VIOLENCE IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE :rA CONTENT I . _ _, A. . ,3:
ANALYSIS OF A SELECT SAMPLING OF CHILDREN’S ' . * * ‘
LITERATURE AND A STUDY OF CHILDREN’S :
RESPONSES TO LITERARYEPISOOES
DEPICTING VIOLENCE

Thesis-for the Degree of. Ph, D. '
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY :
GLORIA TOBY BLATI'
1972

 

 

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thesis entitled

Violence in Children's Literature: A Content Analysis of
a Select Sampling of Children's Literature and a Study of
Children's Responses to Literary Episodes Depicting Violence

presented by
2.1.9515. Seaside:

has been accepted towards fulfillment
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VIOLENCE IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: A CONTENT
ANALYSIS OF A SELECT SAMPLING OF CHILDREN'S
LITERATURE AND A STUDY OF CHILDREN'S
RESPONSES TO LITERARY EPISODES
DEPICTING VIOLENCE

BY
Gloria Toby Blatt

In a study of two distinct but related aspects of
children's literature, a detailed content analysis was
first undertaken. Books studied were realistic fiction
selected by the American Library Association as Notable
Books between 1960 and 1970. In the content analysis the
following were singled out for examination: total space
devoted to violence, details or intensity of violent decrip-
tions, the role assumed by heroes, villains and others
during acts of violence, kinds of violent acts perpetrated,
the relationship of participants in the act of aggression
and value judgments expressed about aggression. The books
were divided into two groups, historical fiction and modern
realistic fiction and results compared. Violent episodes
were analyzed for sensuous (appealing to the senses) and
non—sensuous treatment. A comparison was also made for
books published in the United States and the British Common—
wealth countries, as well as for each of the books written
by an author appearing several times on the Notable Book

List.

Gloria Toby Blatt

In the second part of the study, violent episodes
were read to groups of first, third and seventh grade school
children from suburban, rural and inner city schools. The
children were then asked to complete a questionnaire con-
taining comprehension questions, as well as others directed
at evaluating reactions to violence.

The content analysis revealed that over the ten year
period there was no substantial increase in the violent
content of children's books. Historical fiction was, on
the average, two times as violent as modern realistic
fiction. Comparison of books by the same author showed
that authors generally produce books with roughtly the same
amount of violence. Books published originally in the
Commonwealth countries contain approximately the same amount
of violence as their American counterparts. Throughout the
ten year period one—half of the violent acts were committed
by minor characters. There was a slight trend toward more
acts of violence between strangers in historical fiction.
The overwhelming majority of violent acts were described
in a sensuous fashion. In general, complete information on
the act and effect of violence were included. The great
majority of value judgments about aggression were against
such aCts.

As regards children's responses to violent episodes
in literature, half or more of the children indicated that
they liked the episodes read to them. Children from inner

city schools with real social disorder more often said they

Gloria Toby Blatt

liked violent episodes than those in rural or suburban
schools. Children from inner city schools also demonstrated
a higher level of understanding than the others. Third
grade children in a rural school thought a story with a
rural setting close to real life; suburban and inner city
school children less frequently thought the story realistic.
On the other hand the great majority of the seventh graders
thought an historical fiction book similar in format to a
cowboy and Indian story was realistic. There appears to

be no correlation between individual responses to the ques—
tionnaire and personality traits measured on the Sears
Aggression Test. However, since the sample of children in

the study was small, results were viewed as tentative.

VIOLENCE IN CHILDREN'S LITERATURE: A CONTENT
ANALYSIS OF A SELECT SAMPLING OF CHILDREN'S
LITERATURE AND A STUDY OF CHILDREN'S
RESPONSES TO LITERARY EPISODES

DEPICTING VIOLENCE

BY

Gloria Toby Blatt

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

College of Education
Department of Elementary and Special Education

1972

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to eXpress my most sincere appreciation
to Professor Patricia J. Cianciolo, whose thoughtful advice
and prompt assistance throughout this study was invaluable
and cheerfully offered.

