Childrens Literature - Depiction of Fatherhood Essay

Childrens Literature - Depiction of Fatherhood - Essay Example The essay ‘Children’s Literature - Depiction of Fatherhood’ highlights the role of fatherhood in children's life based on discussing of two novels: Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Little Women’ and Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’. Both the stories have very strong story lines relevant to that age when society was made up of gender identities and set patterns of behavior that were unique to girls and boys. The father in ‘Little Women’ plays a pivotal role, even though he is either at war or when he returns home, remains in the background in the novel. In her own life, the author, Louisa May Alcott had a lot of father issues. Her own father, Bronson Alcott was an unconventional thinker and a Transcendentalist philosopher, who always disrupted the peace and harmony within his family with his conflicting ideas and crazy projects. In R.L Stevenson’s historical adventure, Jim Hawkin’s father does not hav e a major role and his character is used to move the story forward. When his father dies, Jim is in search of a father figure throughout the story of ‘Treasure Island. The author R.L Stevenson has aptly substituted the father figure with other characters in the story. Both the authors make the readers realize the importance of a good and noble father and what could happen for the lack of it. Both these novels are masterpieces and indispensable to many youth who experience the same condition even today.