The Ouija game: an analysis through young adult’s behavior as depicted in three urban myths

Author: Alvarez, Gilda

When people think about games, probably the first thought that appears in their minds is that they are made for entertainment. Certainly, there are games with different formats and purposes but in the end they all share the same feature; they are harmless enjoyable activities. At least, that was what I thought. I found out that not all of them apply to this characteristic. This paper will look at one in particular that, far from being harmless, seems to change the lives of its players forever; the well-known Ouija or Cup’s game. I might classify it as a “paranormal” game, since it is outside the boundaries of the regular and “normal” ones. The Ouija is a game used for having contact with spirits. It is played on a board that has written the entire alphabet on it and in the centre there is a figure similar to a triangle that is used to point to the letters. The players must put their index finger on the triangle without touching it and make a question to the “spirits.” Another adaptation is the Cup game, whose only difference is that, instead of a triangle, a cup upside down is used. Many narratives telling the misfortunes of its participants can be found on the internet and most of them (if not all) share a salient characteristic: adolescents as central characters. This similarity will be used as a starting point in the development of this paper since it might not be a curious coincidence. Young adults seem more likely to approach these types of experiences. This will be evidenced through the analysis of three stories concerning the Ouija game. Throughout the identification of certain behaviors and attitudes depicted in them, adolescents may realize and understand the complexities and dangers they are exposed to.

In the following lines, an attempt will be made to analyze and develop the shared characteristics of three narratives that tell the experiences of three different young adults with the Ouija game. These characteristics might be connected with their own behavior in real life. Taking this into consideration, this paper will explore on how adolescents behavior is depicted and reflected in three different urban myths.

The demon of the Ouija board trashed the house, White faced Ouija board ghost and Ouija board séance and our new home haunting (Ouija board tales, 2013) are stories published in a blog dedicated to experiences concerning this urban myth. The first one tells the story of sixteen-year-old Amber and her friend Dee. She brings a game she had found and “challenges” Amber to play it. The second story is told by Justin, an eight-year-old boy who is a witness of the frightening experience of his adolescent sister with this game. The third narration has a young lady and her roommates as protagonists and tells the strange events that take place in their new house when they experiment with the Ouija. Essentially, these narrations tell the story of three adolescents (and their friends) whose curiosity for the game makes them play it. Even though they have heard of grownup people telling them that they should never experience this, they do it anyway. When they start playing the Ouija, they notice that nothing happens and they continue playing until the spirits appear. Once they have made contact with the “ghosts”, they regret having done this and swear they will never do it again. These experiences portray one of the most famous and scariest of all the urban myths popularly known.

But is the Ouija game a veridical story? The website Wikipedia (accessed October, 19th 2013) provides the following definition of urban myths:

“An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true.  As with all folklore and mythology, the designation suggests nothing about the story's veracity, but merely that it is in circulation, exhibits variation over time, and carries some significance that motivates the community in preserving and propagating it.”

So, urban myths are not necessarily real stories. However, they are retold so many times that usually make people think they are true. And this may be why people feel attracted to them. Nevertheless, a group appear to be more likely to experience urban myths. Adolescents in particular, seem to pay special attention to the Ouija game. It is possible that their own behaviour is reflected through the game. In order to provide a thorough explanation, it might be useful to clarify some points.

First, the term adolescence will be understood as “...a transitional stage of physical and psychological human development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to legal adulthood and whose cultural purpose is the preparation of children for adult roles...” (Wikipedia, accessed on October 20th 2013) According to this definition, adolescence is a transitional period in which the individual is no longer a child. Thus, he/she cannot be considered an adult. It is possible to state that is a difficult stage full of changes not only physical but also psychological. Second, since this period is crossed by several transformations, it is important to highlight the changes in the adolescent’s behaviour as well. These will be analyzed in connection to the three stories about experiences with the Ouija game to find out if they reflect some behaviour typical of this period.

