“Sophie said: “What do you drink?”
“Frobscottle,” announced the BFG.”All giants is drinking frobscottle.”
They live a totally imaginary existence unlike any human being. Roald Dahl also introduces some real life characters into his book like the Queen and her staff and the Armed Forces. Like Alice, Sophie is given great influence over these people.
In “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” by J.K.Rowling written in 1997 Harry looks like a normal boy and to a certain extent acts like a normal boy but, unlike Alice and Sophie, is given magical powers. Objects are given magical powers like the broomsticks.
“Harry’s broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did.”
Mystical creatures such as dragons appear, but none of these take on human characteristics.
In the nonsense verse, which was so popular at this time, especially that by Edward Lear, creatures are totally imaginary and bear no resemblance to living creatures. In “The Dong With The Luminous Nose” the Dong is an imaginary creature living in a totally imaginary place and all the names are made up.
“Landing at Eve near the Zemmery Fidd
Where the oblong oysters grow.”
This is similar to “Through The Looking Glass” where Alice enters an imaginary world and also to a certain extent in Harry Potter where Harry goes through the wall at the railway station to find platform 9 ¾ and the “Hogwarts Express” and many of the other place settings are made up.
“The barrier was coming nearer and nearer-he wouldn’t be able to stop-the trolley was out of control-he was a foot away-he closed his eyes ready for the crash-
It didn’t come..he kept on running..he opened his eyes.
A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform crowded with people.”
In “The BFG” real places are mixed with imaginary as you have the caves where the giants live but then the main parts of the story take place in London at Buckingham Palace.
Lewis Carroll uses nonsense poems in his story such as “The Walrus And The Carpenter” where the walrus and the carpenter take all the little oysters for a walk and end up eating them!
“But answer came there none-
And this was scarcely odd, because
They’d eaten every one!”
The oysters are again given human characteristics by mentioning their shoes and making them able to talk and walk on two feet. Poems do not play a big part in either “The BFG” or “Harry Potter”.
The language in “Through The Looking Glass” is very correct. The grammar is as you would expect a Victorian book to be written. The text is quite clear and easy to follow. Lewis Carroll does use many puns throughout the book.
“’It sounds like a horse,’ Alice thought to herself. And an extremely small voice, close to her ear, said, ‘you might make a joke on that- something about “horse” and “hoarse” you know.’”
The same can be said of Aesop’s Fables that are written very clearly and for a younger child, using simple words. Some of the language used by Lewis Carroll is very adult and long words are used that a child may not know the meaning of. In Aesop’s Fables a child could easily read and understand the text. J.K.Rowling also writes in a way that a child can understand, once again the book is very grammatical and clearly written. In some instances she uses made up words to name items, objects and animals that are imaginary and made up purely for the story.
“ ‘This ball’s called the Quaffle,’ said Wood. The chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try to get it through one of the hoops to score a goal.’”
Roald Dahl writes so a child can easily understand what the story is about. In “The BFG” there are a lot of made up words used by the giants and the BFG, himself, talks very ungrammatically.
“’Is you quite snugly there in your nightie?’ he asked. “You isn’t fridgy cold?’”
In “Through The Looking Glass” all of the speech by the characters is grammatical and correct. However, in the Nonsense verse included in the book Lewis Carroll makes up words, especially in the “Jabberwocky” poem.
“’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe.”
In Edwards Lear’s “The Dong With The Luminous Nose” the only made up language are the names of places and characters.
“For ever I’ll seek by lake and shore
Till I find my Jumbly girl once more.”
In “Through The Looking Glass” everything is back to front and nobody behaves or acts as they should and Alice is trying to make sense of it all and at times having to act in an adult way.
“’Then you’d better not fight today,’ said Alice thinking it a good opportunity to make peace.”
. “The Hare and The Tortoise” is a direct lesson about how you should act. The hare is rude and arrogant and the tortoise is polite.
“’I’ll really rub it in,’ he said to himself. I’ll wait here until that poor tortoise comes into sight and then he can see me skip past the winning post.’”
The hare wants to make the tortoise look and feel stupid but in the end feels that way himself. “The Dong With A Luminous Nose” is a sad love story.
“’Til the morning came of that hateful day
When the Jumblies sailed their sieve away,
And the Dong was left on the cruel shore”
It is a tale that could be told using people or animals to portray the characters, but Lear has chosen to use nonsensical characters. In “The BFG” the story is basically one of good trying to overcome evil. The BFG and Sophie want to stop the giants from stealing all the children from their beds and eating them and to overcome this go to the most powerful person in the land, the Queen and her Armed Forces.
“The Queen was remembering now how, at the end of her dream, it had said that a little girl and a big friendly giant would come and show her how to find the nine horrible man-eating giants.”
The same is true in “Harry Potter and The Philosopher Stone” where Harry Potter and his friends are trying to win the Philosopher stone back from the evil Quirrell.
“Quirrell raised his hand to perform a deadly curse, but Harry, by instinct, reached up and grabbed Quirrell’s face.”
In Lewis Carroll’s book he explains things easily for a child by often telling how we react and then, by going back through the process why.
“’My finger’s bleeding! Oh,oh,oh!’ Her screams were so exactly like the whistle of a steam engine that Alice had to hold both her hands over her ears.”
“’What’s the matter? Have you pricked your finger?’ ‘I haven’t pricked it yet,’ the Queen said, ‘but I soon shall-oh,oh,oh!’”
