Laura Plascencia

English 308

Dr.Jane J. Lee

March 5th

Title

In Frances Hodgson Burnett’s “A little Princess” she aims to make children want

to be as perfect as she protrays the main character, Sara Crewe to be. Burnett is crafting what she

defines as feminine. Where as opposed to the Grimm Brothers’ fable “Little Red-Cap” the author

focuses more on making the main character Little Red-Cap seem as if she is naive and lacks

experience. Both texts imply that children need assistance or guidance to become adults that will

make good decisions that will help others in the long run.

In Burnett’s text “ A Little Princess” the main character’s characteristics are described in

a way in which it is extremely difficult to find anything negative to say about her. The main

character Sara Crewe’s features and qualities make her a child to strive to be. The author

describes her as a sweet, respectful, humble, polite, modest, educated, clever, observant, and not

self centered young girl with a big imagination. Which, is setting an example for Burnett’s

audience. Furthermore, even though Sara Crewe had everything that any young would ever wish

for and more she was still humble. For example, on page 6 of this text we are told that Sara

comes from a rich family and she had all the things rich people had but that was all she knew

about it and the only thing during her entire life that troubled her was “the place”. The place that

she talks about is a place that she knew she had to go to at a certain point of her life and this

place was going to seperate her from her father. The fact that the only thing that ever bothered

her was “the place” proves that she was not a difficult child despite all that she has the privlage
to have she does not ask for much. It also proves that she does not care about the materialistic

things in life but instead about her father. When children are able to have anything they can ask

for they often tend to ask for a lot and do not get easily pleased. Children who are usually get

everything they wish for will most likely turn out to be a difficult and will always want more.

But this was not the case for Sara at all. By characterizing the wealthy Sara Crewe as a humble

caring child the author emphazises the importance to being able to see what the finer thing in life

really are. This shows that the author thought children needed to be taught not to be so focused

on all the things that can be bought or having the newest/latest toys or games but instead to enjoy

the little time we do have with those who we love because they can be gone in an instant.

Furthermore, another way that Burnett gives Sara Crewe the image of a perfect child is

by having other characters rely on her to make them feel at ease. In this text she has taken sort of

a motherly figure/role. For example, on page 8 Sara’s fathe Captian Crewe said “What shall I do

when I have no one to say solemn things to me?” This implies that Sara’s father depends on her

to make him feel like he has no troubles. She has enriched his life and has given him someone

that he can count on. Another example where Sara is given a motherly figure is on page 41 when

Sara found little servant becky sleeping in her chair but instead of getting angry at her she felt

extremely sorry for her becauase she knew she was tired. In fact becky had “never heard such a

nice, Friendly sound in any one’s voice before.” While all poor Becky would do was serve

poeple and get bossed around, Sara asked her to stay and made Becky’s fears clam down. This

shows that Sara is mature enough to be able to make a child around her same age to feel better

when frightened. Another similar example of her calming fear down is on page 79 when she

starts telling a story about the Bastille. Again, creating a characteristic that is reliable. The author

wants children to be people that others can find reliance on and presents ways in which girls are
supposed to ease out pain and make others feel better and safe. The fact that she has so many

people that admire her makes the audiance want to be like her. More specifically, Burnett is

trying to give young girls a picture of what they should be aiming to be like and what they

should make others feel because the young girls are the ones that will be hearing/reading this

text.

Furthermore, Burnett presents other characters in the text to make Sara the only person,

example, and option to want to be like. For example, the character Lavinia Herbert is presented

as a selfish and stuck up young young who believes she is better than children like poor Becky.

On page 37 Lavinia notices that Becky is trying to listen to Sara’s story so she scares her away.

Lavinia thinks that she better and Becky is not worthy enough to hear Sara’s stories. This makes

the audience want to be like Sara more because she is sort of her hero since she’s the only one

who reacts to Lavinia and tries to look for Becky. Another character that makes the audience

want to be more like Sara is Ermengarde in chapter three the author describes her as being so

underirable and makes people not want to be like her. Moreover, she contrasts Sara’s

characteristics and is almost the exact opposite of her. Even Becky’s character makes the

audience want to be more like Sara because the text makes one feel sorrow for Becky by talking

about all the trouble she goes through and being so tired all the time, even though the audience

doesnt hate Becky they still would prefer to be Sara. These characters are contrasting Sara

therefore making her a more desirable character to be for the audience, making them strive to be

like Sara.

On the other hand, The Grimm’s Brothers’ “Little Red-Cap” describes the main charcter

seem like she lacks experience, judjment, and wisdom. In this fable a young girl Little Red-Cap

comes across a Wolf while taking cake and wine to her sick grandmother. As the Wolf
approaches her she shows no hesistation and in fact was “not at all afraid of him.” She had never

talked to or met the Wolf ever before so the fact that she opened up to the Wolf and let him know

where she was going was very naive. She even said “thank you Kindly Wolf” which shows that

she thought the wolf intended no harm and that he had good intentions. The author thinks that the

audience for this text are not aware that they should not talk to strangers and should not assume

the best in everyone. The Wolf tries to act in a friendly manner to Little Red-Cap in order to get

to his grandma which ends up fooling her, which proves that the girl was not very wise. Little

Red-Cap told the Wolf where her grandmother was which allowed the Wolf to find her and eat

her. This shows the audience that because Little Red-Cap was so trusting or unaware of the harm

that could be done she caused a whole lot of trouble.

To recapulate, these texts were meant for children so why are they both so different.

Burnett Characterizes the perfect smart child in order to want her audience which are young

girls, want to be like her. On the other hand The Grimm Brothers present the main character as

naive in order to convince the audience that they should not want to be like her. Main character

Sara Crewe is very well experienced while Little Red-Cap is completely unexperienced. They

both present high class but not both come with the same things.