Deconstruction Theory in Hotel Transylvania

-Hello-

In this time, I’d like to analyze the Deconstruction Theory in Hotel Transylvania movie. A lot of people know about this movie. It is a movie about a family of Dracula that live in a modern world and running a hotel business that is meant for ghosts. Then, there is a character named Mavis, she is a Dracula but loves to drink and eat human food, such as ice cream, syrup, hamburger, etc. Mavis is a kind, polite, and humble Dracula. From Mavis’s character that I mentioned before, we know that this character is the deconstruction of a Dracula’s real characteristic. As we know that Dracula is not only a ferocious, unfriendly, and aggressive figure, but also doesn’t like to eat human food. Therefore, Dracula is only drink human blood to survive.

Here’s the picture of Mavis^^

From my explanation above, we can conclude that the Deconstruction Theory is a theory that told us not all hero always in a bright side, they also have the dark side of their character. I hope this kind of very short essay about Deconstruction Theory can be useful for you reader. See you on my next post

-Thank You-

click here to watch the trailer!^^

Binary Opposition in Fruit Salad by Richard Swan

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Humans are created with a different character. In everyday life, humans also always have differences of opinion with one to another. In fact, these differences lead to debate or conflict that can divide us. However, these differences remain related to one another, they still need each other, such as for example dark-light, good-bad, empty-full, and so on. This is what is referred to as Binary Opposition. According to https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_opposition , binary opposition (also binary system) is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. It is the contrast between two mutually exclusive terms, such as on and off, up and down, left and right. Binary opposition is an important concept of structuralism, which sees such distinctions as fundamental to all language and thought. In structuralism, a binary opposition is seen as a fundamental organizer of human philosophy, culture, and language.

In children's literary works, binary opposition often appears as the theme of a story, which is in Fruit Salad by Richard Swan. Fruit Salad outlines the inner conflict of an apple with itself, which is confused what will it become in the future, while Apple’s other friends (Banana, Orange, and Grapes) have decided that. Apple tried various things in order to be able to decide what it wanted to be, such as being a bobbing apple at Halloween, a toffee apple on bonfire night, and being given to a teacher until it forgot  time and became an old apple that was less useful to humans, but none of it enlightened him. One day, Apple accidentally reunited with friends who turned out to be not much different from Apple, a banana that was not used because it had changed color, oranges that waited very long because many other oranges wanted to become juices like it, and the grapes that become useless because it has seeds. Until they go to a place that makes them useful, which makes them compost for other plants. At that place, they met with fruit and even other vegetables that were old and not tasty to eat. Then they exchanged stories with each other with enthusiasm.

This book teaches that conflict with yourself can affect other people and things around us. Like Apple, who is busy with itself till’ it forget the time even though its friends have one stepped ahead Apple. However, conflicts with ourselves are related to the future that we will go through later, such as what we want to be, what we want to do, and so on. That is how a Binary Opposition took place in children’s literary works.

-Thank You-

click here for the story ^^

Involuntary Memory in A Cool Kid Like Me by Hans Wilhelm

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Have you ever experienced “de javu”? De Javu is a feeling that arises when we visit a place, or do something, which we have done or visited before at a different time. In literature, de javu is known as involuntary memory. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_memory , Involuntary memory, also known as involuntary explicit memory, involuntary conscious memory, involuntary aware memory, and most commonly, involuntary autobiographical memory, is a subcomponent of memory that occurs when cues encountered in everyday life evoke recollections of the past without conscious effort. Voluntary memory, its binary opposite, is characterized by a deliberate effort to recall the past. So, involuntary memory can be said as a person's past experience as outlined in a media, one of them is children books. This time, I will discuss about  involuntary memory in Hans Wilhelm's book, A Cool Kid Like Me.

So, in the book A Cool Kid Like Me, Hans Wilhelm presented his childhood which was a little less affectionate than the figure of a father. How he was born when his father was imprisoned. Hans also grew up alone even though he had five siblings, because they had been living separately as a child. In this book, Hans tells his childhood fear for not being liked by friends his age.

He is known as a child who is smart enough in his class. But rather than being called a nerd by his friends, he actually liked. Of course, because Hans gave a cheat sheet to his friends, so he didn’t get opposed by them. Hans’s childhood didn’t recognize television, because for his parents television was a form of duping. Therefore, drawing is the only way for Hans to fill his free time. Then, because Hans was categorized differently from his peers, he was rarely involved in fights at school. Hans also doesn’t like sports, because for him the sport is strange, such as causing hatred of the loser to the winner. However, thanks to the love of his grandmother, Hans grew to be a strong child during the post war.

