Name : Aliza Prasasty Mawaddah

Student No. : 121611233117

Class : Children’s Literature (A)

An Analysis on the Concept of Children Abandonment through Defense

Mechanism in Hansel and Gretel by Brothers Grimm

I. Background of Study

Humans grow through various phases before they reach adultery. One of the most
important phases is childhood. It is when humans are known as children. A child is a young
human being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of majority (Oxford University
Press 2019). Puberty age is around 10 to 16 years old in general. During this phase, children
are experiencing one of the most important growths in their psychological state. Any
experience, positive or negative will affect their mental state. Jean Piaget stated that it is
because children think differently than adults, thus childhood plays such an important role in
the course of the rest of life (Thomas 2018).

Child psychology issue revolves around wide causes, one of them is children
abandonment. Children abandonment occurred when parents are unable to fulfill their
parental responsibilities, and decided to leave the child for temporary unknown time.
Historically, children abandonment had happened since ancient civilization. Moses was
abandoned by his mother for his safety. Sopochles was abandoned by Odiepus by giving him
to a shepherd (Burnstein 1981). Moreover, the reasons behind the parents’ neglect are
various. Just like the case of Moses and Sopochles. However, the general and most common
reason is because they feel emotionally unable and not ready to provide emotional support
and treatment. Their neglect may be caused by previous similar experience. In most cases,
neglected children came from neglected parents, which mean the parents also experienced the
same thing. However, this can’t be applied to all parents since there are ones who were
neglected then become caring and responsible parents (Thomas 2018). Children who
experienced abandonment will likely to have issue in coping with it, both short terms and
long terms. Symptoms such as: fear of being alone, anxiety, and panic may involuntarily
accompany them. The worst part of children abandonment is the negative effect it gives. One
of the most apparent impacts of child abandonment for long term is mood swing and lack of
temperament control.

Furthermore, the writer has found Hansel and Gretel eligible to be analyzed in
psychoanalysis, since it has issue on children abandonment. It is also supported by a theory
from Freud which explains about defense mechanism and core issues along with Jacques
Lacan’s Stages of Development.

This story was written by Wilhelm Grimm (part of The Brothers Grimm) with the same title,
Hansel and Gretel. Interestingly, it had grasped the researcher’s attention regarding the issue
it carries. Brothers Grimm started their career as folklores writers in 19th century. These
German brothers used to work as cultural researches, linguists, lexicographers, folklore
collectors, and writers (Famous Author 2019). The first series that contain the original Hansel
and Gretel was published in 1812.

From literal perspective, this story tells about a journey of siblings, Hansel and Gretel
who are put in the woods by their mother and got lost. They searched for a house only to find
a witch that unfortunately resides in it. However, this story has deeper issue rather than a
child adventure. It is actually related to child abandonment. Connecting with the background
of the original book, Brothers Grimm is known to have two sides of fairy tales genre: light
and dark. What most people get is the light version, which is about joy, happiness ever after,
good defeat the evil and so on, where Hansel and Gretel is a well-known short story written
by The Grimm Brothers and the writer thinks this fairy tales is worth to be analyzed because
the underlying issue is relevant with our current situation.

In this 21st century globalization and the latest industrial revolution (4.0) have led
into a new era for millennials. It is an era where everything seems to move fast, from labor,
jobs opportunity, education and etc. Somehow, this vast development did not come in balance
with the effect it creates. Since the amount from those aspect increased, the pressure caused
from it also raised. Many parents are too busy with their works, many students are exhausted
due to the enormous amount of task they received, and many children are abandoned due to
their parents’ job or divorces. Thus, it resulted in worsening of mental health, especially for
children. They are impacted heavily from this phenomenon. Furthermore, childhood is the
most vital state of human’s mental growth. Any experiences occurred during this stage are
likely last and affect the person in later life. Thus, Hansel and Gretel provided a good
 portrayal on how children abandonment affects the characters which is actually relevant to
the reality nowadays.

However, in today’s world, mental issue is being taken more seriously because more
people started to realize on how important mental health is, but it sometimes it does not help
in solving the main problems because the core remain unsolved. Those cases happens
because people only aware of the upper area rather than the core. Thus, many platforms are
used to help spreading about the importance of mental health, not only for adults, but also
children. Those platforms could be in a form of media, the cartoons, the movie, and books. In
this case the writer of this article is focusing on children’s book as a media of conveying this
message.

