My mother-in-law writes articles on homeschooling. Recently, she messaged us (i.e. all her kids) asking us a favor: to explain literature and its impact on us. She was asking mostly in the context of homeschooling, but she included me because she knows I grew up reading. So I just sent her my response, and it brought some surprising things to light for me (and made me cry...of course). Here's what I wrote:

The most formative books of childhood were books about orphans: The Secret Garden, Daddy-Long-Legs, Mandy (by Julie Edwards), and A Little Princess. All of them include little girls who are more or less forced to make it on their own in a harsh, hostile world for a while, but were rescued from a lonely, empty life in one way or another. In The Secret Garden, Mary was "rescued" by discovering beauty in the world she was forced to live in, first in a flower garden, and then in friendships with children her own age. In the latter three books, the girls were rescued by giant acts of love from strangers that showed itself in generosity and kindness. (Interestingly, at least one other book [Mandy] included finding beauty in flowers.)

I think all of these books taught me to carry a hope that all the world was not a cruel, hostile, dark place and that there would be figures of light and beauty along the way that would get me through the hard times. (Interestingly, I also believed in guardian angels at that age.)

My response stood, I thought, in sharp contrast to my brother-in-law Jon's response. His response was that the book Animal Farm by George Orwell taught him the "value of fiction" in teaching him about "real" life and taught him to get away from books that provide only a "shallow escapism." "Before Animal Farm," he said, "I read kids' books. After Animal Farm, I read adult books."

I'll try not to let myself go off on how much that irked me. I felt as though he were calling me, personally, shallow and immature, even though he has no idea that I still read kid books and hold them very close to my heart.

But after thinking about it some, I realized that Jon's and my different stances make some kind of sense with who we are. He grew up in a stable home, with wonderful, loving parents and the influence of Christ all around him. I grew up in an unstable home, with a mother who loved me but didn't know how to show it and probably has never understood who Christ is.

So I think we (Jon and I) were both drawn to things that filled the gaps in our understanding of the world. To Jon, sin and brokenness and dysfunction and everything that's wrong with the world were things he didn't fully grasp, whereas I lived with it in my home and wanted for all the world to hope that there was something different out there.

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I just have to add a funny, but not quite funny, P.S. Stephen's sister's husband just responded to the message thread...with a book that left a lasting impression on him about an orphaned boy who overcomes his trouble.

He and I come from similarly broken homes.

Right on target with my psycho-evaluations...AWESOME. :)

-Stephanie

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