Roch Carrier's "The Hockey Sweater" and childhood values in literature

¶ … Hockey Sweater - Children's Literature

Introduction / Argument

Authors of children's books are no different in terms of producing creative and substantive material from those writers and authors who pen stories for the adult market: both genres cry out for the portrayal of something meaningful, memorable, instructional, possibly provocative - and last but certainly not least, something entertaining enough to be devoured like a juicy mesquite-smoked salmon steak fresh off an outdoor grill on a Canadian spring afternoon.

And no matter what the storyline is, no matter the names and identities of the characters, no matter the tone, setting, ironies and conflicts, all writers have a moral and/or political agenda at work when they sit down to the keyboard to work. The values of the writer are interwoven into that writer's story like the planks of a political party during its convention. Careful, objective readers - with experience in analyzing literature and knowledge of the subtleties of tone and style - will almost always be able to discern what the "big picture" message is in any well-crafted tale.

Within even the most pedestrian of children's stories - whether it is about sports or history or war - there are morals and values to be found. And at the end of the day, when the book has been read and placed back on the library shelf, waiting for the next reader to enjoy it, unless those above-mentioned morals and values have been poignantly and powerfully presented, the literary work's legacy will be more dusty than worthy.

Questions and Answers from The Hockey Sweater

How important are Heroes in the story?

Maurice Richard served as a great deal more to the child in this book than merely a hockey hero, though he certainly was that: "...We all wore the famous number 9" (78) - and "We laced our skates like Maurice Richard, we taped our sticks like Maurice Richard...we all combed our hair like Maurice Richard." Indeed, Richard was God-like, a towering, compelling figure, not unlike Babe Ruth was for boys growing up in New York in the 1920s and 30s. Richard and Ruth were, in a very real sense, quite a bit larger than the cliche, "larger than life." They were life, because as noted in the introduction to this paper, life for kids was lived through the power of daydreams.

Richard provided for Canadian kids what Ruth provided for New York kids: something to hang a dream on, something to idolize that was harmless, something to fantasize about to help get through the dreary doldrums of school, church, and other forms of "punishment."

And as for Richard's immense power over kids, he transcended mere hockey, or sports, and his legacy entered into the indigenous world; Richard represented two things beyond being a mere sporting hero: one, he was the sum and substance of a Canadian kid's national identity; and two, he was the shining symbol of native loyalty - in this case, loyalty to Montreal, through the golden reputation of the Montreal Canadians.

How important was the Eaton Catalogue in the story?

The catalogue was the key to a world of dreams coming true: a fresh new sweater, arriving in the mail, was magical for a kid growing up in hockey-crazy, icy-cold Canada in the winter. Meantime, the only thing not good about the Eaton catalogue was that it was "written in English," and mom didn't understand English. Otherwise, because mom didn't want people to think her family poor - and because she was "proud," she would rather mail off for clothing for her children than go to the general store.

The catalogue turned out to be the best and worst of all worlds, when Monsieur Eaton sent the sweater for the Toronto Maple Leafs, something akin to the daughter of Senator John Kerry ordering a sweatshirt with a donkey and "Democrats" stitched on the front, and instead of that, receiving a sweatshirt with an elephant and "Republicans" stitched on the front.

Never had anyone in my village ever worn the Toronto sweater, never had we even seen a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater." And teary-eyed, he pledged that "I'll never wear that uniform." The mother clearly did not understand this child's world of turning daydreams and hero-driven loyalties into realities. Her advice was perfectly appropriate for an adult to understand, but for a child, it rang hollow: "If you make up your mind about things before you try, my boy, you won't go very far in this life."

The catalogue also provided the author with an opportunity to illustrate - through literary passages - the antipathy between French-speaking Canadians and English-speaking Canadians. This schism is not new at all, and it won't go away easily. But when mom wrote in French as a symbolic gesture against the intrusion of English-speaking companies in Canada, the reader understands that it was in a way a protest, albeit, a quiet and dignified one.

One wonders, too, if when Monsieur Eaton sent the wrong sweater, if he was conducting his own little protest against French-speaking people.

What is the extent to which the text aims at instruction or delight, or both?

This story is very instructive, not so much for children, but for adults. And here is the rationale behind that assertion: for all their best intentions, adults just don't get it when a child's world is being threatened by the dark cloud of dream-dashing reality. Mom orders the sweater, but the wrong one comes in the mail. Every other kid in this cold Canadian village has sweaters reflecting the Canadians - so, how can the protagonist possibly attempt to buck that tradition?

I'll never wear it," he says, to which mother replies: "Why not? This sweater fits you...like a glove."

Hello mom, wake up and smell the cappuccino: the fit of the sweater is incidental and entirely trivial in this context. Forcing a child in a community of crazed Montreal Canadians kid fans to wear the logo of the hated Maple Leafs (albeit, the maple leaf is the national symbol of Canada), is wholly disrespectful of that child's place in his society of friends. And as was stated in the introduction to this paper, a child's life is a sidebar to the adult world - but it is a sidebar, legitimate in its entirety, every bit as important in the big picture of growing up in this world as the headline at the top of the newspaper is.