I would also like to eXpress my appreciation to Dr.
Jean LePere who helped me with the proposal from which this
study developed. I also benefited from discussions with
Dr. Lucy Ferguson on the Sears Aggression Test and from a
conversation with Dr. Leo Katz on the statistics needed for
the research.

Finally, my deepest appreciation is for my husband,
Frank, who often cheerfully accepted hectic home conditions
during the time I worked on this thesis, who offered encour-
agement when needed, and who completed the statistics for

this study.

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . .

LIST OF
LIST OF
Chapter

I.

II.

III.

TABLE S O O C O O O O C O

FIGURES . . . . . . . . .

INTRODUCTION . . . . . ‘. .

Need . . . . . . . .
Purpose . . . . . . .
Significance of Study . . .
Hypotheses . . . . . .
Assumptions . . .

Limitations of the Study . .
Definitions of Terms . . .

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE . .

Movies . . . . . .

The Comics . . . . . .
Television . . . . . .
Literature . .
The Psychology of Aggression
Instigation to Aggression .
Inhibition of Aggression . .

Aggression of the Media . .

Catharsis . . . . . . .

Content Analysis . . . .

Summary . . . . . . .
PROCEDURE . . . .

Reliability of Ratings . .

iii

Page

ii

vi

14

15
19
24
32
4O
44
47
50
56
66
68

7O

9O

Chapter Page

IV.‘ RESULTS: CONTENT ANALYSIS . . . . . . . 95
Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
V. RESULTS: RESPONSES OF CHILDREN . . . . . . 150
Results of Content Analysis . . . . . . 198

Discussion-—The Content Analysis . . . . 200
Pilot Study . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Results of the Pilot Study . . . . . . 202
Conclusions and Implications of the

Relationship of the Content Analysis

to Children's Responses . . . . . . 203
The Relation of Personality and

Reactions to Violence . . . . . . . 209

Implications for Research . . . . . . 210
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . 213
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 214
APPENDICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

A. Sears Aggression Test . . . . . . . . 237

B. Specimen Content Analysis of One of the
Most Violent Books: Horses of Anger . . 245

 

C. The Content Analysis: A Guide to
the Tables . . . . . . . . . . . 297

D. Episodes Read to Children in First,
Third and Seventh Grade Classes . . . . 321

iv

Table

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

LIST OF TABLES

Page
Sample for Pilot Study . . . . . . . . . 86
Calculation of Reliability Coefficient . . . 93
Calculation of Standard Deviation of Scores
for Each Category (Scores in Per Cent) . . . 94
Comparison of Historical and Modern
Realistic Fiction . . . . . . . . . . 105
Comparison of Historical Fiction Books with
War and Non—War Settings . . . . . . . 106

Comparison of Commonwealth and All Books . . . 109

Distribution of Violence among Characters;
Average Scores . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Distribution of Violence among Characters;
Average Scores . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Relationship Between Aggressor and Victim
Average Score for All Books . . . . . . 119

Relationship between Aggressor and Victim
Average Score . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Treatment of Violent Actions; All Books . . . 126
Treatment of Violent Actions . . . . . . . 127
Value Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Summary of Responses to Question 12 . . . . 155

Summary: Percentage of All Students Who
Liked Violent Scene . . . . . . . . . 159

Summary: Percentage of Students Who
Understood the Story and Who Liked
Violent Scene . . . . . . . . . . . 160

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Page
1. Annual averages of violent content,
expressed in per cent of space
devoted to violence . . . . . . . . . 96
2. Annual Average Intensity Score, expressed
in percentage of book pages . . . . . . 100
3. Actor-Action Scale. The percentage of the

times aggressive acts are committed by
hero, villain and minor characters are
shown for each year . . . . . . . . . 113

4. The Actor—Action Scale. This figure shows
the percentage of the times the aggressive
acts are committed by the hero, villain
or minor characters for each year of the
ten year period . . . . . . . . . . 115

