Inescapable Coexistence: Animals and Humans in <i>The Secret Garden</i>

  • Sandra Nickel Vermont College of Fine Arts

Abstract

The Secret Garden serves as a strong example of the inescapable coexistence of animals and humans and the importance of that coexistence as it relates to children. The manner in which Frances Hodgson Burnett brings to light the interconnectedness of animals and humans is a testament to the importance of writers using every device available to deepen their chosen themes. She creates vivid settings and reinforces emotional states through animal correlatives, anthropomorphism, and zoomorphism, as well as by utilizing what Le Guin calls the "animal helper" to draw the reader's attention to—and sing out—the community of all living things. By drawing upon Le Guin's study, I hope to support her assertions regarding the interconnectedness of human and animal communities, while at the same time, further contemporary discourses about Burnett's "classic" children's novel.

Author Biography

Sandra Nickel, Vermont College of Fine Arts
Savid Beagley is Lecturer in Children's Literature and Literacy at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus, Victoria, Australia, where he teaches units in Genres, History, Australian and Post-colonial children's literature. He has previously taught in secondary schools, and has been a school and university librarian.
Section
Emerging Voices