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Media Analysis Paper

Hannah Rimnyak

CYS 1025F 570 FW22

Dr. Bendo

October 27th, 2022

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The Romantic View

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Romantic discourse of childhood can best be understood as the view that children are

born as innocent beings with such positive and happy expectations of all the wonders within the

world, and that the innocence of that childhood can only be corrupted by interactions within this

cruel world – a force of negative nature to corrupt their innocent being. Therefore tying into the

image above, and the significance it has to romantic discourse of childhood, a young girl is

sitting down with immediate expressions of happiness and joy while gazing outside her window

with a big smile across her face, simply taking in all of the new things around her, and only

seeing the goodness, whilst spending time with her beloved pet dog who seems to be gazing out

the window in the same manner as her.

The details depicted amongst this photograph are so meaningful in determining the

happiness, pure goodness and innocence of this child, as it is the simplest things in life that are

free of charge that are bringing her such obvious joy and happiness, based off the look on her

face and simplicity of this photo and every little detail that is included in it. This photo represents

innocence and purity at its finest; A young, adorable child, accompanied by an adorable puppy,

amused by the smallest things simply because the world is so new and big, she is completely

mesmerized by the beauty before her. The young girl simply has no care nor worry in the world,

and is clearly so unaware of the complexity or unpleasantness that this world can present and

endure on one, accurately depicting the romantic discourse of childhood shown within this

photograph. She has yet to be intoxicated by the cruelty that may one day seep into her life,

changing this purity and innocence that she once experienced in her early years of childhood, but

for now she will continue to see the good in even the littlest things that the world brings upon

her.
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As stated above, the romantic discourse is displayed in this photo through the atmosphere

and the sheer purity shown on the young girl's face. The child in this photo is so young that she

doesn’t have any worries or any idea of the bad in the world, as she has not been exposed to any

unpleasant aspects of the world, so she is left with her imagination that is full of nothing but

good and she looks at the world before her with excitement and purity. She looks forward to

playing outside in the rain puddles because she has yet to know about the storm that may come

alongside the rain. She has yet to be corrupted by the outside world and should continue to be

protected in order to keep her childish innocence. (The Social Study of Childhood, pg. 18).

The Romantic discourse can be useful in many ways, as it shows how children are often

easily influenced by the atmosphere and people surrounding them, and by protecting them from

certain aspects of the world that can be seen as bad can in some cases, be in the child’s best

interest. Children often learn things through observation of their surroundings; socially and

physically. When a child witnesses something like an act of aggression, maybe within other

children at school or on television, they may be likely to repeat these acts, especially if these

actions are embraced and encouraged by others (Kylie Rymanowicz, March 30, 2015). The

Romantic discourse is useful within a case like this as it shows that protecting your child from

certain things, like a mature television program or disciplining certain behaviours, may prevent

or limit impure acts that were only repeated by the child due to being exposed and infected by

the corruption of the outside world.

On another hand, this discourse can be problematic as it can be detrimental when a child

is completely closed off to the bad things in society as it can in some ways cause an identity

crisis or relationship crisis with their parents or guardian when they realize the world is not

anything like they were taught. As the romantic discourse states, “children should be protected
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from the world in order to keep their innocence” (McNamee, 2016), doing this to an extreme

extent can leave a child to suffer severe consequences to their mental development and mental

health in full as they grow older. “The influence of parenting during adolescence continues to

affect behaviours into adulthood” (Donna Hoskins, September 18, 2014) the way a parent

displays rules that are in place for the child’s safety can have great effects towards the child on

the receiving end. When a parent uses an authoritarian style of parenting, which can include

lower levels of trust and higher engagement within strict control over the children, the child is

likely to exhibit substandard social skills, lower levels of self esteem and higher levels of

depression. (Donna Hoskins, September 18, 2014)

Although parents may have nothing but good intentions for their child in mind, the strict

control over their children can cause a child to feel suffocated and experience many

consequences leading into their teenage years. Studies have shown that children who are raised

by parents who use an authoritarian and strict style, actually end up raising children who are

more defiant and behave worse than most kids, therefore leaving the children to experience more

punishments. (Gwen Dewar, May 2022) Parents who use an authoritative style in order to raise

their children and protect them from the cruelty of the world in order to retain their child’s

innocence can often do just the opposite of that, and cause detrimental effects to the child’s

mental development and cause further issues. Children who experience this method from their

guardians are more likely to act out and in fact lose this innocence and natural goodness, while

feeling all the pressure to stay ‘good’ in their parents eyes while still experiencing the curiosity

that is normal for all people to have while growing up in this confusing world. This style of

parenting is just one example of what can occur when limiting or completely closing a child off

to the outside world. it can cause extreme harm within their social development, mental health
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and can even cause resentment towards parents. The romantic discourse can be useful when it is

not fully implemented and controlling all aspects of a child’s life and the effects can be

beneficial to the child’s social and mental development, however sometimes it can unfortunately

cause more harm than good and cause other developmental issues and trauma for the child later

on in life.

