b. Social aspect
This change is seen from their awareness with the social values existing in their surroundings. As what Saxby 1991: 8 says
, children’s literature is able to provide and grow the awareness of social values. In addition, by giving
them empowerment through child characters in children’s literature, they are
able to face the world bravely. It happens because they know their identity and understand that they are not inferior.
c. Ethical aspect
Child empowerment allows them to see the world better. Children may see that the world is not between good and evil. According to Saxby 1991: 8-9
children may understand that there are the dark side of hero figure, the grey area of human behavior and the possibility of the rats to inherit the earth in the
world they live in. Thus, there is no representation of one-hundred-percent good or bad characters in the story. They may have their own goodness and
badness.
d. Spiritual aspect
Child empowerment in children’s literature may guide them to take a
journey into their human spirit and action. They may face problem as Saxby 1991:
9 states that “the great dilemmas are those of the human spirit”. The empowerment may influence them on the way they face the problem and find
the solution by their own or by the help of others.
4. Disempowerment in Children’s Literature
The disempowerment in children’s literature is presented in order to
understand more about the empowerment which is the opposite of it. Children’s literature may empower children by placing them as the center of
the story. Children’s literature should make children understand about life in
order to prepare them for the future. Nodelman 1992: 29 criticizes some disempowerments existing
in children’s literature by mentioning some situations. These conditions may help people understand about children
because child empowerment is the antithesis of these situations such as inherent inferiority, inherently adult-centred, inherent femaleness, silencing
and inherent silence, power and domination.
a. Inherent inferiority
Children’s literature is written by adults for children as the readers. Most adults perceive that children have inability to speak, write, think and study for
themselves and believe that the inability make them inferior. Thus, Nodelman 1992: 29 argues th
at “the inability of children to speak for themselves is not inferiority at all, but a wonderfully state of innocence”. The researcher feels
certain of Nodelman’s statement because the inability does not show the inferiority at all. In addition, most write
rs underestimate children’s ability to read the text. They make stories as simpler as possible, portray obvious bad
and good characters and conclude conclusion of the stories explicitly. However, adults who write children’s literature with child empowerment may
Kategori