| The Children's Story | |
|---|---|
1982 paperback edition |
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| Author(s) | James Clavell |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novella Allegory |
| Publisher | Dell Publishing Company |
| Publication date | 1981 (written 1963) |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
The Children's Story is a short story by James Clavell which appeared in the June 1964 issue of Reader's Digest and was republished in book form in 1981. It is also the title of a 1982 short film based upon the story. As of April 2010, this book is still in print.
Contents |
The story takes place in an unnamed American grade school classroom, in the aftermath of a war with an unnamed country. It is implied that America has been defeated and occupied.
The story opens with the previous teacher leaving the classroom, having been removed from her position and replaced with an agent of the foreign power. The new teacher has been trained in propaganda techniques, and is responsible for re-educating the children to be supportive of their occupiers. During the course of the story, the children are persuaded to abandon their religion and national loyalty. Framing the story is the fact that, while the children have ritually recited the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, none know what it actually means. The teacher is relentlessly positive about the change, offering the children candy, songs and praise. When asked if America won or lost the war, she responds only that "we won", implying that everyone would benefit from the conquest.
Only one student is initially hostile to the new teacher, a child named Johnny, whose father had been arrested and placed in a re-education camp. At first, he defends his father, but when he is rewarded by the teacher with a position of authority in the class, he quickly accepts the new regime and commits himself to not accepting "wrong thoughts".
The story takes place over a twenty-five minute span.
While a very short and simple story, it touches on many important concepts, such as freedom, religion, patriotism, etc. It is similar in nature to George Orwell's 1984 in its treatment of propaganda, control, and inter-generational warfare.
Clavell was inspired to write this story after a talk with his six-year-old daughter just home from school. His daughter Michaela was explaining how she had learned the Pledge of Allegiance, and he was struck by the thought that, though she had memorized the pledge, she had no idea what many of the words meant. The power to use language as a weapon, as it is done — all too effectively — in the classroom of Clavell's story admonishes us to always make sure young minds truly understand what a word really means.
In the concluding comment from The Children's Story Afterword, Clavell states the following: "During that day I asked all kinds of people of every age, “You know the 'I pledge allegiance...', but before I could finish, at once they would all parrot it, the words almost always equally blurred. In every case, discovered that not one teacher, ever — or anyone — had ever explained the words to any one of them. Everyone just had to learn it to say it. The Children's Story came into being that day. It was then that I realized how completely vulnerable my child's mind was — any mind for that matter — under controlled circumstances. Normally I write and rewrite and re-rewrite, but this story came quickly — almost by itself. Barely three words were changed. It pleases me greatly because it keeps asking me questions... Questions like what’s the use of 'I pledge allegiance' without understanding? Like why is it so easy to divert thoughts and implant others? Like what is freedom and why is it so hard to explain? The Children’s Story keeps asking me all sorts of questions I cannot answer. Perhaps you can — then your children will..."
Yukio Aoshima who had translated this novel into Japanese, said it was the sequel to La Dernière Classe in Contes du Lundi(fr).[1]
The short story was adapted in 1982 as an installment in the anthology TV series Mobil Showcase; this episode has also been made available on its own as a short film, but the film is reportedly difficult to find. Clavell's daughter (the above-referenced Michaela, known professionally as Michaela Ross during her brief acting career) played a seemingly very pleasant young teacher sent by the Soviet conquerors to indoctrinate a classroom of American children. She replaces an old teacher (played in her penultimate performance by the legendary actress Mildred Dunnock), who disappears after the students witness her crying.