One of the many coincidences that can be found within these urban myths is that the three of them have adolescents as central characters. But is this a coincidence? Possibly not. As stated on the same website (Idem) “During adolescence, there is an extremely high emphasis on approval of peers as a reward due to adolescents' increased self-consciousness”.  Even though it is not possible to know exactly if the main characters of the stories are precisely the protagonists for this reason, it is possible to notice, as the urban myths are developed, an encouragement from peers to play the game. In order to clarify this assertion, the following extract might help:

“My best friend Dee came home. I opened the door and she had a weird board game in her hands. She greeted me and I welcomed her in. Then she said "Look at my new board game! Pretty cool uh? Let’s play!” “Seems creepy...” I said but she told not to be a chicken so we played.” [Original punctuation]

“We held a séance with a Ouija board and asked questions although I’m very against communicating with spirits because activity tends to become more frequent. But my roommates told me not to worry and we did it”

These extracts were taken from the stories The demon of the Ouija board trashed the house and Ouija board séance and our new home haunting respectively. In the first fragment, the adolescent seems doubtful about playing this “creepy game”. However, her friend Dee tells her “not to be a chicken”. As Winnicot (Marta Vega and others, 2007) suggests, a characteristic of early adolescence is the insertion within a certain group and for doing so young adults usually adopt a behavior similar to the one of their peers. Our unnamed protagonist follows this pattern; she does what her friend Dee tells her to do only because she does not want to be left aside. Doing the opposite might represent to lose respect among her group of friends. Similarly, in the second extract, it is possible to notice that this young lady follows her roommate’s advice despite her dislike about the game. Definitely, it is important for young adults to be accepted among peers and that is why the two friends end up playing the game even though the protagonist of this story does not like the idea that much.

Another characteristic of adolescence is the problem of facing authority figures. It is suggested (Idem) that during adolescence several arguments between young adults and their parents take place. These often concern minor issues of control, such as curfew, acceptable clothing, and the adolescent's right to privacy, which adolescents may have previously viewed as issues over which their parents had complete authority. Parent-adolescent disagreement also increases as friends demonstrate a greater impact on one another. Besides, new influences on the adolescent appear and these may be in opposition to parents' values. So, it might not be surprising that in the urban myths the characters do not follow the warnings their parents give:

“My sister Christina and her friend were babysitting me, but were messing with their Ouija board. My mother told them they should never play it and had thought they had gotten rid of it weeks beforehand but, to no avail.” (White faced Ouija board ghost)

“My mom came down the stairs and greeted me and Dee and went to go into the kitchen but she stopped and glared at the board and said "WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING PLAYING WITH THAT!?" I said "It is not mine its Dee's she said "DON'T PLAY IT ITS DANGEROUS" Me and Dee shrugged and waited for my mom to walk out then Dee asked "What is your name" It said N-O-M-D-E I went white and said "it spells Demon if you unscramble it" [Original punctuation] (The demon of the Ouija board trashed the house)

Despite Christina’s mother warning, the young lady, far from obeying her mother, does exactly the opposite. Besides, her friend encourages Christina keeping the game and playing it later. Dee’s behaviour is similar. She does not pay attention to her mother’s advice and waits till she leaves the room so that they can continue with the game. In these stories, there is a clear reflection of this particular behaviour that young adults have in real life. As adolescents have a closer relationship with their peers, they are more likely to accept their friend’s advice rather than their parents. Christina’s and Dee’s attitudes are proof of this.