5. Actor-Action Scale. The percentage of the
times aggressive acts occur between
strangers and between intimates are
shown for each year . . . . . . . . . 120

6. Value Scale. The percentage of the times
expressions favoring pro-social aggression
and opposing all aggression appear are
given for each year . . . . . . . . . 132

7-32. Scatter Diagrams: Personality attributes as
measured by the Sears Aggression Test and
responses to question number 7 of student
questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . 169

vi

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Need

 

As a result of a series of extraordinary events,

Americans as a national group have become acutely aware

of the strains of violence which apparently are part of

the very warp

and woof of our society. These events,

including among others, the assassination of three out—

standing Americans, John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and

Martin Luther King, a critical racial problem marked by

conflict like

the Detroit riot of 1967, and an unpopular

war in Vietnam, have weighed heavily on Americans.

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. may well have been speaking for

many Americans when he said:

What sort

of people are we, we Americans? . . .

The answer to which much of the world is bound

to return
people on
do to our
compel us
society .

is that we are today the most frightening
this planet . . . The ghastly things we
own people, and to others, must at last
to look searchingly at ourselves and our

 

1

Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., "Existential Politics

on the Cult of Violence," Phi Delta Kappan, Volume 50,
Number 1 (1968), p. 9.

 

These statements were part of a speech given the day Robert
Kennedy was murdered. They expressed the shock and horror
of the moment; but the words, impassioned though they were,
stated clearly some feelings widely shared across the
country.

As part of the shock wave which generated con-
siderable soul-searching, President Johnson, in the summer
of 1968, established a National Commission for the Study
of the Causes and Prevention of Violence. Its final
report, published in December, 1969, but first completely
available to the public in 1971, included statements on
violence found in many aspects of American life, among
them television. According to the report, many television
programs are too violent for young children. The Commis-
sion offered four recommendations to television companies:

1. Broadcasting of children's cartoons containing

V serious, non-comic violence should be abandoned.

2. The amount of time devoted to the broadcast of
'crime, western and action adventure programs
containing violent episodes should be reduced.

3. More effective efforts should be made to alter

the basic context in which violence is pre-

sented in television dramas. Dramas in which

confrontations are resolved by violence should

be avoided.

4. The television industry should become more
seriously involved in research on the effects

of television violence. Future programs should

be influenced by the findings of these studies.2

The findings and recommendations of the Commission

were not unique in any way. For many years critics have

 

2National Commission on the Causes and Prevention
of Violence, To Establish Justice and Insure Domestic
Tranquility, pp. 202-203.

 

 

pointed to mass media as a factor in increased violence
in this country. Writers, including, among others,
Dr. Fredric Wertham, psychiatrist and author of The

Seduction of the Innocent,3 Professor Wilbur Schramm of

 

Stanford University and author of Television in the Lives

 

of Our Children,4 and Herbert Blumer and Philip Hauser,

authors of Movies, Delinquency and Crime5 and instructors

 

at the University of Chicago Department of Sociology.
Schramm, Blumer and Hauser, as well as others, have
advocated changes in programming on television and self-
censorship for the comic books and moving picture indus-
tries. On the other hand, Dr. Wertham, to mention only
one, has pointed to mass media as a training ground for
juvenile delinquency.

In work parallel to the group above, some social
psychologists like Leonard Berkowitz, professor of
psychology at the University of Wisconsin and author of
Aggression, A Social Psychological Analysis6 have studied
violent behavior in humans. Most of the research coming
from authorities like Berkowitz and Robert Sears, Dean of

the School of Humanities at Stanford and one of the

 

3Fredric Wertham, The Seduction of the Innocent
(New York: Rinehart, 1953).

 

4Wilbur Schramm, Television in the Lives of Our
Children (Stanford UniversIty Press, 1961).

5Herbert Blumer and Philip Hauser, Movies, Delin-
quency and Crime (New York: Macmillan, 1933).

