Compare and contrast the “Just So Stories” of Rudyard Kipling with “The Bloody Chambers and other stories” by Angela Carter.

Rudyard Kiplings' stories are so similar to those of Angela Carters' because they both use the idea of anthropomorphism but the two authors use the method very differently indeed. In Rudyard Kiplings' stories he creates the animals to inherit human qualities such as speech. For example: In "The Elephants child" the elephant uses human speech but the language has been slightly adjusted, i.e.- "I don't think you peoples know..." otherwise spoken as "I don't think you people know". Formally spoken English would not have an "s" on the end of "people"

Angela Carter uses the idea of anthropomorphism in a very different way. She uses the idea of animals turning into young handsome princes. This is much more appealing to young women taking control of their situation. This differs to kiplings' stories in the way that his stories are essential lessons in obedience and good behaviour to young children before they are particularly aware of gender as an important feature in their lives.

The two authors differ in the way that they are writing for two different types of gender. Kiplings' stories could be either for young boys and young girls but Angela Carter writes out of the feminist movement in the 1970's and 1980's.

Angela Carter also makes her stories a lot like fairy stories, which is different to Rudyard Kiplings' fables. Her short stories are like fary stories for many reasons. Fairy stories tend to be pointed at young girls rather than just children. In fables there is always one obvious quality with is associated with a certain type of animal. For example: A monkey is associated with intelligence.

Fairy stories use the idea of an innocent young women being imprisoned by some form of a beast or "a bad guy" and then being set free. For example: In "the courtship of Mr.Lyon," by Angela Carter, the innocent young girl gets imprisoned when she has to be with a beast and then gets set free when the beast turns into a handsome young Prince. Also the majority of fairy stories tend to be set in a modern scene and some of Angela Carters' stories are set in a modern scene.

Angela Carters' stories are similar to those of Rudyard Kiplings' in the way that they are both written for children and are written from a Childs perspective. Also both the writers use language imaginatively and creatively. There is a strong author's voice that speaks directly to the reader, again emphasising the idea of a strong character speaking to a weaker, like an adult to a child.

There is a difference between the two authors in the way of how descriptive the story and the characters are. Kipling's stories are much shorter with much less description because his main characters are the animals or the exotic humans who trick them. He is more interested in the humour and the moral than in creating complicated people we can believe in. Angela Carter needs to create heroines we care about for her point to be established and consequently her stories are longer and more detailed and her characters are much more complicated. They have a real inner life.

In Kiplings' stories there is little attempt to create an atmosphere of place or time, for example: In "The Elephant's Child," when the elephant is down by the river there is no sense of place and mostly of all no sense of time.

Fairy stories always finish with a happy ending, and in "The Company of Wolves," by Angela Carter, the girl does not get savagely killed by the wolves but becomes friendly with them and is very content. Happy endings of stories always satisfy young children, especially young girls.

Justin Foord English Coursework Comparative texts