Having explored the conflictive relationship adolescents have with authority, it might be interesting to focus on the risky behaviour they manifest and that many times puts them in danger. If the following extract from one of the stories is analyzed, it may be evident that the adolescent put herself in a risky situation despite the warning of her aunt. Even though the Ouija game has proved to be dangerous and with unpleasant consequences for its players, the protagonist decides to go through the experience:

“My aunt told me a similar story that happened to her. To keep it short she was messing with the Ouija board as a teenager with a friend and they saw the white face in a window. She claims to have seen it for many years before finally getting baptized before her wedding and she never saw it again.” (White faced Ouija board ghost)

And why this is so? The behavioural decision-making theory proposes that adolescents and adults both weigh the potential rewards and consequences of an action. However, research has shown that adolescents seem to give more weight to rewards, particularly social rewards, than do adults (Wikipedia, 2013). This assertion is strongly connected with the idea of acceptance within a certain group previously developed. For young adults, feeling acceptance among peers is so important that they are disposed to do risky activities in order to “fit”. In real life they may drive a car without any permission, drink alcohol or have unprotected sex. In the stories, they simply decide to play a game that is beyond their understanding. Whatever the action would be, the precious “reward” is the same: fitting within a group and don’t be left aside.

As it was previously exposed, the urban myths analyzed so far reflect several aspects concerning adolescent’s behaviour in real life. This paper has focused its attention on three stories concerning the Ouija game, but surely there are many more out there. Probably, it is not just a coincidence that these three experiences have young adults as central characters who defy adult’s advice and adopt a risky behaviour by playing a dangerous game. However, it seems that they feel attracted to it. Perhaps, by reading other adolescent’s experiences, they might understand what they are facing with. If we, as adults, remember that period of our lives, we might understand the reason why some young adults experience the Ouija game. It might be possible that, by reading stories that partially reproduce the behaviours and attitudes young adults present in real life, they can feel that are not alone. Hopefully, this may help them to go through this difficult period.


REFERENCES

• Google “Ouija stories” http://ouijaboardtales.blogspot.com.ar/ (last accessed on October, 19th)
•  Vega y otros, M.  (2007) ‘Escritos Psicoanalíticos sobre adolescencia’ Bs As Ed. Eudeba
•  Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia “Urban legend” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_legend (last accessed on October, 20th)
•  Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia “Adolescence” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescence (last accessed on October, 20th)

The Devil you Know or the Devil you don't Know: Choosing readers in the EFL classroom

Dead like me: an analysis through Young Adult Literature

By Alvarez, Gilda and Giribaldi, Mariela

A long time ago, adolescents were not considered a target audience when authors wrote stories or different types of books. It was difficult to find a single piece of literature that was specially designed for them. Nowadays, this paradigm has changed for a better one and many narratives, among other styles are written considering adolescents as the intended audience. Furthermore, the concept of Young Adult Literature has started to be used to define the literature specifically design for adolescents. This paper will look at one particular short story that portrays some of the characteristics and behaviours of this particular stage of life. Dead like me, written by the American author Adam Troy Castro, describes a man trying to survive in a world occupied by dead people. In this new earth, the protagonist makes an effort to “fit” in the world of the Living Dead, as he calls them, because he is still alive and doesn’t want them to realize about it. The problematic situations that he will have to face will prove to be appealing for young adults and may help them, through identification of certain behaviours and attitudes, in their way to adulthood.

Several important elements will be explored in this paper that includes not only different aspects to take into account when pointing out to adolescence, but also the elements in the story that make it suitable for this type of audience; an audience that is considered to be reluctant and hard-to-catch when reference to literature is made. So, taking all these factors into consideration, this paper will try to explain the connections between Dead like me and Young Adult Literature.

According to the definition stated on the website Psychology Today,

“Adolescence describes the teenage years between 13 and 19 and can be considered the transitional stage from childhood to adulthood. However, the physical and psychological changes that occur in adolescence can start earlier, during the preteen or "teen" years (ages 9-12). Adolescence can be a time of both disorientation and discovery. The transitional period can bring up issues of independence and self-identity. Sometimes adolescents may be experimenting with drugs and alcohol or sexuality. During adolescence, peer groups and external appearance tend to increase in importance.”

