Commentary
Why are so many children drawn to books in which the parents are absent—death or abandonment—and the step-parent or guardian hostile? From “Snow White” to “Cinderella,” through “Anne of Green Gables” and “Harry Potter,” these stories take flight from a parentless child’s insecurity and loneliness. The answer, I think, is that children’s deepest fears relate to separation from their parents before they are ready to negotiate their way in the world.
Children will accept frightening or grotesque material in the process of getting to the endings they favour, where the hero’s resilience and courage is rewarded within a circle of sustaining relationships. But there can be no happy ending without a satisfactory parenting, or substitute-parent, outcome….