The lesson here for adults is, peer group "pressure" is not just some neighbor kids trying to talk your kid into having his first cigarette, or daring your kid to walk out on thin ice at the risk of falling into frigid pond water.

Peer group pressure also means not putting a kid into a situation where he or she will be humiliated by his or her peers. It means that loyalty to the Packers for a kid in Green Bay, Wisconsin, is a no-brainer; no kid in his right mind in Green Bay would go to school with a Chicago Bears' sweatshirt on; it would ruin him forever; he would be more than the butt of jokes, he would be fiercely and mercilessly harassed forever.

Kids' loyalties go deeper than their parents, in many cases. So, this lesson needs to be learned. In the instance of the story, mom should have just quickly sent the sweater back to Monsieur Eaton, asking him to replace it with a Canadian sweater.

And mom needed to learn a valuable lesson, instead of uttering these remarks: "You aren't Maurice Richard. Anyway, it isn't what's on your back that counts, it's what you've got inside your head." What mom needed to learn from all this, is that her son has plenty inside his head already. And what her son has inside his head is a child's world full of dreams and loyalties and flights of fancy. That, to a kid, is the world as it should be, and wearing a Maurice Richard sweater - like all the other kids in town - is a symbol of his independence from the adult world.

And so what if Monsieur Eaton is an English-speaking fan of the Maple Leafs? Mom really, sorely misses the point here, by bringing up the name of an English-speaker (hated by French-speakers) who happens to be a fan of a team mom's son hates, and who happens to be a businessman.

If he's insulted do you think he'll be in a hurry to answer us?" she asks (80). "Spring will be here and you won't have played a single game, just because you didn't want to wear that perfectly nice blue sweater," mom offers as a rationalization for her mistake.

What is the relationship between winter and hockey in Canada?

Winter and hockey in Canada go together like apple pie and ice cream, like popcorn and movies, like spring rain and tulips in Indiana. Why is it that hockey was invented in Canada? It is because the winters are brutally cold, interminably long, and there is little for kids to do besides shovel walks and stay indoors. And so, games involving the cold weather - and the ramifications of the cold - were invented.

Native Americans invented games like Lacrosse centuries before there were ballparks and football fields and television - simply because there was a need for fun, for recreation, and creative individuals used resources at hand to invent games. So it also was in Canada, where hockey went from part time outdoor pastime to the biggest thing since Canadian independence from England.

And now the sport of hockey, with its rich sporting traditions and with heroes such as Richard, has expanded well into the southern regions of the United States, where, albeit there may be a scarcity of snow in Los Angeles, when Wayne Gretsky came to town, kids lined up under the palm trees to watch these magical skaters turn an ice rink into a hotbed of competition and glory.

What can we learn from the text about the culture's idea of childhood, as seen through the eyes of a child?

When the boy is "obliged to wear the Maple Leafs sweater" at the rink, all the other kids in their Maurice Richards' sweaters "came up, one by one, to take a look." One can clearly see this picture of the boy in the Toronto sweater being examined by all his hitherto great friends, being put on trial, in effect.

It must have been very much like an incompetent army recruit in the heat of basic training, whose uniform is soiled and improperly presented, and he's nervously standing there for inspection. And one-by-one, a dozen drill sergeants march over to stand in front of him and give him the "evil eye" - which means he has likely lost their respect forever.

The Maple Leafs sweater weighed on my shoulders like a mountain" (80), the boy confessed. That is some serious burden for a little boy to bear, and in his words, it is all the more poignant.

And after he had been severely harassed through peer-group stares, it got worse. "By the third period I still hadn't played...one of the defensemen was hit in the nose with a stick and it was bleeding..." And yet when he jumped in to take over for the injured boy, "The referee blew his whistle..." claiming the Toronto Maple-Leaf-wearing players was on the ice too early. That, to a kid who knows the game of hockey, is beyond an insult - it is blasphemy.

That was too much! It was unfair! It was persecution! It was because of my blue sweater!" he raged. And so he broke his stick on the ice - a fit of fury that is not only silly, it's embarrassing - and then the final straw comes from a man of cloth, "the vicar."

My child," said the vicar, "just because you're wearing a new Toronto Maple Leafs sweater unlike the others, it doesn't mean you're going to make the laws around here." What a huge hammer to the head of a kid who already has been punished by school, church, his mother, and Monsieur Eaton.

And when he is ordered to remove his skates and go to the church to pray for forgiveness, author Carrier serves up some of his timely and intelligent humor. Of course the boy will pray, but instead of forgiveness, he asks God to send, "as quickly as possible, moths that would eat up my Toronto Maple Leafs sweater." Readers notice of course that he didn't ask for a new Montreal Canadians' sweater - he was too angry for that. From his sidebar story of a child's world, he first needed to rid himself of the plague that the Maple Leafs' sweater had brought his way.