-Thank You-

click here for the source^^

A Cool Kid Like Me! by Hans Wilhelm

-Hello-

Alright, this time I will discuss something different from my previous article. Yup, this time I will try to uncover hidden things in the book A Cool Kid Like Me. Many hidden things can be discussed, but I will only focus on the bear, the child and colors that are in this book. Let's get started, shall we?

First, I’m going to spill some tea on you about the author, Hans Wilhelm. He is a German-American writer, children's book author and illustrator, and artist. Hans Wilhelm has written and/or illustrated over 200 books – mostly for children. They have been translated in more than thirty languages and have won numerous international awards and prizes. Many of them have been made into animated television series. Presently there are over forty two million books by Hans Wilhelm in print.

Then now, let’s talk about the interesting hidden things in A Cool Kid Like Me book. We will discuss the cover first. On the cover there is a picture of a small child hugging a brown teddy bear with an expression of fear while hiding under a blanket that is maroon. Then beside the blanket were three pairs of eyes enveloped in black smoke and looked at the child. Also, the background of the cover is in pink, and the title is in maroon. I guess these colors have hidden meanings in them. According to https://www.colorpsychology.org/pink/ , pink has many positive associations. It is a calming, non-threatening color. It is linked to innocence, hope and optimism. It also represents positive aspects of traditional femininity like nurture and kindness. Its negative sides are that it can seem weak, vulnerable and silly. It is also linked to shallowness and not seeing reality. If we take a look at the child’s expression, and his action to hide under the blanket, then we can conclude that the meaning of the pink color in this book is the negative one; weak, vulnerable, and silly. Then, according to the same source, maroon color is often used to represent intense and passionate things like; confidence, creative thoughts, excitement, power, risk, passion, love, ambition, courage, strength, warmth, and beauty, which is mean even if the child feels fear, he will still fight the fear. Then, the grey colour of the ghosts is illustrates a child's fear of ghosts, which is the fact that almost all children will be afraid of ghosts, especially if he is somewhere alone. So, I guess the grey in here doesn’t mean anything but just ghosts.

Then, on the second page of the book, we can see the a bear sitting alone and facing it back to the readers.  Why it should be a bear? Actually, a bear doll at this story have a hidden meaning. But first, I’m going to tell you readers the history of a bear doll. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teddy_bear , teddy bear is a soft toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff in Germany in the early years of the 20th century, and named after President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt, the teddy bear became an iconic children's toy, celebrated in story, song, and film. In this story, the teddy bear was given by his Grandmother, which is mean teddy bears could remind us of the specific person who loved us and brought us a teddy bear. Teddy bears remind us on the joy of being loved. Teddy bears are certainly not a sex symbol.they’re a enjoy symbol. They remind us that a person loves us and treasures us. In my opinion, it doesn't matter if giving a teddy bear to a boy, because basically kids will also choose toys that are smaller than their body, as well as toys that can give you a sense of comfort.

       In this story, overall, the child can be categorized as having two personalities. Why? Because when he is outside the house and with his friends, he is very happy. However, when at home, he felt alone despite living together with his parents. Because his parents don't pay attention to him, even for the slightest little things, it's a good thing when the grandmother gives a teddy bear to the child, because only the bear is the one who best understands the feelings of the child. The child tells all his fears to the bear, including fear of not having friends, fear of being abused by other children who do not like it, and the feeling of fear when witnessing the fight between his parents. All the fear, and other things that he told the bear that his grandmother gave, could make him feel way much better.

Thus the interesting things contained in the book A Cool Kid Like Me by Hans Wilhelm. Of course, there are lessons we can take from this book. First, be parents who care about children, fulfill the birth and inner rights of children, give more attention to children. Second, give the child knowledge that the outside world is not as scary as he thinks, because not everyone is a bad person. Third, put your family on top of everything else, because the most valuable asset is the family.

-Thank You-

click here if you want to read the story ^^

The Bubble Mystery by Murari Jha

-Hello-

Even though I rarely read literary works for children, somehow I could enjoy the story of The Bubble Mystery by Murari Jha. The description of the story at the beginning is very simple, using vocabulary that is easily understood by children, also accompanied by interesting pictures so that children who hear or read the story can enter and get involved in the situation described by the author.

The story begins with the depiction of a group of adult goats, but among the adult goats there is one goat named Toot-Toot.  At the beginning of this story, I thought that this kid named Toot-Toot was a male goat, but apparently he was described as a female goat as mentioned directly by the author,

“Toot-Toot was very happy. She was going to the pond for the first time. Bath time!” (2/16)

Then, the story continued with the group of goats who had arrived at the pond they used to take a bath in, but for Toot-Toot this  was her first shower. The description of the story in this section could make me confused. How can boys and girls bathe in the same pool without any boundaries? However, it seems that this does not apply to animals, one of them is a goat. Therefore, I consider that it does not need to be explored further, nor does it contain moral values ​​for children. Still in the same part of the story, Toot-Toot is told that she was afraid of water. But in the end she jumped into the water because she saw her herd was already in the water first. In this section, we can teach children to fight fear, because behind the fear, there might be something beautiful or fun.