When we mention the term adolescence, we are referring to a critical period in life in which we face several conflictive changes, not only psychological but also physical.

But adolescents are not the only ones who experiment changes. Literature for young adults has also change and its characteristics have undergone a considerable transformation. According to Small (Herz and Gallo, 1996), the characteristics of Young Adult novels are the following:

●The main character is a teenager
●Events and problems in the plot are related to teenagers
●The main character is the centre of the plot
●Dialogue reflects teenage speech, including slang
●The point of view presents an adolescent’s interpretation of events and people
●The teenage main character is usually perceptive, sensitive, intelligent, mature, and independent
●The novel is short, rarely more than 200 pages
●The actions and decisions of the main characters are major factors in the outcome of the conflict

In Dead like me, even though we assume that the main character is not an adolescent since he has a wife and two children, the events and problems in the plot are related to young adults. There is a clear connection between an adolescent’s conduct and the protagonist’s behaviour. The later imitates the zombie’s attitudes to fit in the Living Dead world. Imitation is a typical characteristic of young adults. Through this strategy, they achieve an important purpose of this stage of life: being accepted within a group. We find within the story, clear instances in which the main character experiences situations related to sexual relationships, identity and acceptation in a peer group through imitation of conducts.

Sexual relationships are an important matter for young adults since the first sexual encounters tend to appear in adolescence. The discovery of sex is associated to impulsivity in male adolescents and to romanticism in female adolescents (Marta Vega and others, 2007). For women sex is making love, while for men sex is just having sex. So, as this is a new aspect of explore, it is completely normal that young adults do not know how to handle and properly enjoy their sex lives. Our unnamed protagonist is not the exception to the rule. He has a lover or at least “the closest thing to a lover in the new world”, as he says. Her name is Suzie and he does not consider her a “real” lover in the emotional sense of the word, but a lover you can “fuck” to. Because zombies do not make love, they just satisfy a physical necessity. There is “no affection, no pleasure, and certainly, no joy”

Another problem related to adolescents is portrayed in the story: identity. The central character is still a human being; he is alive in a world infested by zombies. However, he cannot behave as a normal person, he has to pretend that he is a zombie and he will have to find out if he is human or if unconsciously, as a consequence of acting decades as a Living Dead, he actually became one of them. It is possible to notice that there is a battle going on within this person; the part of him which is prepared to do anything to survive and the part which wants to admit his own humanity. This conflict is evidenced in several parts of the story. For instance, at the beginning of the tale when the character points out that the zombies are never referred to as zombies, but simply as 'those Bastards'. However, half way through the story, having described a particularly nasty bus explosion, he states ‘you’d feel that the Living were silly bastards’ which seems to indicate the character feels the same about the zombies as he does about the living. Close to the end, he again refers to the zombies as 'Bastards'. As we can notice, there is a constant conflict in him.

During adolescence, sociability becomes an important matter. As Winnicot (idem) suggested, a characteristic of early adolescence is the insertion within a certain group. In the story, the protagonist has to imitate zombies and behave in the same manner to be accepted among them. He cannot be himself, i.e. a real human being, otherwise he would be killed. In real life, young adults surely will not be killed, but if they do not fit within a certain group, they would probably be excluded. The sense of belonging is highly important for them.

As it was already mentioned, Small (idem) pointed out that one of the characteristics of YAL is that “dialogue reflects teenage speech, including slang”. But what is the meaning of this word? The Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary (2007) defines the term slang as “very informal words and expressions that are more common in spoken language, especially used by a particular group of people”. According to this definition, the vocabulary young adults use can be considered as slang. Adolescents usually speak in a very informal manner that includes insults as well. Several times, some of these words are used in a really disapproving way. Evidently, their vocabulary is not the same adults use. What’s more, in many cases it is extremely difficult to really understand the message they are conveying. This is due to the fact that young adults have a tendency to adapt existing terms to new contexts and situations. This is reflected in the story since the main character makes use of slang several times; he uses the word bastard to refer to zombies, and fuck to the act of having sex. Damned is also used as a swear word to show that the character is extremely annoyed or frustrated. These words are always used in a disapproving way and they highlight the feelings of the protagonist through different situations. Even though the instances were slang can be found are really few, it is possible to notice that the words and expressions the protagonist uses are truly informal.