The romantic discourse can have many impacts on children across the globe as it sets

expectations for how a child should or should not behave. It puts children in a box of innocence,

and implies that if they act a certain way or allow curiosity to take over, they will lose their

innocence and become ‘bad’ or ‘rebellious’. This can cause invalid guilt in children because

curiosity is a normal thing, and when a child makes mistakes it is a learning opportunity, not

something they should be shamed for. Curiosity is a very normal thing, especially for children

who are still learning so much. The romantic discourse can in some ways simply that if a child

interacts with the wrong set of people or does something considered socially wrong, they are no

longer innocent or naturally good; this is incorrect. Shaming curiosity may cause a child to feel

bad about themselves, and it could greatly affect a child’s self esteem. (Harvard, Claire

McCarthy, January 24, 2020) Children are very influenced beings, especially when it comes to

the words their parents speak to them with, as many kids want nothing but to make their parents

proud. When a child experiences shame from their parents for having questions about something

it can cause secrecy and make the child’s self esteem plummet. Which can cause future mental

health issues, and when closely reviewing the romantic discourse there are many flaws buried

within.

Setting these expectations for such young minds can lead to more harm then good, and

puts children in a small box that doesn’t allow them to truly explore themselves or the world in a
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way that a child must in order to carry out a healthy development. Young minds should not be

classified into such a small discourse which limit’s and shames so many normal aspects of

childhood. The idea of natural innocence and purity seems so graceful and much better than

another discourse, like the puritan discourse which indicates all children are evil, but upon

further research this discourse displays multiple flaws as well. The romantic discourse indicates

that children are only to be ruined by society and the outside world, which can make everything

sound scary and imply that almost all children will turn ‘bad’ if not heavily protected by parents.

However, in this day and age, we now realize this is not the case, curiosity in children is healthy,

making mistakes is healthy, and asking questions that may be deemed “impure” is healthy.

Placing pressure to stay good and pure on children can be extremely stressful especially because

we were all children at one point who had these same expectations imposed on us and it causes

unnecessary worrying especially while the young mind develops.

The romantic discourse encourages many unnecessary walls and boundaries that claim to

protect children’s original innocence, but are actually taking away from their quality of learning

and childhood in itself. Children should not be forced to uphold these unrealistic expectations,

but rather be encouraged to learn and grow, while being realistically protected from certain

negative aspects of life. When a child experiences anger, disappointment, or makes a mistake at a

young age it allows them to be prepared as they grow up and know that these things are normal

and they do happen, whereas if you completely close a child off to protect their innocence, it can

lead to extreme disappointments and let downs once they are older as they haven’t truly

experienced the real world, but living a lie that their parents upheld in order to keep this so called

purity. All though this discourse is better in some ways than the rest that are presented, it still has

many flaws and is not realistic in the slightest when applied to a child’s development.
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Overall, the romantic discourse presents children as innocent beings whom are only

destructed by the cruelty of the outside world. This is true in some cases as certain aspects of

society can induce trauma or bad behavioural changes, but focussing on only the negative

aspects can control an adolescents entire childhood, creating consequences and an inability to

develop certain learning curves and social skills. The photo I chose represents the innocence and

purity that is highlighted within this discourse and does implement the presumption that children

are only to be intoxicated by the world, as this child displays the purity and natural goodness

while enjoying all the small things within the world and getting nothing but pure joy out of this.

The details amongst this photo are so meaningful into determining the purity and

innocence of this child. It is the simplest things in life that are bringing her such obvious joy and

happiness, based off the look on her face, simplicity of this photo and every little detail that is

included in in the photograph. The romantic discourse is accurately depicted in this piece of

media as it displays a young innocent girl who has not been introduced to the bad aspects of the

world, and is still learning so much while enjoying every simple moment while holding onto that

innocence that the romantic discourse brings forth.

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