II. Statement of Problems

The issue regarding this article will be analyzed through these following questions:
1. According to Freud’s theory, what is Hansel and Gretel’s defense
mechanism and core issue?
2. How does the “fear of abandonment” affect Hansel and Gretel’s life?

III. Literature Review

Children abandonment on Hansel and Gretel is obvious, especially the images
and symbolism throughout the story. Abandoned children are actually one of the folk
figures in literature. It is referred to one the motifs listed under the classification of
“Unnatural Cruelty” from Stith Thompson's "Motif-Index of Folk-Literature" (1946)
(Walter 1992). The story of Hansel and Gretel is also typical and quite familiar:
Hansel and Gretel’s parents are struggling back home. The step mother suggested to
left the kids in the forest. However, Hansel knew about his mother’s plan, thus he
carried bunch of pebbles to help them return home. The step mother was not happy to
see that, so she sent them again and prevent Hansel for picking up pebbles. Hansel
used breadcrumbs instead, however, the crumbs were eaten by birds when he checked
back, thus they are completely lost now. The journey Hansel and Gretel face
afterwards is a voyage of self-discovery in which they experience about independence
or self-reliance.
In reality, the practice of children abandonment is still happening. Everyday
there will always news reporting abandoned babies, found with no traces of the
owner. This news is making the parents look bad to the society. Thus, in Hansel and
 Gretel, their mother is represented a s a step mother who embodied evil personality.
In contemporary Children’s Literature, story like this is often symbolic. Hansel and
Gretel stayed in a gingerbread house which they were kidnapped for a couple of days
by The Witch. In psychological level, children are aware of these kinds of symbols
and they consume it easier (Hackney 2016). Historically, Hansel and Gretel is
originally from Europe where it dated back to 17th century. After 1790, an increasing
number of illegitimate children were left by their mother did increased. Child
abandonment was an alternative strategy due to poverty and lack of birth control
during that era. According to Boswell, placing unwanted babies in specific places
makes them feel safer because technically the parents abandoned their children, but
not to die. The main reasons behind this was mostly because of poverty, to preserve
the patrimony from a partitive inheritance, or to “correct for gender” and deformities
that the babies may embody (Tilly 1992).

IV. Method
The researcher uses a qualitative descriptive method and psychoanalysis approach that
specify on Freud’s defense mechanism and Lacanian’s mirror stage. There are various
types of defense mechanism and core issues such as: fear of intimacy, fear of
abandonment, fear of betrayal, low self-esteem, insecurity, and oedipal fixation.
However, the researcher will focus on fear of abandonment, since Hansel and Gretel
had related background about abandonment.

V. Analysis
Human’s mind consists of what so called conscious and unconscious. The
unconscious is like storage, where it stores painful memories such as traumatic events
in which later will act as a reminder to prevent similar events to ever happen again.
According to Freud, the unconscious will likely affect the conscious, since the
unconscious is like the core mind. When traumatic experiences are stored in it, it later
forms defenses that sometimes famously known as defense mechanism. According
Cramer in which he quoted Freud, defense mechanism is a counterforce directed
against the diretion of drives and impulses (Cramer 2006). Its function is somehow to
control an individual’s impulses in order to protect them from traumatic experiences
or anxiety. There is various opinion regarding on how many defense mechanism exist.
However, Vaillant (1992) provided 18 types of them. These defenses are formed
based on the core issues, such as: fear of intimacy, fear of abandonment, fear of
betrayal, low self-esteem, insecurity, and oedipal fixation. However the researcher
will focus on the fear of abandonment since the issue of this article is children
abandonment.
Hansel and Gretel were normal kids until they are left alone in deep forest and
was unable to return home. Their parents are responsible for their missing, since it
was their stepmother’s plan all along. Thus, as children who are psychologically
fragile, they are forced to face a whole new different world, a dark and dangerous one.
In order to survive, it is natural for human being to automatically form self-defense. In
this case, Hansel overheard his parent’s plan, so he left with bunch of pebbles. These
pebbles later will help them return home.

“...and when the full moon had risen, Hansel took his little sister by the hand, and
followed the pebbles which shone like newly-coined silver pieces, and showed them
the way.”