In psychology, maturity is “the ability to respond to the environment in an appropriate manner. This response is generally learned rather than instinctive, and is not determined by one’s age” (website Wikipedia) Even though adolescents have abandoned childhood, they are still on the path to maturity. Being mature is a psychological state you develop, you do not born with it. So, it is expected to find immaturity in young adult’s behaviour. As many parents probably know, young adults are more likely to show a lack of maturity and an underdeveloped sense of responsibility than adults. Besides, they are more vulnerable or susceptible to negative influences and outside pressures, including peer pressure. That is why several times they do not understand or analyze the consequences of their actions. The protagonist of Dead like me is an adult. However, it is possible to find in his behaviour some instances where he acts immaturely, similarly to adolescents. The protagonist mocks his own brother because he is already dead. His brother was the clever one, “brave, heroic, defiant, a total leader” while he defines himself as “anything special, a follower, a kiss ass”. This immature rivalry between brothers is really common in young adults. In the story, we can notice that the clever brother was not so clever after all.

But the fact that adolescents sometimes have an immature behaviour does not indicate that they are not able to perform and make decisions responsibly. The central character of Dead like me is actually forced to think and behave maturely for the essential reason that, if he does not do so, he will be killed by zombies. He is not a young adult. However, he is perceptive, sensitive, intelligent and independent. These qualities are perceived on him through different situations. He is perceptive because he is capable of recognizing and comprehending the zombie’s attitudes and reality. And based on these, he is able to develop his own survival strategies. Being sensitive is another characteristic of him. Although he has acted as a Living Dead for a long period of time, he still remembers his family and his first and only love. Nevertheless, he represses these memories and feelings since zombies have not emotions at all. No doubt he is intelligent and independent enough to survive on his own in a world invaded by zombies.

Stories designed for young adults tend to have no more than 200 pages. A clear example of this is the book Zombies Encounter with the Hungry Dead edited by John Clipp. This book compiles thirty two stories about zombies from different authors into two parts (Zombies of the old school and Post emancipation). Each story has a length of no more than fifteen pages. Dead like me is included in the book and we observe this characteristic since this story is a short one of no more than five or four pages depending on the impression font size.

As regards the actions and decisions of the main character, these are the only ones that take place and are important all through the development of the story, leading to its outcome: staying alive. In the story, the central character pretends to be a zombie in order to stay alive so, he behaves as one: he does not dream, think or remember, he walks the way zombies walk, dragging his right foot, hanging his head.

As it was previously exposed, Dead like me not only deals with several issues concerning problems young adults may face, but also it portrays some characteristics of Young Adult Literature. It is important to understand that adolescence is a conflictive period in life. A period in which human beings change not only physically but also psychologically. A period for discovering who you are and your place in the world. A period of transition into the complexity of adulthood. Most human beings had experienced adolescence. If we remember this period, we will discover how we felt and what it meant in our lives. Reading stories that reflect some feelings, problems, conflicts and characteristics of young adults, is an interesting way to show them that they are not alone. Adolescents have problems in real life as well as in the literary world.


