Last year a well-meaning family member bought my daughter a book based on the show Dragon Tales. For those of you who haven’t seen the show, there’s a brother and sister in the show who are actually one dragon. They have one body and two heads, and very different personalities. Zak is a little more cautious and Wheezie is outgoing and loud. In the book the dragons are preparing for a party at their school. Zak and Wheezie have a problem: they each want to do something different and are tired of sharing with each other. Then their teacher intervenes and tells them that he knows a little green gnome who will grant them any wish they desire. The little green gnome appears and they wish themselves apart. Zak and Wheezie enjoy their new-found freedom to do their favorite activities by themselves, but after a while become lonely. They also discover that they can’t perform their act for talent night separately. Thankfully the little green gnome appears and they magically get back together again. They have learned to appreciate each other and to work together.
I hated the book the first time I read it. I still cringe a little when I read it. My daughter got it from someone we were staying with while I was separated from my husband. At the time we were considering getting divorced (we didn’t) and it was a difficult time in my life. I really, really wanted a little green gnome to appear and magically solve my problems for me. I know it’s just a children’s book, but I was kind of resentful that the message seemed to be that we can only appreciate people from a distance, and that we can somehow wish our problems away. I wanted the message to be that we have to deal with what we’ve been given in life—if you happen to be permanently stuck to your sister, maybe you should just learn to compromise and take turns. Since then I’ve calmed down a little and I actually enjoy reading escape-type fiction. But I have noticed that a lot of contemporary fiction seems to send a message that it’s easy to just run away from your problems. I read at least three books last year that involved the protagonist running away from their family and making a new family with friends they’d found along the way. I know it’s been reviewed here already, but that was something I found refreshing about Angela Hallstrom’s novel Bound on Earth. Most of us can’t or won’t leave behind the people that we find difficult to deal with and so it’s nice to see real families and their struggles presented in fiction. Even though sometimes I still want a little green gnome to magically appear and take away my problems, I’ve learned that I actually grow more when forced to face my problems and work through them.
Ain’t it the truth, ain’t it the truth. Sometimes it’s the hardest fight of your life to stay and work it out, no matter what the problem. Yet there are so many who would tell you to just leave, as if that solves the problem, but unfortunately “just leaving” can cause many new problems to surface. Thanks for sharing this post.
Life is not about taking the easy way out. I think a fulfilling life begins when we have to deal with our problems. The best literature shows men and women working through life and its difficulties. I find it much more fulfilling when the protagonist triumphs at the end of the book if he or she had to truly work through the problem… even if the problem isn’t solved. The literature seems to be more fulfilling and uplifting. So, I’m with you on this one FoxyJ…
That premise really bothers me about the show “Dragon Tales”. Whenever the going gets tough, MAx and Emmy just bring out their magic dragon scale and dissappear into Dragonland. No need to stick around in reality.
I can understand the appeal. I wish I could escape into a wonderful trouble-free world (hey, that’s what the internet is for!), but it’s an unhealthy message.
Plus, the characters on that show have really annoying voices.
I completely agree with your analysis of ‘easy answer’ fiction! That’s why I loved Crossing to Safety by Stegner when I read it recently. If a book wants to be reality based then it needs to play by the rules of reality, not suspend the law of consequences.
Amen sister! We have to clench our bum cheeks and just walk head-on into adversity. Doing otherwise makes us weaker, or we spend our lives running from the same problem. My Mom had this hung on the fridge growing up “Problems must be worked through or forever remain a barrier to the soul”. I’m glad you could see the where the book went wrong, I probably would have read it and thought, “Hmmm, dumb.” and never thought twice about it.
I definately agree that there is so much to learn from workign through our problems… But I too have wished that they could just disappear.
By the way, I couldn’t stand that show — the kids were ALWAYS whining…
great post!
I can’t stand the Rainbow Fish book. I always can hear an Ayn Rand-esque tirade in the back of my head.
Working together is such hard work sometimes. We do live in a ‘walk-away’ world.
FoxyJ, I like this. I have been a runner at times. Never thought to ask for a little green gnome, though. I ran away from my family by going away to college. As I look back I can see the Lord’s hand was in that choice. On the other hand, I never learned to work together with my family like my sister did.
Dragon Tales may be a dumb show (not seen it), but their music cd is very cool.
I’m just sad that I recognized that episode as soon as you started describing it.
My 4-year old daughter likes to pretend to be Max and have me be Ord so she can ride my back while we fly through the sky. She knows she’s a girl, so ought to be Emmie rather than Max, but Emmie doesn’t ride Ord, and my daughter wants to ride Ord.
Not to go too far in defense of a very annoying show, I do still think the kids on Dragon Tales do face and overcome problems in Dragon Land. The episode you described takes a sort of “It’s a Wonderful Life” plot arc — magic rescues the characters from their problems just long enough to allow them to realize that they’d rather keep their real existence, along with both its challenges and blessings. I think this concept can be applied to real life, in that if children or adults are able to accurately *imagine* what they would lose in escaping their problems, they might choose to stick them out. In this case, imagination plays the role of the little green gnome here. The imagination can also be provided through dramatic representation — when we watch George Bailey discovering the value of his life through a portrayal of what the world would be like without him, we can apply that revelation to our own existence.
(All that said, I think that both Zack and Wheezie are so annoying that non-existence for both would be the most effective way out of their misery. But they do deserve each other.)
I do completely agree with your point that enduring hard things is the only way to true growth and lasting satisfaction. I see this as being a core divider in people’s approach to politics, too — some political philosophies attempt to expiate people without allowing them to experience growth as they face the consequences of their choices. Take for example Obama’s quote, when he was asked his views on abortion, where he used his daughters as an example and said, “I am going to teach them first of all about values and morals. But if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.” However offensive that particular quote sounded, it did clearly express one of the main underlying precepts of a pro-choice stance. The idea that someone is better off if the consequences of their choices are removed from them is, as you say, very prevalent in our culture — but makes (in my opinion) for bad literature, and bad politics.
Just one more note: I just re-read this and realized that something missing from what I wrote is that we also benefit from facing adversity that is just a part of mortality and of others’ choices, and is not a result of any choices we made.