 

 

 

6Leonard Berkowitz, Aggression, A Social Psycholo-
gical Analysis (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962).

 

authors of Frustration and Aggression7 indicates that
there may well be considerable correlation between violent
behavior and models provided for children. Moreover, most
experimental studies by these psychologists have suggested
that observed violence stimulates aggressive behavior,
rather than the opposite.

Some critics of American literature have also
pointed to outstanding American writers as being strongly
influenced by the violent nature of American society.
Kenneth Lynn, professor of American studies in the new
Federal City College described the high level of violent
content in writing by Jack London, Stephen Crane and
Ernest Hemingway in an essay appearing in a report to the
National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of
Violence, Violence in America.8

In recent years some people working with children's
literature have also noted considerable violence in modern
realistic fiction for children. Robert Burch, author of

several children's novels, said:

. . . I find the trend toward stronger realism
healthy. I do not think we should scare children,
but, on the other hand, I do not think we should
lie to them by pretending the world is an entirely
safe place.

 

7 . .
J. Dollard, Niel Miller, Leonard W. Doob and R. R.

Sears, Frustration and Aggression (London: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1939).

 

8 . . .
. Kenneth Lynn, "Violence in American Folk Lore
and Literature," Violence in America, ed. by H. D. Graham
and Ted R. Gurr (New York: Signet, 1969).

 

9Robert Burch, "The New Realism," The Horn Book,
47:3 (1971). p. 260.

 

Lee Bennett HopkinslO pointed out that in fact
adults cannot protect children from the horror of war.
The youngsters need only turn on the television to learn
about real war. In her opinion, what we really need in
stories is a set of values which the child can use to
find his way through an increasingly frightening world.

On the other hand, at least one English critic,
Julia MacRae,ll voiced some doubt about some junior novels
from America, which she thought may not be suitable for
children, at least English children.

In the same vein, Dorothy Pettit,12 writing in

the English Journal, maintained that educators should be

 

on the alert for too many deaths in all their gory
details, particularly in westerns and mysteries.

Some critics of mass media like Wertham, as pointed
out earlier, would have agreed with her, for he considered
violence in mass media a factor in developing delinquents.
However, reading literature probably hardly influences

delinquent behavior. Speaking about delinquents and

 

10Lee Bennett Hopkins and Misha Arenstein, "Nervose
of the Thought: War and Peace in Children's Books,"
Elementary English, 48:5 (1971), pp. 460-462.

llJulia MacRae, "A Second Golden Age? In a Time
of Flood?" Virginia Haviland, The Horn Book, 47:4 (1971),
p. 418.

 

 

12Dorothy Pettit, "The Junior Novel and How They
Grew," English Journal, 52:2 (1963), pp. 512-520.

 

reading, Dr. William Kvaraceus13 pointed out that con-
trolled studies of delinquents show them in significant
contrast to non-delinquents in reading skills and
interests. In one study, 22 per cent of the delinquents
read nothing at all, as contrasted with 11 per cent of
the non-delinquent controls. Therefore, in his opinion,
violent episodes are not important factors in directing
the behavior of youngsters who act out their aggressive
inclinations.

On the other hand, Daniel Fader and Elton McNeil,l4
two professors from the University of Michigan, were able
to interest delinquent boys at Maxey Training School and
others in reading through a program using paperback books.
The children sustained their reading interests even after
the program was concluded.

Delinquents are only a small proportion of the
total population, however. Young readers may well be
reading materials which have greatly increased in violence.
To date no research has attempted a study of children's
reaction to violent content, although Pitcher has analyzed
reactions of preschoolers to stories about "war and death

15

and other aspects of ethics and morality." She found:

 

l3W. Kvaraceus, "Can Reading Affect Delinquency?"
American Library Association Bulletin 59 (1965), pp. 516-521.

l4Daniel N. Fader and Elton B. McNeil, Hooked on
Books, Program and Proof (New York: Berkley Medallion
Books, 1968).

15E. G. Pitcher, "Values and Issues in Children's
Literature," Elementary English, Volume 46 (1969), pp. 287-
288.

