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Characters as friends and guardians
This section aims to discuss the use of characters introduced to children through book illustrations and how these can become much more than just a scribble on a page. An illustrated character has the capability to become a friend to a child just as much as any other human, as young children have an imaginative capacity that makes them able to imagine a character in any situation or scenario.
A study by Taylor (2001) suggested that exposing children to illustrated characters in children’s books can lead them to create their own imaginary friends, whether that be an exact replica of the character or their own adapted interpretation. This idea of imaginary friends through character is linked closely to A.A Milne’s Winnie the Pooh (1926), the teddy bear friend of Christopher Robin that comes to life in his imagination. Pooh becomes not only just a friend to Christopher Robin, but someone who offers guidance to him throughout his childhood and helps him solve both physical and mental dilemmas.
In the past a child with an imaginary friend may have been considered peculiar, shy, or even troubled, but according to Taylor the reality is much more positive. Not only are imaginary companions surprisingly common, but the children who have them also tend to be less introverted and more outgoing than other children. They also are better able to focus their attention and to see things from another person’s perspective, which then develops their understanding of empathy and shared emotion. This all stems from characters in children’s books acting as both a friend and a source of guidance to children, which they can then develop imaginatively outside of the constraints of a story book and can begin to create their own stories and narratives involving the character, developing their personality as they go.
According to Taylor, children who create imaginary friends from characters are socially interactive, therefore inventing companions to fill the space that they are alone and devoid of other human interaction, particularly with their peers. In the Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss (1957), the story begins with two bored children unable to go outside because it is too cold and wet, their day being saved by a large black cat that entertains them with a series of peculiarities. For many children, a companion similar to the Cat in the Hat would be ideal to keeping them entertained on a rainy day, and so children invent companions when no one else is around and they want something interesting to do.
These characters and their companionship can be so much more than mere partners in play. They can bear the brunt of a child’s anger, be the sole blame for things the child has committed, become a tool for bargaining with their parents e.g. “Pooh doesn’t clean his room so why should I?” or a source of communication beyond the information the child is willing to give e.g. communicating fears or dislikes by using the character as a referencing point. These companions can also be helpful in becoming a coping mechanism for children’s psychological needs beyond the desire to escape blame or black mailing their parents, using fantasy to help them cope with their problems and offering a sense of escapism from the real world. Imaginary character companions listen to a child’s problems without the fear of repeating them to others, and so although they are used by a wide variety of children, they are often associated with children of trauma or abuse (Taylor, 2001) which only reiterates the premise that characters becoming friends encourage children to cope with life.
Characters can also guide children through profound stages of loneliness, for example Francis Ford Coppola, the creator of The Godfather has stated that the companionship of a character helped him survive a year spent alone in his room as an eight year old boy suffering from polio disease. He has recounted spending his days passing the time acting out scenarios with his character, which then influenced his future career choice. According to Dr Humberto Nagera, a professor of psychiatry, feelings of loneliness, rejection and neglect frequently motivate the creation of imaginary companions (2018). Nagera’s case study showed that a child is likely to adopt a character as a friend shortly after the birth of a new sibling, as they discover they receive less attention from their parents and their new sibling is too young to be a play mate.
Harter and Chao (1992) conducted a study of children and their imaginative companions and came to the conclusion that there is a key difference in the role of these companions based on the gender of the creator. Boys generally tend to create a companion that holds qualities which they would like to see in themselves, whereas girls often play the role of the more competent individual in the relationship between the character and themselves, nurturing and helping their imaginary friend in the same way they expect to be nurtured and helped by their character. Of course, these gender differences are very general and not applicable to every child’s case, but it is interesting to note the differences between children’s encounters with characters.
Harter and Chao’s research can be interpreted to show the gender tendencies revolving around the kinds of characters children adopt as friends and how these then go on to affect their childhood. Each child is different and therefore the variety of characters created is completely limitless, which means each character is valuable to the child for different reasons.
An example of characters being created for different purposes would be Winnie the Pooh (1926), as Pooh was created in the hope of providing a gentler response to the horrors of the previous decade and helping the people of Britain overcome the First World War. “Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends enchanted and charmed the world with their innocence, but they were actually born in a harrowing time for the country and written by a man who had been traumatised by World War I.” (Salter, 2017) This suggests that characters are often created to be companions to children as an escape from struggle and guide them through the toughest parts of their lives. Pooh taught the generation of children who had to grow up too quickly that it was finally safe to go outside into the woods and play again. Even the pastoral paradise of Hundred Acre Wood contrasts greatly to the destruction of Britain after the war, and he wished to create his good natured characters in a similar manner. As a sufferer of post-war PTSD, Milne wished to create a character that would become a guardian to young children and support them in their recovery from their own mental battles.
There has been a myriad of speculation surrounding the topic of the purpose of Pooh and his supportive characters, and what they represent. Sarah Shea produced a report (2000) which evoked the premise that each character represents a significant mental disorder, the most obvious being Tigger’s ADHD and Eeyore’s depression. This diagnosis could mean that a child would be more likely to relate to a character if they suffer from any of the symptoms themselves, therefore making the mentioned character a much stronger source of guidance and guardianship. Furthermore, the absence of Christopher Robin’s parents reiterates the previous suggestion that children create these characters when they are at their loneliest and they become a substitute for a friend or peer. As cultural theorist Stefan Herbrechter said: “Children are supposed to live in a world of their own, which is clearly defined and marked out as the space and time for play,” so characters are a vital element for a child’s play.
Although Herbrechter discusses the concept of toys rather than illustrated characters, his idea that toys are “like little story machines, narrative catalysers, objects that help make sense of the world,” can be relevant to Milne’s Pooh and friends as the rendering in Shepherd’s illustrations emphasises the ‘toy-ness’ of the characters, offering the pleasure of play to children, showing that these characters can be much more than literal beings and can become limitless using a child’s adventurous imagination.
This links closely to the idea of characters as influences on young children and how they have the capability to affect how a child acts, especially towards other children. A study from a 2017 parenting group in USA shows how young children, particularly toddlers, are affected by positive cartoon influences. One of the main characters they studied was Winnie the Pooh, concluding that Milne’s adaption of the character teaches children acceptance towards people and situations, helping them transform into young adults. Winnie the Pooh teaches the young reader that there are multiple ways to interpret and interact with the world, and that there may be a difference between what people say and what they mean, which is a dilemma Pooh often comes across in these tales. Mostly, it is the comforting presence of Pooh that entices children into loving him as if he were one of their own friends.
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