“’Why don’t you scream now?’ Alice asked”
“’Why I’ve done the screaming already,’ said the Queen ‘what would be the good of having it all over again?’”
Lear writes in a very direct way telling how people feel when something happens to them which probably appeals more to an older reader who has their own experiences to relate to and can put themselves in the sufferers position more easily.
“While ever he seeks, but seeks in vain
To meet with his Jumbly girl again;
Lonely and wild-all night he goes,-
The Dong with a luminous nose!”
Aesop tells the story exactly it is with no fantasy merely substituting animals for people, the language is simple to appeal to young children.
“’You are so very slow,’ he would sigh as the tortoise ambled by.”
Harry Potter books are quite complicated for a young child to read, the plot is not so easy to follow. J.K.Rowling leads her characters through a series of situations culminating in the grand battle between Harry Potter and Quirrell, the good against evil, for the possession of the philosopher stone. Her books are about magic, potions and fantasy and it’s use for good purposes and many of her characters have magical powers.
“Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept round in his long cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snakes fangs.”
This does not happen in Aesop or Edward Lear and only to a limited extent in Lewis Carroll books when strange happenings can be related to the use of hallucinatory substances like the caterpillar’s toadstool and the cakes in “ Alice In Wonderland”. In “The BFG” the magic is seen in the dreams that the BFG collects in the dream cave to blow to the little children at night. The book is easy to read and very appealing to younger children because of the BFG’s way of speaking which is ungrammatical and using made up words.
“’It’s a winksquiffer!’ he whispered with a thrill in his voice. ‘It’s..it’s..it’s even better. It’s a phizzwizard! It’s golden phizzwizard!’”
It can be seen that “Through The Looking Glass” has some similarities and many differences with books that have been written more recently for children. I think books have become much more imaginative and stretch a child’s mind more letting them visualise things as they choose. Lewis Carroll’s book while depicting made up events describes them very thoroughly and uses everyday situations so you do not have to imagine very much in your mind. In “The BFG” you can let your mind run riot and imagine the insides of the caves, what the giants look like etc. In Harry Potter you almost become “Harry” overcoming the dangers and working magic, it is pure fantasy. One thing in Harry potter that is very similar to “Through The Looking Glass” is the game of chess. Alice gets involved in a game of chess in which she is a pawn and Harry, Hermione and Ron take part in a game of chess against the white pieces which cannot talk but can move about the chess board.
“’That’s chess!’ snapped Ron. ‘You’ve got to make some sacrifices! I take one step forward and she’ll take me- that leaves you free to checkmate the king, Harry.’”
The main similarity with “The BFG” and “Through The Looking Glass” is that both stories are centred on a child, in both cases a little girl who has been thrown into a strange situation. The children in both stories are outspoken and confident and take charge of the unusual situations they find themselves in.
“’It’s too ridiculous!’ cried Alice, losing all her patience this time. ‘You ought to have a wooden horse on wheels, that you ought’”
“’I will be nothing but skin and groans.’
‘You mean skin and bones,’ Sophie said.”
The main differences between the stories are that there is no theme in “Through The Looking Glass” where as in all the other stories there are. Another difference is in the language, Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear and Aesop use very correct spellings with no shortened words or use of slang, Victorian authors in general produced works that could be used as an example of how things should be written: with correct spellings, grammar and punctuation. Even Alice, a child, pronounces all her words correctly.
“’I didn’t know I was to have a party at all,’ said Alice: ‘But if there is to be one, I think I ought to invited the guests.’”
In “The BFG” and “Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone” this is not always the case with things being written as a child would say it and using slang words that a child would use and which are now a part of everyday conversation.
“’Sent owls off ter all yer parents’ old school friends, askin’ fer photos..knew yeh didn’ have any..D’yeh like it?’”
In “Through The Looking Glass” there are no references to anything that might not be quite polite. However, this is not so in the two more modern books.
“’That is often true,’ Sophie said. ‘But what’s wrong with a little burp now and again? It’s sort of fun.’”
“’You want to be careful with those,’ Ron warned Harry ‘George reckons he had a bogey-flavoured one once.’”
Both “The BFG” and “Through The Looking Glass” are written in an amusing manner, which makes them appealing to young children.
“Humpty Dumpty said with a short laugh ‘my name means the shape I am-and a good handsome shape it is, too. With a name like yours, you might be any shape, almost.’”
Things have changed since Alice’s day, in some ways for the better and in some for the worse. In Alice’s day children were not expected to have their own opinions or to disagree with their parents they were expected to be quiet and well behaved. This is not the way things are today. Parents are now more likely to listen to their children’s opinions and take their feelings into account. If a child does not want to do something a parent will now ask why and changes can be made or explanations offered as to why something must happen. In Victorian times children were expected to do as they were told and no discussion would happen. Adults are usually more sensible than children and there is generally a reason why a parent wants a child to do something. Children today are the same as children in the Victorian age, they are both building up their experiences and education for future life perhaps today more independently than many years ago. The world to any child at any time is full of things for them to discover and learn. I feel it is better for children today to be able to talk more freely to adults and to discuss how they are feeling about things, all children need to be independent and to be able to form their own opinions and not take on those of their parents. However, certain rules of behaviour must be followed so that we can all live and get along by respecting each other. I feel the similarities and differences between these books are a reflection on the change in the child/adult relationships from Victorian times to present day.