 

 

 

 

Although stories for children sometimes present

themes suitable to and popular in adult literature,

such as war and death, and various aspects of

ethics and morality, it is unlikely that the

themes have the same impact on their elders.

Death and warfare are forms of aggression and as

such are favorite themes. Children are fascinated

by what good and bad are and seek constant inter-

pretations of these values . . . Adults (should

realize) the limitations of children's verbal

understandings in contrast with their extraordi-

nary capacity for emotional experience.
She thinks stories may sometimes aggravate fears or acti-
vate aggression, but she also suggests that these fears
may generally be worked out in the presence of a loving
adult or other children. She believes that children enjoy
being a little frightened as long as matters turn out all
right. In her opinion, preschool, kindergarten, third,
fourth and fifth grade children are seriously limited by
an inability to understand anything but the simplest and
shortest plots. Their limited background of experience
also restricts the degree to which they can understand a
story that goes beyond their here and now world.

It should be noted that this study deals only with
preschool children. It does not touch on the reactions or
interpretations made by school-age children. It also does
not attempt a content analysis of children's books con-
taining violence.

For a number of reasons an analysis of violence
in children's books and reactions of children to violence

in the books they read may be useful and of interest to

educators. Because of the increase of violence in public

life, because of violence frequently found in mass media,

because of the research of social scientists, which indi—
cates violence in mass media does influence behavior of
children, because of the presence of violent content in
children's literature, finally, because no studies have
apparently treated this subject of violence in children's

literature fully, the following study has been undertaken.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to ascertain whether
children's literature published between 1960 and 1970 has
increased in actual pages devoted to violent content.

The sampling of literature read for this study consisted
of modern realistic fiction and historical fiction books
listed in the Notable Children's books selected by the
American Library Association. Additionally, the objective
is to determine which characters in the sampling commit
acts of violence, what kinds of violence they commit, how
vividly or with what intensity acts of violence are
depicted and what attitudes are expressed by the author
toward violent acts. Finally, children's reactions to
violent content in books is to be evaluated and correlated
with scores received on the Sears Aggression Test and with

the geographical location of the schools they attend.

Significance of Study

 

The study can be of value to educators in a number
of ways. Critical reading skills can be applied to the

treatment of violence in children's books. Once kinds and

frequency of violence are known, teachers can develop
strategies for teaching the critical appraisal of these
episodes. The same kinds of appraisal techniques can be
applied to and compared with other media like television,
the newspapers and the comics, which contain considerable
violence and which are important parts of present-day
life. Whatever the media, juvenile readers can determine
when scenes of violence are necessary for the development
of the plot or characterization. They can learn to
analyze episodes for intensity. Eventually they will have
the ability to recognize the presence and use of violence
in an objective manner.

Understanding individual reactions to violent
scenes may also be helpful to educators concerned with
the well-being of their charges. Patterns emerging from
the questionnaire given children in this study can be
used as a guide for teachers and librarians in selecting
books for children to read. The same patterns may also
be useful to publishers, who are, after all, interested
in selling their product; and who, therefore, may wish
to use materials most attractive to potential readers and
their teachers.

Besides being a practical guide to teachers working
with children in the elementary and middle schools, this
study can have meaning for educators who are concerned
with implicit values taught in school. A searching look

at materials used in the schools should be made because

10

children learn not only the explicit lessons found in

their books and classrooms; they learn attitudes, as well.

If books have become increasingly violent, they need to be

evaluated as learning vehicles both for content and for

the model they suggest for future behavior.

Hypotheses

 

From 1960 to 1970 the content of children's
literatureras sampled in Notable Books chosen
by the American Library Association,increased
in amount and intensity of violence.

From 1960 to 1970 heroes and villains appear-
ing in children's literature, as sampled in
the Notable Books, increasingly use violence
of a wide variety in the course of plot devel-
opment to attain character's goals.