REFERENCES

●Castro, A. T.  (2000) Zombies: Encounters with the hungry dead, Dead like me
●Skipp, J. (2009)  Zombies: Encounters with the hungry dead
●Hornby, A. S. Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary of current English (2007) Oxford University Press
●Psychology Today http://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/adolescence Adolescence, (accessed on June, 27th)
●Sarah Herz and Gallo, D. (1996) ‘From Hinton to Hamlet: Building Bridges between Young Adult Literature and the Classics’, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press
●Vega y otros, M.  (2007) ‘Escritos Psicoanalíticos sobre adolescencia’ Bs As Ed. Eudeba
●Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maturity_(psychology) Maturity (psychological), (accessed on July, 8th)

I was a soldier (review)

By Brian E. Turner

I was a soldier by bestselling author Brian E. Turner, who has written several stories concerning war issues, is a short story that pictures the cruel and cool decisions that soldiers are forced to make in the battle field.

At the beginning of the story, we can clearly perceive the atmosphere of war since the author makes an understandable distinction between the colours of the soldier’s uniform belonging to each side. Then, as we go on reading, the narration makes us feel that the relationship between the soldiers will be a friendly one. We probably assume they may become comrades because of their attempt to communicate in spite of their language differences. Although differences concerning communication are solved, those regarding war issues aren’t. This is why the reader might feel a bittersweet sensation as the story reaches its ending.

I was a soldier is a very interesting piece of literature that may leave the reader satisfied. The unexpected twist at the end of the story will definitely prove the horrors of war. We highly recommend it since it is catching, intriguing and emotive. A story the reader should not missed.

The Quetzal Project (TV show proposal)

Mister Thomas Yankelevich

(WE ARE A GROUP OF STUDENTS OF A TTC AND) We are writing to let you know our proposal about a new television programme that we named The Quetzal Project. In the following lines we will establish the details of the show.

The Quetzal Project is a competition to find twelve young actors and actresses to be part of an adolescent sitcom. This competition will consist of groups of teenagers performing situations that adolescents have to go through on their way to adulthood.  A group of well recognized psychologists will help with the script of the programme. The participants will be judged every week, after their performance , by a jury formed by three teachers of secondary school of both levels (Basic and Superior) and a group of three adolescents as well. This jury will vote each participant according to their performance, giving them points ranging from zero up to one hundred .The participant that accumulates more points is the one who passes to next programme. The competition will last twelve months so, every month the jury will have to choose a winner who will be part of the sitcom.

We consider this programme very suitable for a large range of viewers that expect a TV programme according to their age and needs. In other words, adolescents need to share experiences. So, we believe this is the programme!

Yours faithfully,
Daniela, Valeria, Mariela, Lidia and Gilda

A green hero

Student: Alvarez, Gilda

“... and lived happily ever after”

How many times have we read this type of ending in fairytales stories? The answer will probably be “a lot”. That is because since we are very young, stories like these have been told to us. Stories where everything and everyone are perfect. Stories where there is always a girl waiting to be rescued by a brave and heroic man. And this male character is always a beautiful prince son of a noble king, a perfect gentlemen, a brave hero living in an outstanding palace. In few words, this prince is always charming, or isn’t he?

If all the fairytales taken to the big screen have had a perfect male protagonist, surely Shrek is the exception that proves the rule. Shrek (2001) doesn’t portray the typically stereotype of a prince but quite the contrary: he is an ogre. Furthermore, the green creature has broken the dominant convention of hero stereotypes of traditional fairytales.

Probably the most obvious characteristic of a fairytale’s hero is how he looks like: tall, slim, most of the times blonde, with beautiful eyes and a perfect face. But do these adjectives fit into the description of Shrek? Absolutely not. He is an ogre! Ogres are not considered beautiful because they are supposed to be villains and villains in fairytales are always ugly or old creatures.

A perfect hero must live in a gorgeous palace surrounded by friendly and kind people. He is always part of the royalty and is beloved by everyone. Instead, Shrek is chased by everyone and rather than having company, the ogre prefers the loneliness of his wet swamp. He doesn’t like anyone but himself and even goes mad when, at the beginning of the film, hundreds of fairytale characters invade his sweet home and disrupt his peaceful life.

