic, and caused her to be late for school and created some discord around their home. However, these “issues” again assert Angelina’s independence and her rejection of traditional gender roles, as she doggedly does her own things, regardless of the expectations of her family and society around her. On the other hand, ballet class does give her a more structured environment for her to pursue her goals, and that is helpful as she molds herself towards the life she wants and the person she wishes to become.
In summary, children’s literature books like Eloise, the Madeline series and the Angelina Ballerina series have helped children reject some of the more narrower and toxic stereotypes of female gender paradigms. The heroines of these books are not meek, and they do not aim to please the way so many female characters are written. These books encourage young women to be bold and brave and to pursue what they want to do. One might even go so far as to argue that these books encourage little girls to be a little selfish, something that can be useful in helping them to construct their identities.
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