From 1960 to 1970 violent acts between inti-
mates occur more often than between strangers
in children's literature as sampled in the
Notable Books selected for children.

From 1960 to 1970 violent acts in children's
books,as sampled in the Notable Books selected
for children by the American Library Associa-
tion,are more frequently treated in a sensuous
fashion,rather than in a non-sensuous style.

From 1960 to 1970 attitudes expressed toward
violent acts depicted children's literature, as
sampled in the Notable Books,are most fre-
quently opposed to aggression.

A positive relationship exists between geo—
graphical location of the school the children
attend and the verbal response of children to
violence in realistic fiction.

A positive relationship exists between

personality as established on the Sears
Aggression Test and individual responses
to violent episodes in children's books.

' ll

 

Assumptions
1. Violence in books creates a reaction of some kind.
2. Children of all ages learn from the violence

presented in a book.

3. Children between the ages of 10 and 14

a. Understand their emotions well enough to
explain them.

b. Can explain their interpretations of a
violent scene.

o. Are willing to explain their reactions and
interpretations, whether emotional or
intellectual.

4. A child's emotional reactions to a violent scene
reflect his

a. personality

b. geographical location.

Limitations of the Study

 

The study is limited to all modern realistic and
historical fiction books included in the Notable Books
lists for children selected by the American Library
Association from 1960 to 1970.

The children used in this study were three classes
of approximately 25 children each, from first, third and
seventh grades. At each level there was one class from

an inner city school system, two rural schools

12

and a suburban school. Altogether there were 217 children

who participated.

Definitions of Terms

 

Violence—-the overt expression of physical force intended
to hurt or kill.

Violent Episode or Context Unit--a scene of whatever dura—

 

tion between violent parties; it may include any-
thing from a full scale battle to a single
encounter between two characters. It is limited
by entrances and exits of characters, by changes
in tOpic of discussion or by changes in locale.
It constitutes the actual unit of measuring
violence.

Coding Unit--actual acts or threats of violence. For a

 

context unit to be included in the study, it must
contain the Coding Unit.

Juvenile Books-~books ranging from those written for

 

preschoolers to those written for "young adults."
The audience ranges from ages 3 to 14.

Sensuous Treatment of Violence-—treatment which is very

 

close to a real-life situation. Details might
include information on suffering, pain and death
and would be of such a nature as to appeal to the

senses .

13

Nonsensuous Treatment of Violence-~treatment of a violent
scene which is not close to a real-life situation.
Lacking in detail. Treatment of the scene may be
stylized or information may simply be lacking.

Aggression--a basic emotional drive of all human beings,

 

associated largely but not entirely with frustra-
tion. (In this paper the term is never used to
mean active mastery or possession, the second
definition commonly associated with the word.)
Prosocial Aggression--aggression which is directed toward
another individual or object in a socially accept-
able fashion.
Anti-Social Aggression--aggression directed toward another
individual in a socially unacceptable fashion.
The need for this study has been explained in
Chapter I, along with the purpose, hypotheses, and assump-
tions. The following chapters contain discussions of
other aspects of the subject. Chapter II includes
thorough review of related literature. Chapter III
contains an outline of the sample used, the measures and
devices included in the study, the general plan followed,
as well as testable hypotheses and questions. Included
.also are models used to test the hypotheses and questions.
(Hiapters IV and V are analyses of the results. Chapter
137 of the content analysis and Chapter V of the response
Inade by the children. The final chapter, VI, contains a

srumnary and conclusions which can be drawn from the study.

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

In the past, violence has been studied from many
points of view, but rarely has the subject focused on
literature. Instead, most research has been concerned
with mass media developed during the course of the first
half of the twentieth century. These popular forms of
entertainment were often the topic of research and dis-
cussion because concerned citizens and experts alike were
vocal in their complaints about the high level of violence
found in them. Literature, on the other hand, was not
singled out for several reasons. It was not particularly
noteworthy for excessive aggression; fewer people were
touched by books. However, each form of mass media
became the focal point for intense debate and a wide
assortment of research as the medium reached the height
of its popularity. Following widespread discussion and
study, in almost every case, the United States Congress
has investigated the topic and concluded its study with
recommendations for self censorship and a decrease in

violence.

