Voices In The Park－童玩繪本樂

Winner of the Kurt Maschler Award 1998

Summary

Four different voices - an anxious mom and her lonely son named Charles live in a gorgeous house which symbolizes as a wealthy family; on the other side, an unemployed dad and an enthusiastic girl named Smudge dress old clothes as a symbol of a poor family - tell the story of a walk in a park. Through their eyes, we see very different visions by the perspectives of those four individuals.

Analysis

Characters
1) Type of Characters: Round Characters (dynamic characters)

     The first voice from Mummy
     Protagonist: Mummy
          Antagonist: Charles

     The second voice from Dad
     Protagonist: Dad
     Antagonist: None
     Foil Character: Smudge

     The third voice from Charles
     Protagonist: Charles
     Antagonist: Mummy
     Foil Character: Smudge

     The fourth voice from Smudge
     Protagonist: Smudge
     Antagonist:Dad and Charles' mummy
     Foil Character: Charles and Albert (Smudge’s dog)

Setting
1) Type of setting: Integral Setting

Narrative Point of View: Internal Narrator

Plot :
1) Type of plot structure:An Episodic Plot

Conflict:
1) Types of conflicts:

    The Protagonist against Another
    Mummy was not able to find Charles.
    Charles was caught talking with Smudge by his mummy and had to go home.
    Smudge went to the park because her dad had been really fed up.

    The Protagonist against Society
    Smudge’s dad is unemployed.

    The Protagonist against Animals
    Charles’ dog, Victoria, was having a great time with Smudge’s dog, Albert.
    Smudge’s dog, Albert, got Charles’ mummy mad.

    The Protagonist against Self
    Mummy was planning what to eat that evening.
    Dad had no hope of finding a job and was fed up by that kind of emotion.
    Charles was bored because he was staying at home all day.

Theme:
Opposites of social status, gender, attitude and mood are the main themes of the story. It is fun to see how the various attitudes can positively or negatively affect the happiness of the individuals.

Style:
Anthony Browne effectively employs the sense of sight and feelings when describing events and places. The simple words in the each dialogue, providing background information, help younger readers understand some of the ways that colloquial voice is revealed.

Tone:
The tone in Voices in the Park is informal and playful. The foreshadowing is placed in each voice in order to give hints or clues of what is to come later in the story. For example, Charles’ mummy saw a scruffy mongrel appear and start to botherVictoria, Charles’ dog. Later on in the fourth voice, we may find out that the scruffy mongrel is Albert, Smudge’s dog.

Furthermore, the elements of tone including diction which differs from the adults and kids, and vivid appeals to the feelings that contain the details and facts are able to see throughout the whole story. Let’s take Charles’ mummy as an example. At the first voice, Charles’ mummy shooed Albert off because Albert started to bother Victoria; conversely, Smudge described this situation – Albert sniffed Victoria’s bum. Kids usually report an event plainer comparing to the adults. Instead of polishing the speech, kids tell a story by what they have seen.

Visual Interpretive Analysis
Anthony Browne conveys the mood of those four individuals by the use of different colors and the shapes of the objects which can be easily read by any age in this 32 -page story book. The simple bold lines divided into different utterances from four individuals and blocks of clear color offering four different seasons – fall, winter, spring and summer – successfully clarify the silence between Charles and his mummy on the way home, Smudge’s dad who is under depression, Charles met Smudge, and the happiness Smudge got from the joy at the park.

Reflection

‘Voices in the Park’ is well written and illustrated by Anthony Browne. The park is open to all. The wide and smooth paths are for kids to ride their bicycles, adults to reduce their stress, and people to walk their pets such as dogs and crocodiles. (See p. 3) A safe play area including slides, seesaws, and jungle-gyms provides kids to have fun without any bothers. By spending time at the park, Smudge’s dad allows his daughter, Smudge, to explore new things at the park and even make a step forward to share her happiness and excitement with him although both his physical and mental spirits are under a poor condition. Unlike them, Charles’ mummy who lives in an affluent life, restrains Charlie to expand his social growth by making new friends. Moreover, those four people’s mood is perfectly illustrated by four different kinds of seasons which display a higher level of sensational plots.

Eventually, this book fully deserves readers to read more than one time. The more times we read, the more new and hidden pictures will be sought. This book gets better and better with each reading. Both kids and adults don’t get bored while they are reading this book together. Indeed, they probably would build up a better relationship by reading it together through seeking some more secret illustrations and analyzing the mind of these four characters.