“At first, Toot-Toot was scared of the water. But when she saw all the other goats splashing around, she jumped in!” (3/16)

In the next section, described by the author that goats, including Toot-Toot, enjoy the moment by playing in the water. This proves my previous statement that by fighting fear, there will be beauty or pleasure thereafter.

“Everyone laughed. Everyone splashed. Everyone played and played!” (4/16)

As a reader, I found something unique in sections 3 and 4, which in part 3 the author calls the herds of goats as "all the other goats.", whereas in section 4 the author calls the goat herd with "Everyone.". In my opinion, the author does not mean anything about it, maybe he just wants to use pronouns that are easy to say and hear by children.

“At first, Toot-Toot was scared of the water. But when she saw all the other goats splashing around, she jumped in!” (3/16)

“Everyone laughed. Everyone splashed. Everyone played and played!” (4/16)

In the next section, Toot-Toot again faces the fear of bubbles that surround her. In the end, she can still fight her fear of the bubble. The result is, it’s fun to play with the bubble.

“Toot-Toot soon found bubbles all around her. They were going blop blop blop! She was a little afraid.” (5/16)

“But she soon got over it. Toot-Toot began to jump, dance and twirl through the bubbles.” (6/16)

Young children are indeed filled with a very large curiosity. This was also told by the author through the story. After going through fear and excitement, Toot-Toot was curious about how the bubble appeared, and as a child in general she asked her parents about it. But they said they did not know. In my opinion, the reason why Toot-Toot's parents did not tell her was so that she could find out for herself how the bubble appeared, because by finding out for yourself the child would be easier to learn about it, also remember it. Even there is a moral message in this part, not all children's curiosity must be answered, but let the children find out for themselves, do not forget to keep watching and guiding the child so they won’t go to the wrong direction.

“After that fun day, Toot-Toot began to wonder, ”How are bubbles made?” She asked her Baba. Baba said he didn't know.” (7/16)

Toot-Toot asked her Ma. Ma said she didn't know, either.” (8/16)

“So Toot-Toot decided to solve the bubble mystery all by herself.” (9/16)

“She flapped her tail in the water... She blew into the water with all her might... But she didn't make a bubble!” (10/16)

After doing a variety of ways to find out how the bubble can appear, suddenly Toot-Toot felt extreme abdominal pain, and she also thought what she should do to eliminate the pain. Instead of relieving pain the way she should, she decided to take a bath in the cold water pool that her flock used to bathe in. After entering the water, she felt his stomach churn, then suddenly she emitted gas and bubbles appeared. From then on, Toot-Toot learned how to make her own bubbles.

“One day, Toot-Toot's tummy was hurting. She wondered what to do.” (11/16)

“She decided to bathe in the pond's cool water.” (12/16)

“There was a deep rumbling in her tummy. Suddenly, gas escaped from Toot-Toot! Pssshhhhhtttt! As the gas shot through the water, bubbles popped up to the water’s surface. Blop blop blop!” (13/16)

“Finally, Toot-Toot had solved the bubble mystery!” (14/16)

At the end of the story, Toot-Toot makes bathing a fun activity, because he has managed to find a way to make extraordinary bubbles by himself. However, at the end of this story, I feel a little sorry for Toot-Toot's sister, because she was reluctant to tell her sister how to make the bubble. However, despite my pity, I agree with Toot-Toot's decision not to tell her sister, because in my opinion she wants hier sister to be able to find out for herself about it, and maybe her younger sister can find a more awesome way than Toot-Toot’s way.

“Now, whenever it's bath day, Toot-Toot makes the most magnificent bubbles of all.” (15/16)

“After her first bath day, Toot-Toot's sister asked her how bubbles were made. And what did Toot-Toot say? Why, she told her sister she didn't know!” (16/16)

Overall, this story can be a bedtime fairy tale choice for children, or entertainment. The use of simple language, attractive pictures, and soft colors also add value to this children's literary work. Also  from the cover, and the pictures contained in the story, this book is universal, which is mean this book can be for boys and girls alike. The author's way of tucking in moral messages also deserves a thumbs up. Therefore, in my opinion this book is suitable for children, especially for 3 to 6 years old children.

-Thank You-

click here for the source, thank you.