{"id":735,"date":"2013-11-19T19:56:03","date_gmt":"2013-11-19T17:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/?p=735"},"modified":"2013-11-19T19:56:03","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T17:56:03","slug":"learning-about-emotion-for-a-little-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/2013\/11\/19\/learning-about-emotion-for-a-little-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"LEARNING ABOUT EMOTION: FOR A LITTLE GIRL <\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few months ago I saw with my two little nieces the Disney film Bolt<\/em> (2008). This is a delicious comedy about a cute dog who, like Jim Carrey in The Truman Show<\/em>, has no idea that his life is happening in front of hidden cameras. In this particular case, Bolt, a star in a very popular action TV series for kids, believes that he does have superpowers. When by accident he ends up in New York, the complicated trip back to his native California teaches him that his superpowers are fictitious. <\/p>\n

Bolt learns to cope gradually with stark reality but when his new friend, the she-cat Mittens, suggests that his owner Penny is just an actress who does not really care for him, that seems a bit too much. Being a Disney film and a comedy to boot, however, it is plain even by mid-film that Bolt will find Penny again and that both will be happily reunited in everlasting friendship, together with Bolt\u2019s new road buddies (the fat hamster Rhino is truly great fun!). <\/p>\n

I do love the film, as you can see, and never suspected that it might be the cause for any problem \u2013but it turns out that it was.<\/p>\n

My elder niece, aged 8, enjoyed the very funny gags and the whole plotline. The younger, aged 4, seemed, however, much concerned about whether Bolt would meet Penny again \u2013she asked so often that her sister and myself couldn\u2019t help teasing her (nicely!!) about it. This annoyed her a bit but by the time the film ended she was fine and claimed to loved it.<\/p>\n

Now, this weekend, months later, she asked to see Bolt<\/em> again. I that know kids do that all the time, sometimes to their parents\u2019 exasperation (imagine seeing Beauty and the Beast<\/em> twenty times or more). Also, knowing that she was already familiar with the plot and confident that this time she knew Bolt would enjoy a canine happy-ever-after with Penny, I accepted. <\/p>\n

Things were going smoothly until a little scene when Bolt watches Penny embrace his replacement in the series (she\u2019s acting, he doesn\u2019t know this). Bolt, logically, doubts then whether Penny loves him at all. He still ignores, of course, that Penny is very sad that he\u2019s gone and does not like at all the idea of having to act with another dog. My niece took this well but when, a few minutes later, the pair Bolt-Penny are finally reunited for good emotion overtook her and, oh my, this baby can cry!!<\/p>\n

After a really long bout of crying, say ten whole minutes, with her aunt (that\u2019s me) trying to comfort her and laugh the whole matter away unsuccessfully, she did manage to explain that she felt \u201ca really big pity.\u201d I explained to her that it was not pity but emotion, as nothing bad happened and all were very happy in the end \u2013no need to worry at all! Now, try to teach a four-year-old the difference between sorrow and emotion… Even though she\u2019s a very sunny girl not at all a cry baby, three hours later she still could not mention the film without crying. Eight hours later, which much fun and many games in between, matters stood the same. I don\u2019t know whether to call her or not (this is thirty hours later) for fear that she\u2019ll cry again.<\/p>\n

In contrast, she had a good laugh watching West Side Story<\/em> with her elder sister. My 8-year-old niece had asked me to see this magnificent musical but ended practically in tears, finding some comfort only in my assurance that Romeo and Juliet<\/em> has an even worse ending. The four-year-old, finding the romantic tale quite silly, cracked jokes all the time. When a character tells another \u2018Your world is rubbish\u2019 she went \u2018Ohhhh… you\u2019re going to need a big bin with a big, big lid.\u2019 That\u2019s kids\u2019 humour for you.<\/p>\n

You must be thinking that I\u2019m a terrible aunt. To tell the truth, I am indeed concerned about the little one\u2019s overreaction to Bolt<\/em>, as I didn\u2019t see it coming. If comedy is not safe… I mean, I\u2019d never show her Bambi<\/em>, if you know what I mean. Now I see myself having a serious woman-to-woman talk before we watch any other film together!!<\/p>\n

This little story happens to go exactly in the direction of what is worrying me these days as I re-read the Harry Potter<\/em> saga: we know next to nothing about the emotion elicited by fiction \u2013whether felt by kids or by adults. At least, I don\u2019t know much which might be of use academically. Our mistrust of sentimentalism is possibly to blame. What my little niece has taught me is that emotion can be really overpowering in unsuspected ways. I just hope next time she is overcome by laughter and not tears.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few months ago I saw with my two little nieces the Disney film Bolt (2008). This is a delicious comedy about a cute dog who, like Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, has no idea that his life is happening in front of hidden cameras. In this particular case, Bolt, a star in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webs.uab.cat\/saramartinalegre\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}