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I generally do not subscribe to psychoanalytic literary criticism, but I'm only so strong.
- Enid Blyton, Five Run Away Together (16-17)
[English major] In this passage George, supposedly "as good as any boy", and a dogowner herself, ineffectually attempts to separate two dogs. Her efforts are quickly rejected by her father, while her male cousin Julian is able to effectively use a spurting hose to succeed where George cannot. A psychoanalytic assessment of this passage is almost irresistible; Julian's spurting hose symbolises the male sex organs he shares with George's father, rendering them able to deal with violence, while George's tender-hearted nature (and, despite her gender play, female organs) render her incapable to do anything but fuss ineffectually. Yet psychoanalysis is not necessary to create a similar reading of this passage. Julian repeatedly exerts a kind of patriarchal authority throughout the series: for example in this novel, his interactions with Mrs. Stick, (39-40, other page numbers I can't be bothered finding right now), with his repeated threats to phone the police, along with his assessment of her as a "most unpleasant woman... he certainly was not going to allow her to get the better of him" - while George, the only one of the children who might reasonably conceptualised to have authority in her household, repeatedly allows he or Dick to interact with Mrs. Stick instead of her. Another example is the passage where George slaps Edgar and Edgar immediately threatens to fight her; Julian, a good condescending Englishman, steps in. "'You're not fighting George,' he said. 'She's a girl. If you want a fight, I'll take you on.'" While the reader may not like Julian's paternalistically protective attitudes, in these passages it is clear that he has the right of it: he can confront Mrs. Stick and stop the dogs from fighting, not George - despite the fact that, as a dogowner, George is surely much more likely to know as well as her father how to stop a pair of fighting dogs. [/English major]
The sad thing is that that probably will end up a paragraph in my research essay. :-/ I felt like a bit of an idiot getting Famous Five novels out of the library, I'll tell you what.
Then George appeared, flying out of the door like the wind, to rescue her beloved Timothy. She rushed to the to [fighting] dogs and tried to pull Timmy away. Her father yelled at her.
"Come away, you little idiot! Don't you know better than to separate two fighting dogs with your bare hands? Where's the garden hose?"
It was fixed to a tap nearby. Julian ran to it and turned on the tap. he picked up the hose and turned it on the two dogs. At once the jet of water spurted out at them, and they leapt apart in surprised. Julian saw Edgar standing near, and couldn't resist swinging the hose a little so that the boy was soaked.
- Enid Blyton, Five Run Away Together (16-17)
[English major] In this passage George, supposedly "as good as any boy", and a dogowner herself, ineffectually attempts to separate two dogs. Her efforts are quickly rejected by her father, while her male cousin Julian is able to effectively use a spurting hose to succeed where George cannot. A psychoanalytic assessment of this passage is almost irresistible; Julian's spurting hose symbolises the male sex organs he shares with George's father, rendering them able to deal with violence, while George's tender-hearted nature (and, despite her gender play, female organs) render her incapable to do anything but fuss ineffectually. Yet psychoanalysis is not necessary to create a similar reading of this passage. Julian repeatedly exerts a kind of patriarchal authority throughout the series: for example in this novel, his interactions with Mrs. Stick, (39-40, other page numbers I can't be bothered finding right now), with his repeated threats to phone the police, along with his assessment of her as a "most unpleasant woman... he certainly was not going to allow her to get the better of him" - while George, the only one of the children who might reasonably conceptualised to have authority in her household, repeatedly allows he or Dick to interact with Mrs. Stick instead of her. Another example is the passage where George slaps Edgar and Edgar immediately threatens to fight her; Julian, a good condescending Englishman, steps in. "'You're not fighting George,' he said. 'She's a girl. If you want a fight, I'll take you on.'" While the reader may not like Julian's paternalistically protective attitudes, in these passages it is clear that he has the right of it: he can confront Mrs. Stick and stop the dogs from fighting, not George - despite the fact that, as a dogowner, George is surely much more likely to know as well as her father how to stop a pair of fighting dogs. [/English major]
The sad thing is that that probably will end up a paragraph in my research essay. :-/ I felt like a bit of an idiot getting Famous Five novels out of the library, I'll tell you what.