The behaviour of our green friend does not apply to one of the predominant rules of fairytales movies: politeness. It is hard to find a single scene in those films where the protagonist is rude or has bad manners. But it is definitely easy to find it on Shrek. The ogre is rude, disgusting and even grouchy. Besides, he doesn’t fit into the definition of a proper ‘hero’. In fact, he is an ‘antihero’. He doesn’t rescue the princess because he is in love; he rescues her to get his swamp back.

Maybe the only coincidence between Shrek and the traditional heroes is that, in the end, they both find their true love. A happy ending with quite different protagonists.

So perhaps Shrek is not the prince charming the princess has been waiting for. But she falls in love with him the way he is. And isn’t that what love is about? Yes, it is. It is to accept someone without wanting to change him or her. It doesn’t matter how that person or even creature looks like. It is not necessary to be perfectly beautiful like the characters of fairytale stories to have a ‘happily ever after’. Everyone has feelings, even an ogre. After all, you don’t have to judge a book by its cover.

Disney's princesses’ beauty

Students: Alvarez, Gilda and Giribaldi, Mariela


When we were a little girls we used to spend hours watching TV. At that time there weren’t so many cartoons as there are nowadays since cable TV wasn’t really popular so our mothers used to buy us movies that, according to them, were appropriate for us. Snow White, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are some examples. We could stay in front of the TV for hours, watching those beautiful princesses. We remember that we wanted to be just like them, and we didn’t understand why we couldn’t. Why none of those women look like us or like any ordinary women? In fact, they do not look like any real women at all. We didn’t understand it then, but we do now.

All around the world millions of girls grow up watching this type of films, just like we did. They may not be aware of it, but these series of movies, coincidentally all from The Disney’s company, portray the physical characteristics a woman should have for society. Furthermore, their female protagonists are a clear reflection of the stereotype of women socially accepted.

Throughout its history, Disney has accommodated to the beauty standards accepted in society at different times. There may be some variations between the movies used to be shown a few years ago and nowadays, but they still have the same pattern. The princess and the frog (2009), for instance, portrays a girl from an ethnicity different to the white protagonists people is accustomed to see on this type of films. But, even though Disney has incorporated a black protagonist in order to show social integration, this ‘new’ princess still follows the beauty standards accepted by society; a slim and stunning figure, perfect faces and gorgeous hair.

There is a wide scope of variety when talking about discrimination and it can be due to different factors: religion, ethnicity, social position, nationality or physical aspect among others. The message this black princess, Tiana, transmits is integration and no discrimination. But discrimination is still a subliminal message: not ethnical but physical. All the princesses created by Disney have the same characteristics : beautiful and outstanding faces, perfect hair and skinny bodies are common ground for them, independently from their origins and skin colour. Some examples are Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) or Jasmine (Aladdin), among others. For this company, a fat or an ugly princess is unthinkable.

At different times, beauty in women has changed according to society. That’s how it is possible to notice some differences between the protagonist of Snow White from the original version and other princesses from later films like Tiana (The princess and the frog). While the first one seemed to have a healthier figure according to how women were considered at that time the second one shows an extremely slim figure impossible to get for any real woman. Although it is the desirable figure expected to be shown by the audience.

The pattern Disney follows has been the same since its beginnings and it will probably continue because that is what society expects to see: what is socially accepted, especially, when talking about physical appearance. The most important point when watching these movies is to be really aware of this hidden message and to rescue the real importance of each person. It doesn’t matter what a person looks like. What really matters is how this person nourishes our lives.

The doorbell rang (review)

The doorbell rang
by Pat Hutchins

Cookies are not enough in the classic story for children The doorbell rang by Pat Hutchins. Funny and intriguing at the same time, this lovely story shows and highlights the importance of sharing, even when the risk of being left with no much for yourself is implied. A moral lesson that goes straight to the heart and soul.

