Dear reader,
I set out on this great journey to apply my now vast knowledge of literature and its intricacies to one of my favorite novels from my childhood: The Hobbit, by J.R.R Tolkien. Specifically, I wanted to explore an idea that had bothered the author himself since The Hobbit’s first publication, in 1937. The original publisher branded the book as a children’s novel, which outraged Tolkien. He was adamant that the book was equally targeted at adults as it was at children. The question I set out to answer is what exactly differentiates “kiddy lit” from adult literature, and which categorization did The Hobbit fit into?
What I found was not surprising, once i thought about it. There is no hard line that separates kiddy lit from adult lit. Rather, children’s literature has certain motifs that crop up in many children’s novels. They tend to be more action-filled, have a more innocent and optimistic tone, and focus more on the fantastic than the real. However, there are many books that are considered to be both adult and children’s literature. The Hobbit is among them.
My genres emphasize the subtle differences between adult and children’s literature, and explain how The Hobbit fits into both. One of my genres expresses Tolkien’s outrage to the publisher, but also goes a step further. I put myself in Tolkien’s shoes, and wrote a letter to the publisher expressing my dismay at their advertising campaign for the book. Beyond this, I had Tolkien include reasons as to why his book is more than kiddy lit: how it has multiple layers, is beautifully crafted, and builds to a universal human truth.
My only non-writing genre is a collage that shows a ‘literary spectrum,” starting with kiddy lit books on the left, like Charlotte’s Web. As one read further on, towards the right, the books getting progressively more “adult:” Harry Potter, Gulliver’s Travels, The Hobbit, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Beloved, and many more. There are no strict rules that separate children’s books from adult novels: rather, some books have more kiddy lit characteristics than others, but they all fall on to one spectrum.
Another of my genres elaborates on the similarities and differences between adult and children’s literature. This is the two voice poem. One of the voices is adult literature. This voice talks about how adult books are more refined and more complete than children’s books. They are tighter, as every detail builds towards a common purpose, to express a greater truth about life. The other voice is children’s literature, which touches on the fantastic, magical, transformative qualities of children’s books. In the end, there is a lesson, but not a weighty as a theme. The two voices also address their respective audiences, and their overall purpose: to entertain, but in their own ways.
No multi-genre paper is complete without a conclusion, and my last one serves as the final act. In the scene, a man comes upon a small boy in the park playing with toys based on characters from The Hobbit. The man recognizes the toys, and realizes that they are the same ones he was planning to purchase as collector’s items. When he confronts the boy, the boy is confused: how could toys be more than just toys? The man explains the value the toys have to collectors and why, but the boy doesn’t quite grasp it. He explains to the man that toys are meant to be played with. In the end, the boy gives the man one of the toys. This scene is somewhat of an allegory. The toys represent The Hobbit, and how it has qualities of both children’s and adult literature. The boy represents kiddy lit, and the man adult lit. The man at the store that promised the toys to the man, but ended up giving them to the boy is Tolkien. And the toy the boy gives to the man is a figure of Beorn, a character from The Hobbit.
Beorn, of course, is the golden thread. Beorn’s character in The Hobbit is a good representation of what The Hobbit is. Beorn is a shape shifter, a half man, half bear that can change between the two forms. This is akin to The Hobbit having the characteristics of both kiddy and adult lit. Beorn himself has traits of both: he is a fantastic creature while also speaking to the idea that man has a dual nature. Beorn appears in the poem to emphasize the fantastic qualities of The Hobbit. In the play and the letter, he is discussed as having the duality mentioned above, and how he is a representation of The Hobbit’s duality. He does not play a major role in the collage, but is there in the middle as a reminder that novels and books do not have to be strictly defined and classified; some are unique, and deserve to stand out.