Hansel’s unconscious formed a defense in which makes him solve the problem
he faced. Pebbles are the solutions. Unfortunately, their mother knew about this. Thus
he had to find another way, or use another thing, such as breadcrumbs. Poor Hansel,
the crumbs were eaten by animals when they started looking for them. Put in a fact
that they are completely lost now, the unsconscious started to form another defenses
because the problem is different from the previous one. This experience can be
considered as a traumatic experience form them. In Lacanian psychoanalytic, Hansel
and Gretel are experiencing The Mirror Stage. Mirror Stage is a moment in life where
infants started to search for their identity. The Mirror Stage refers to childhood.
During this time, children often look in the mirror imitating themselves and somehow
it helps them in finding their identity. However, at this stage, infants are not fully
developed. A part of them still think that they are not a separate being from their
mother. Thus any traumatic experiences will likely disturb the phase. Just like Hansel
and Gretel who are abandoned by their parents have to overcome this new challenges
that should be faced in adulthood.
Furthermore the fear of abandonment will later form a new defense
mechanism. In this case, Hansel and Gretel had no choice except keep moving
forward, hoping someone would help them. In fact after a while, they found a weird
looking house built out of bread and covered with cakes. A sense of abandonment
making them spontaneously approach the house and started to eat them, coupled with
the house’s exterior that is alluring for children. There they met a wicked witch who
disguised herself as an old woman. For Hansel and Gretel, this witch is a
representation of their mother. It is not a coincidence that they met a witch instead of
a bear, or wolf or huntsman, anything that may symbolize men. Instead they met, an
old woman who happened to be a witch. In the story, their mother is the antagonist,
although the father is involved, he was rather passive. It is depicted clearly in this line,

“.....we shall be rid of them."

"No, wife," said the man, "I will not do that. How can I bear to leave my children
alone in the forest. The wild animals would soon come and tear them to pieces."

And the wicked witch also shows similar embodiment of the mother,

“Let Hansel be fat or lean, to-morrow I will kill him, and cook him."

Both of the women are antagonist who wanted to get rid of Hansel and Gretel. Thus
this witch is the symbol of Hansel and Gretel’s mother. Here they face another
challenge which triggered their defense mechanism. They started to form what so
called as “Sublimation”. Sublimation occurs when an individual transforms source of
anxiety into a more productive output. In this case, Hansel and Gretel who previously
had been abandoned by their mother and ended up having traumatic experience,
decided to overcome their anxiety in a productive way. They did not run or hide from
the witch; instead they decided to defeat her in a smart way.
The way Hansel and Gretel defeated the witch show the defense mechanism
they are having: sublimation. Hansel and Gretel could have ended up having
regression as they are just children. However, the journey out of the forest made them
more mature and thus it allows them to have a better output in channeling their fear.
Although their fear will affect them later in life, it also helps them in organizing their
plans at the same time. Gretel was precise and very careful. She realized that she does
not want his brother die and left her alone. Her fear to be left alone is a sign of “Fear
of Abandonment”. Other major signs depicted by Gretel are intense anxiety, which is
 clearly shown by her since they were lost in the forest. However, the anxiety
intensifies when Hansel was tortured by the witch. It shows that Gretel also
experiences “Fear of Abandonment”.
Furthermore, the core issue which is “Fear of Abandonment” also affected
their development of identity. Hansel and Gretel are forced to be more independent
than usual children at their age. Both of they are responsible for taking each other’s
life. As we know, it is uncommon for children to have such responsibilities since their
ability is not fully developed, both physically and mentally. As these lines explain,

“It was now three mornings since they had left their father's house,.... and if help did
not come soon, they must die of hunger and weariness”

It can be inferred that they have been walking for three days alone without any
authority or guardian of parents. Their survival skill is tested through this challenge
they encounter. Although they succeed, there is no guarantee that there will no long
term effect following their growth. According to Dr. Audrey Sherman, there are 19
possibilities of long term effects regarding abandoned children including depression,
trust issues, lack of confidence, self-esteem issue and many more.
Thus Hansel and Gretel have higher risk to experience those symptoms. They will not
see the world in the same perspective anymore. There will be resistance emerged due
to the defense mechanism and the core issue. Thus, the abandonment definitely take a
toll on them. They become wiser for their age but flawed.

VI. Conclusion
Hansel and Gretel who are left in the forest purposely must encounter a new chapter
of life. As children it is almost impossible for them to be able to survive in the forest
alone for three days. During the hard times, they have to cope with their surroundings
and created a defense mechanism based on the core issue they experienced: “Fear of
Abandonment”. This core issue suits them very well due to the fact their parents
abandoned them. However, out of many defense mechanisms, the one that embodied
in them is called “Sublimation”, as they project their traumatic experience in a more
productive way. Furthermore, this unexpected experience also has long term effect
that they may not realize, such as depression, trust issue, and lack of confidence and
self-esteem.
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