This story is set in Ma’s kitchen. Ma has made a dozen of delicious cookies for Victoria and Sam. “You can share them between yourselves” says Ma, and it seems as if the children had no problem with that, till the doorbell rings, and rings, and rings. Several friends start to arrive at each ring. The cookies will have to be shared between more people!  Therefore, each child has fewer cookies to eat. But then, the final ring brings a surprise for the children and Ma as well.

A noticeable characteristic of the book is the use of repetition. The phrase “No one makes cookies like Grandma”, among others, is repeated throughout the whole narration. This book may be really useful when children are starting to learn Maths, especially problem solving, because, as the story develops, they would have to calculate how many cookies correspond to each child. Besides, the book may be interesting for both, children and parents; children may feel interested about the beautiful and colourful drawings that illustrate this book whereas parents may feel interested in the message the book shows us: the importance of sharing.

The doorbell rang tells a funny story about friendship and values. But “funny story” doesn’t mean “empty story”. We highly recommend it since through a simple argument, the possibility of reflecting upon life and moral values takes place at each page, again for both children and parents.

The Business Ant

Once upon a time, there was a little Red Ant full of dreams. The dream he wanted most was to start his own business building the biggest hotel for ants.

So, he started to work on his project. The whole colony thought it was a silly idea and laughed at him.

“Are you out of your mind!” said one of his friends. 

“Why are you building a hotel? We are comfortable enough where we are!” said another one.

“What’s wrong with that?” said little Red Ant. “It makes room for new people”

In spite of his friend’s jokes, little Red Ant went on his huge idea.

When the building was ready, a lot of ants suddenly arrived looking for a new place to spend their holidays. 

As soon as little Red Ant’s friends realized that his hotel was full, they were curious about it. So they decided to rent a room in there. 

“What a good idea little Red Ant has had!” said his friends. “This hotel is more luxurious than our austere colony!” 

As the days went on, little Red Ant became the most famous business ant in the colony. What is more, he was very proud of what he had done. 

Exquisite cadaver

It was a cold night, the streets were almost empty and unexpectedly I ran into him. It was a long time since I had seen him for the last time.

At first I couldn’t recognize him because he had changed a lot. His hair was shorter and he had wrinkles on his face. He was surprised as well. He told me that I looked the same. He invited me to have a cup of coffee nearby to catch up. We went to a little café on the corner of that block and we talked about our lives. We spent almost two hours talking until we realized it was very late but we looked at each other and decides to ask for another cup of coffee. After all the day was rainy and too cold. Nobody expected such tragic ending early in the evening.The destuctive wind blew everything down on its way and made the following hours and days unbearable for some people. Although the destroyed city is recovering its normal life, the way to my mother’s house was desolated after the tornado. As I was getting closer to the house it was even worse. I was really worried about my mother, but also about Pompi, my loyal dog.

Fortunately, when I arrive home I learnt that the building wasn’t damage. The walls and roof were in their places, but Pompi wasn’t there. As my mother was fine, I started to look for the dog. I walked all day long, but I couldn’t find him. I was desperate and very sad. Darkness didn’t help much and to make things worse it started to pour down. I had almost no hope. It was a cold night, the streets were almost empty and suddenly I ran into him.

Flash Fiction

“Plane crush: do we still have Paris?”
(Daniela Busto and Eleonora Graziano)

“I’m too hungry. There’s not enough food. Where’s Bobby?”
(Daniela Busto, Eleonora Graziano and Valeria Muscato)

“Jane: I need to talk to you, Mr. Rochester: Wait. I've got something to do in the attic.”
(Eleonora Graziano)

Balloon: -Careful with the cactus! –What cactussssss
(Gilda Álvarez)

-Tsunami! -Yeah, and I just washed my car...
(Gilda Álvarez)

We partied, we drank, ambulance please!
(Mariela Giribaldi)

A small house. Where is it?
(Valeria Muscato)

Mouse. Running. Hunting. Cat.
(Valeria Muscato)

Bring my dog back, twister!
(whole class)