"Hansel and Gretel" and "Dead End In Norvelt" Book Reports
Forum 1
The story about Hansel and Gretel is understood differently by children and adults since they have different understanding of the world and the problems existing in it.
The case of Grimm brothers’ tales being read to children of young age is quite a common practice since their stories are much loved all around the world. Back in childhood I remember the feelings I had on my first acquaintance with two characters of one of Grimms’ fairytale, Hansel and Gretel. The experience and memories I had from learning the story were mostly about being proud of the siblings and their sharp minds that helped to run away from the evil witch and punish her for the wrongdoings by burning the woman in an oven. The overall evaluation of the story was positive since the outcome seemed to be a happy ending with the good triumphing over the evil, yet now the conclusion appears to be somewhat questionable.
If one is to consider the story from the perspective of an adult, there seem to be a lot of issues discussed in the story that are not age appropriate. As a child I seem to have missed the issues of cannibalism (with the witch wanting to eat the “guests”), child violence (burning the witch), and extreme poverty that leads the parents to the brink of an irrevocable decision of abandoning their children. When I first learned the story of Hansel and Gretel, it did not occur to me that it touches upon such disturbing problems. This proves that there is a vast void between the way children and adults perceive certain literature.
To sum up, where children see good and evil fighting against each other, adults might see global issues that demolish the society. The example demonstrates that there is a great difference between the ways people of different age understand children’s literature.
Forum 2
The book “Dead End in Norvelt” by Jack Gantos is a mysterious depiction of a society on the brink of destruction. The story intrigues by its puzzles and patterns from other sources that might be recognized in the process of reading.
What I like most about the idea of the story is that it is full of mystery and the title is the first thing that intrigues when reading the book. The title is “Dead End in Norvelt” which somehow foreshadows the major problem of the story. What is more, it is the unusual plot with a boy playing a detective that is not orthodox. Opposed to the good sides of the plot is the general depiction of Nortvelt which seems to be a place of pain, sorrow and constant hardships that are not to be escaped.
The plot of the story has a lot of components to it, one of which is mystery. Along with the main character, the reader becomes interested in the puzzle of who loaded the rifle that became one of the reasons of the boy’s being grounded. What is even …
