not like her brown curly hair so she is a little bit upset. After they are ready, they welcome Aunt Lotty and this is what happened in the story.
‘Which do you like best, Aunt Lotty,’ Mary asked, ‘brown curls, or golden curls?’ ... Laura waited to hear what Aunt Lotty would say, and she felt
miserable. ‘I like both kinds best,’ Aunt Lotty said, smiling. She took Laura and Mary by the hand, one on either side, and they danced along to the door where
Ma stood 1971:180-181.
Aunt Lotty is said as the one who shows Laura and Mary her opinion about the children appearance. She says that she likes both of the children. She does not want the children
to fight if she chooses one of them. She successfully changes that awkward situation into a good thing by saying she likes both so that they can dance along in their way to
the home. On the other hand, the storekeeper sharpens the competition between Mary and
Laura. This happens when the family goes to the town as in the following quotation. When they went in, the storekeeper knew him. The storekeeper came out from
behind the counter and spoke to him and to Ma, and then Laura and Mary had to show their manners. Mary said, ‘How do you do?’ but Laura could not say
anything. The storekeeper said to Pa and Ma, ‘Thats a pretty little girl youve got there,’ and he admired Marys golden curls. But he did not say anything
about Laura, or about her curls 1971:168.
The storekeeper only admires Mary’s hair. He does not say anything about Laura’s.
This makes Laura so upset and jealous.
Based on the discussion of the adult characters, in general we can see the similarity of those characters which are independent, big, source of comfort, source of
rules, knowledgeable. As the source of rules, adults are described as persons who are able to punish the children. They are able to control the children by words such as the
direct order or asking or by an act such as trashing. Adults play important role in life in the story because they can give safety and protection for the children.
B. The Idea of Children Desire and Adult Knowledge in the Novel
The discussion on this part is intended to cover the idea of children desire based on Nodelman’s theory about it. The analysis on the characterization of the characters
that has been conducted in the previous part will be the main object of the discussion in this part. The discussion will be focused on some basic ideas of children desire and its
elaboration as it is applied to the object of the study. The idea of children desire which is developed in this part is based on
Nodelman’s idea of the characterization of children in children’s literature. In his book 2008:76, Nodelman discusses numbers of works of children’s literature and makes
some conclusions on these texts’ characteristic. One of these conclusions is about the idea of children desire and adults knowledge. This idea talks about the construction of
characterization of children and adults in children’s literature. Moreover in the following part, the idea will be discussed as a frame where the analysis is held on. The
idea of children desire is explained in two points, namely disobedience and its consequences, and lack of knowledge. Furthermore the discussion on adults knowledge
is focused on two points which are possession of knowledge and adults attempt to educate children.
1. Children Desire : A View of the Innocent
a. Disobedience and its Consequence
Little House in the Big Woods is a story about the daily life of a little family.
The world inside the novel comes to the reader by the narration of one of the characters in it, a little girl named Laura. The characters in the story can be divided into two main
parts, characters of children and characters of adults. The discussion in this part will be about the point of disobedience and its consequence as one of the points of the concept
of children desire. Characters of children in children’s literature are related very closely to the idea
of desire. The desire is an instrument that mainly belongs to the children. Children are characterized as having the desire as the basic tool in their live. The desire is the center
of all motivations that can be found in the character of children as it is seen in a narration, story, or texts of children’s literature. As Nodelman says, “’The Purple Jar’
hinges on Rosamond’s desire for the jar and her discovery of the implications of getting what she wants. Because of her desire for the jar is based on her ignorance about its
true nature” 2008:33. The previous quotation is about Nodelman’s explanation taken from his analysis on the text of The Purple Jar. He states that the children character in
the story is basically driven by her desire. Rosamond, a child character in the story, is controlled by her desire of the purple jar and the story goes by the appearance of the
consequences of her desire. The acts of the children characters that are basically maintained by the desire
will be resulted in particular consequence. Most of the children characters will become
