Gender Roles and Interpersonal Relationships in Children's Literature

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 that she, Eloise, is rather important and has busied herself with a host of things she has to do each day. 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 of this or not. In many ways, Eloise dominance and pervasive presence throughout the Plaza hotel meant that she was exercising her own self-esteem, and also setting an example to little girls everywhere. Eloise’s interpersonal relations throughout the book are characterized in this manner: she is assertive and does as she pleases, thinking very little of her effect on others. Eloise is also extremely confident and inventive, shown in various examples, including her suggestion that a Kleenex box could make a very good hat.
Eloise also has a rich world with her imagination, something else that communicates specific messages about gender. She is constantly pretending and making up imaginary scenarios to keep herself occupied and engaged. Eloise teaches young people the importance of being clever and inventive and that it’s one’s responsibility to not succumb to boredom or any lower inclinations. Most importantly, one could argue that Eloise engaged in the importance of showing young girls that it was okay to be a little bit sassy, and to allow that side of their personality to have some room.
In many ways, the Madeline books crafted by Ludwig Bemelmans and published from 1939 and 1961 were another manifestation of this assertive youth-heroine culture. Madeline is a girl who is in many ways comparable to Eloise, as both girls have the backdrop of big cosmopolitan cities as their own personal playgrounds. However, unlike Eloise, Madeline does not have the same amount of unbridled freedom to enjoy. Madeline in some ways is stifled by the Catholic boarding school that she attends in Paris. However, even though Madeline is the smallest of all the girls she is surrounded by and the only ginger-haired girl, we are shown that she is brave and outgoing. The book also echoes one of the major lessons of Eloise: a bad situation can actually be rather enjoyable to a kid. For Eloise, her absentee parents meant that she could enjoy copious amounts of freedom and independence. For Madeline, getting her appendix out meant that she was the envy of all her classmates, and was given freedom outside of her Catholic girls boarding school. She was given the opportunity to stretch her wings a bit and enjoy some autonomy, as well as get a sense of her own resilience. This is a common theme throughout the Madeline books. For instance, in Madeline’s rescue, she falls into the iconic Seine River and is rescued by a dog, bringing him back as a pet. This book gives a strong message to young girls about the resiliency of the heroine, and that her size or her unique hair color should not deter her from embracing life and being bold.
In a comparable fashion, the book(s) Angelina Ballerina by Katherine Holgard, imitate the theme of young female liberty. Angelina is a mouse with serious aspirations and they revolve around her desire to be a professional ballerina. However, she’s more than just driven, she has the boldness and assertive femininity that both Madeline and Eloise possess. The reader is told that Angelina “danced all the time and she danced everywhere and often she was so busy dancing that she forgot about the other things she was supposed to be doing.” While this detail might seem innocuous, it is actually quite liberating and subversive. Holgard is essentially telling the young reader that Angelina was so connected to her goals that she was comfortable ignoring the obligations that had been thrust upon her by her family or by society. She was comfortable asserting her independence and her autonomy, much like Madeline and Eloise. The book also has a very meaningful message about channeling one’s energy towards a goal. Until her parents 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.





Works Cited
Bemelmans, Ludwig. Mad about Madeline: The Complete Tales. Viking, 2001. 
Holabird, Katherine. Angelina Ballerina. Penguin, 2008. 
Thompson, Kay. Eloise. Simon and Schuster, 1955.