Deconstruction in Children‟s Literature

58 Deconstruction in children‟s literature also has a mission “to expand the universe of small, to give voice to children and listening to their speeches; allowing representing childhood in their own way…” Silvia, 2014: 55. Children need to be aware to re-think about gender roles that, for instance, girls must be obedient and dependent on boys. They are not allowed to be free from adults‟ interference. They need to re-think about classism and racism which happen nowadays in certain places and how they affect humanity. By doing that, they will be critically reading, thinking, and presenting role in their real life. Jacqueline Rose, James Kincaid, Perry Nodelman, Kimberley Reynolds, and Karin Lesnik-Oberstein in Lassen-Seger, 2006: 10 suggest that this approach “has enabled oppositions between adulthood and childhood to be deconstructed in order to expose and possibly challenge existing power relationship.” In children‟s stories, there have been many binary opposites such as adultchild, gentlemanpirate, masterslave, malefemale, whiteblack, humananimal. These binaries can create structure that is problematic in external reality, for example, the meaning of „gentlemen‟ in Stevenson‟s Treasure Island is the opposite of „pirates‟ meaning. It is because „gentlemen‟ is constructed as „brave‟, „knowledgeable‟, „neat, „honest‟, „self-controlled‟, and „sober‟. Whereas, „pirates‟ meaning is the opposite of those „gentlemen‟ meaning, „innocent‟, „dirty‟, „deceitful, „violent‟, „drunken‟ Hourihan, 1997: 16. 59 He adds that “The effect of binary opposition thinking is to naturalize domination” Hourihan. 1997: 17. It means that the way of binary opposition works is to create „certain way of thinking‟ and if it wins by believing that dominating one is better and over „the other‟, it will dominate and make neutral conception. Nevertheless, children need to be „trained‟ to critically think about that. For instance, whiteblack, Americannon-American, superiorinferior, adultchild, are related one another. The secondary term, black, non-American, inferior, child, are the members of white, American, superior, and adult. They only lack of white, American, superior, and adult‟s qualities that are presented as the essence of their identities Hourihan, 1997: 17. People, including children, cannot move from binary opposition thinking, but they need to look at the relation of those binaries rather than taking it for granted. Hourihan 1997: 205-234 believes that the mission of deconstruction in children‟s literature besides correcting and re-thinking about those binaries and logocentrism is „rewriting new stories‟. It writes stories where they subvert the binary oppositions about gender, race, class, deny those binary opposition as it is only an illusion, deny the logocentrism and change the point of view from whose eyes the stories are told. Here, it is to show the deconstructed children‟s book nowadays. It can be concluded that stories which reveal the existence of positive traits of children, Black community, Muslim community, need to be introduced to children. Stories that subvert binary opposition, deny logocentrism, observe the ideology, 60 change the point of view are the new deconstructed stories. Deconstruction tries to give a privilege to the marginalized ones, in this case children, to be the one that can be seen from different angles. The above situation is done as Jacqueline Rose in Nodelman, 2008: 230 considers “the opposition between child and the adult…are structural oppositions on the strictest sense, in that each term only has meaning in relation to the one to which it is opposed. They do not reflect an essential truth about the child…” She means to say that contradiction of adultchild opposition has „created‟ the meaning of child who is represented as „wild‟, „uncontrolled‟, „powerless‟, „innocent‟, „weak‟, etc, only because those meanings are the opposites of „adult‟ meaning, such as „civilized‟, „controlled‟, „powerful‟, „knowledgeable‟, „strong‟, etc. the characteristics of a child are not always the essential truth about child characteristics.

D. Previous Research Findings

There are two previous studies conducted using Deconstruction theory. The first research is an article from Chryl Corbin in The Berkeley McNair Research Journal entitled “Deconstructing Willy Wonka‟s Chocolate Factory: Race, Labor, and the Changing Depiction of Oompa- Loompas”. This research reveals that there have been different changes of the Oompa- Loompas‟ depiction from the first version of Roald Dahl‟s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 1964, Mel Stuart‟s 1971 Film, Roald Dahl‟s Charlie 61 and the Chocolate Factory second revision1973 to Tim Burton‟s 2005 Film. In the first version 1964, the Oompa-Loompas are depicted as Black curly wavy haired creatures. It shows that there is antagonism showing some binary opposites such as whiteblack, colonizercolonized, masterslave as Willy Wonka is the master and he is white, while the Oompa-Loompas are the workers or slaves of his chocolate factory. In the second version, the visual depiction in Mel Stuart‟s 1971 Film, the Oompa-Loompas are depicted as orange skinned and green haired creatures. Though this changing visual depiction is used to remove racial antagonism but the Oompa-Loompas are still the colonized ones and they are powerless. The next changing depiction is in Roald Dahl‟s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory second revision1973. The depiction of the Oompa-Loompas are white long wavy hair which shows the opposition between White upper class with white middle class or what is called as Hippies. It is argued that those white middle class people are just like Black who become the next generation of slaves. The last changing depiction of the Oompa-L oompas is in Tim Burton‟s 2005 film. They are depicted as brown skinned miniature male that represents the power of America over India which become “a major contributor and resource of labor” Friedman in Corbin, 2015: 58-9. It signifies the power relation between masterslave, powerfulpowerless, ownerowned. It can be concluded that those changing depictions show how certain races become 62 the labor of the dominating and the colonizer one and how the changing depictions can win the ideology of the colonizer or the dominating through media. Another research is conducted by Ananda Suri Andini‟s undergraduate thesis entitled The Revelation of Deconstruction on Conventional Images: A Study of Rowling’s Children Book The Tales of Beedle Bard”. This research questions about a hero‟s conventional characteristics that are totally different from Rowling‟s hero in The Tales of Beedle Bard and how she deconstructs those conventional images through her novel. The research results on four results. The first is that the depiction of imperfect hero who is not white, mighty, and confident. Even, the images of hero in Rowling‟s The Tales of Beedle Bard are depicted as unconfident with his power, being skeptical to love and doing sadistic actions. The second is the depiction of independent female characters that are different from conventional images of woman. They are powerful, smart, cunning, brave, and leading. The third is the depiction of unconventional villain which is represented by Death, not person. The last is the depiction of gloomy atmosphere that is different from conventional images of fairy tales‟ atmosphere. Andini reveals the Rowling‟s method of deconstructing the conventional images of hero, woman, villain and atmosphere using four ways. The first is by subverting moral dichotomy, then by subverting gender dichotomy, after that employing irony and the last by employing unconventional dictions such as „gruesome‟ words.