|
Post by Claire on Jan 27, 2013 19:18:33 GMT 1
A topic inspired by the I Wanted a Pony thread where our heroine is sent to stay with her awful cousins. I'm sure you've all noticed that in a incredibly large percentage of pony books the story is set around a girl or boy foisted off on relatives or friends of the family while their parents swan off somewhere. Why do you think this was such a common plot device? What books does it occur in? And what were the most common reasons for this (may even have a poll if enough suggestions!) Here's just a few examples off the top of my head: Prince Among Ponies - they stay with family friends Jill series - Jill goes to stay with Martin, and also Cecilia, also those 2 girls with the weird names come to stay with Jill Noel stays with Susan while her parents are on an archeological dig or something similar The Six Cousins - they go to stay with cousins when their house burns down! (At least thats a good reason!) 3 Jays series - the 3 Js are always staying with Pat who is the cousin of 2 of the Jays. The Nameless pony by Catherine Carey - staying with cousins No Ponies by Mary Treadgold - staying with cousins Actually its not only pony books - it happens in quite a lot of children's stories. Is it because parents tend to get in the way of the kid's potential activities? (But this could be got over by the kids going camping, etc - and often was!) Or was it so that the author could show a 'clash of culture' type of thing. Re. what the most popular reasons is - I think probably parents going abroad with wives accompanying their husbands on a business trip - and for some reason its usually to India! As I said on the I Wanted a Pony thread why is it considered more important for a wife to go with her husband than to stay with the poor child who will be parentless? (And often has to stay with quite awful people!) Were men so useless on their own in those days without a wife to run around after them?! Oh yes and why was it nearly always cousins they stayed with?
|
|
|
Post by tintin on Jan 27, 2013 19:48:42 GMT 1
Quite a few large organisations in those days would pay for the wife to accompany, but not the children, also quite a few paces abroad there would n't be any school for English speaking children or even no Secondary Schools at all. Also in the days before widespread anti-biotics illnesses took longer to recover from - most large towns had a Convalescant Home. From 1750's to 1940's India was main overseas destination for British people working abroad, by 50's Middle East and Africa more likely, but habits of thought die hard...
|
|
|
Post by darkhorse on Jan 27, 2013 23:24:56 GMT 1
There were also an awful lot of orphans!
|
|
|
Post by fizz on Jan 27, 2013 23:38:26 GMT 1
In Racehorse Holiday the children go & stay with the trainer & his family because their parents are going to Russia. The Mother accompanying the Father on what sounds like a paid holiday. The book that bucks this trend is Phantom Horse where the whole family go to Virginia. In the Famous Five books the children's Mothers are always coming down with things like scarlet fever (Georgina is not in quarantine herself & can have her cousins over, not what happened as a rule according to my Mum whose brother had it). I think George's Mother has several serious illnesses & an operation & her Father some kind of breakdown. This allows them all to go off camping, hiking or what ever. In Prince Among Ponies they are staying with an old school friend of their Mothers not cousins.
|
|
|
Post by jinglerebel on Jan 28, 2013 0:38:04 GMT 1
I believe the first rule in writing children's fiction is Get Rid of the Parents! Allows the kid to be more autonomous. In the 'olden days' they used the orphan device a lot! I suppose for modern books it'd be divorced or single parents instead. You'd still have to get around the modern 'helicopter parenting' mindset though, some kids never have a moment to themselves these days. In the Gypsy books Wendy goes to live with her aunt and uncle on a ranch, her mother is dead and father on a 'foreign assignment'. In Flambards Christina is an orphan, passed around from aunts to uncle.
|
|
|
Post by Claire on Jan 28, 2013 2:20:35 GMT 1
Quite a few large organisations in those days would pay for the wife to accompany, but not the children, also quite a few paces abroad there would n't be any school for English speaking children or even no Secondary Schools at all. I understand why the children couldnt go but what I never understand is why the mother chooses to go with husband instead of staying with children. Lets face it if I had to choose between going with an OH or animals I would stay with animals, never mind children! ;D When a similar situation happened with a friend whose husband had to work abroad for a few months she stayed in England with the kids and it was just accepted by everyone as normal - if shes gone with hubby and left kids we would all have been shocked. I can only assume it must be a class thing? I dont think the 'get rid of parents' explanation can be the whole answer as a lot of the kids just end up with a different set of in loco parents such as aunts, uncles, family friends, etc. I can only assume it must be a way to introduce a new experience, new surroundings etc to the central characters or in a lot of cases introduce tension if they dont get on with the new family. (Which happens a lot!)
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2013 8:09:40 GMT 1
Also not forgetting kids who get left entirely on their own as in Monica Dickens World's End series. Their parents sailed off around the world!
|
|
|
Post by Claire on Jan 28, 2013 13:32:34 GMT 1
Also not forgetting kids who get left entirely on their own as in Monica Dickens World's End series. Their parents sailed off around the world! Crikey yes they were the worst parents ever! Although at the start of the series the kids were living with their Aunt and Uncle. Did their house burn down - I cant remember...
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 28, 2013 18:36:05 GMT 1
Guess what, I can't remember either and I've read them loads of times I do remember the Aunt and Uncle were obnoxious though!
|
|
|
Post by Claire on Jan 28, 2013 20:20:18 GMT 1
I have a feeling it was a fire and the mother was in hospital for part of the first book whilst the father was at sea then she came home. Later the father came back but eventually the pair of them both disappeared back off to sea leaving the kiddiwinks alone (tho the oldest one was about 17 by then I think). Mind you, with my memory I could be thinking of a completely different book! ;D
The kids in Joanna Cannan's We met our cousins are sent off to stay with cousins in Scotland but can't remember why.
|
|
lynkel
Stablehand
Writing the fifth book of the series
Posts: 11
|
Post by lynkel on Mar 5, 2013 9:52:38 GMT 1
I always thought the reason for the main character swanning off somewhere was to find new territory, new friends and new possibilities for the story line. It would certainly be my reason for playing the holiday card. If I run out of ideas for Amy and Clown at home, I'll transport them to another world!
|
|
|
Post by Claire on Mar 5, 2013 12:13:59 GMT 1
I always thought the reason for the main character swanning off somewhere was to find new territory, new friends and new possibilities for the story line. It would certainly be my reason for playing the holiday card. If I run out of ideas for Amy and Clown at home, I'll transport them to another world! Yes its a good plot device. I must admit in the story I'm writing at the moment the heroine has been shipped off to an Uncle's farm. I just found it a bit irritating in some of these older books that both sets of parents would quite cheerfully abandon their kids for long periods - years in some cases. In Tessa Goes to South Africa by Kitty Ritson, the father actually takes his daughter with her when he goes there for work. However she has to leave her ponies behind! Not sure a horsy girl wouldn't prefer to stay with the ponies
|
|
lynkel
Stablehand
Writing the fifth book of the series
Posts: 11
|
Post by lynkel on Mar 7, 2013 11:09:57 GMT 1
Yes - a horsy girl would definitely prefer to stay with her pony. I remember my parents deciding to move to Australia (from the UK). I felt like I'd rather die than leave my pony and best friend. Oddly enough, I didn't say anything to my parents; I just pushed it away as something that couldn't really happen. Fortunately, there was a medical glitch that meant we were refused entry. Phew! But they never knew how scared I was, or how relieved. This happened several decades ago when children were generally not encouraged to say how they felt about anything.
|
|