14

15

In a parallel development, which is, however, not
directly associated with discussion and research on mass
media, many psychologists have studied the subject of aggres-
sion in human beings. These experimenters have not always
approached the topic from the same point of View or philoso-
phy, nor have they always come to the same conclusions.

Some of their work, however, touches directly on reactions to
violence in mass media. These investigations are discussed

here.

Movies

One medium which has been the topic of consider-
able discussion and some research is the films. Like the
comic books, films are often accused of having a detrimental
effect on‘fés viewers. In 1929, 12 independent research
projects were undertaken under the auspices of 18 social
scientists who, in turn, were sponsored by the Payne Fund.
These projects were published separately and then summarized
in a single volume.1 Among other topics the projects
contained a content analysis of 1,500 movies appearing in
1920, 1925 and 1930. From these a random sample was drawn.
Thirty-eight per cent featured crime and/or violence.

Edgar Dale, the author, found that if one went to the

movies once a week, on the average one would see a violent

 

film once a month. Villains were not always, according to
him, shown to be repulsive. Quite often they were
1

W. W. Charters, Motion Pictures and Youth, A
Summary (New York: Macmillan, 1933).

 

16

physically courageous and met danger fearlessly. A
random sample of 115 films taken from the same group
showed 449 crimes in only 97 moving pictures with 19

per cent committed by male and female heroes, 50 per cent
by villains and the rest by groups or individuals not
identified. Guns were used 30 per cent of the time with
knives and shooting most commonly used in addition.
Heroines were protected but heroes were (14% of the time)
in tight places where lethal weapons were needed. Villains
were less successful than heroes in achieving their goals.
Lady villains were responsible for eight murders.

Several of the Payne Fund studies indicate that
films affect children viewing them, Peterson and
Thurstone3 studied changes in attitudes as a result of
exposure to the movies. In one case 182 seventh through
twelfth graders in Geneva, Illinois, were tested and
found to have strong anti-Chinese prejudices. After

seeing a film entitled Sons of the Gods, which showed

 

Orientals in a friendly light, the examiners found that
the children reversed their attitudes. In another test,
434 Crystal Lake, Illinois, grade and high school chil-

dren viewed Birth of a Nation with a sound track different

 

from the original. The film and sound track showed strong

 

21bid., pp. 50-51.

3R. C. Peterson and L. L. Thurstone, Motion Pic-
tures and Social Attitudes of Children (New York:
Macmillan, 1933), pp. 39-50.

 

 

l7

prejudices against Black people. As a result of exposure
to the altered film, the children revealed new, intolerant
attitudes, which persisted eight months later. Attitudes
toward crime and punishment were also changed significantly

after exposure to three films, Numbered Men, The Criminal

 

Code, and the Bingouse, as measured on an attitude scale.

 

Less effect was noted when the children saw only one or
two films. The authors conclude that movies affect
viewers considerably.

Films apparently affect children in ways propor-
tional to their age or experience. W. S. Dysinger and
Christian Ruckmick4 found that scenes of pseudo-tragedy,
conflict and danger severely affect children under 12
years of age when measured by a galvanometer. Youths
nearer 16 are less intensely affected; viewers older than
19 are affected even less acutely. The researchers con—
clude that children perceive differently from adults, who
cannot equate their experience with those of children, who
lack experience. Individual scenes of danger, aggression
and violence arouse pre-adolescent children more than
sexual scenes, and more than the whole moving picture.
Moral messages tacked on at the end of such a picture are
lost on these children. The younger the child the more he

responds to the separate items of the movie emotionally.

 

4Charters, op. cit., p. 26.

18

The younger he is, the less he understands the continuity
and moral of the movie.

Films also affect sleep habits of children. Samuel
Renshaw, Vernon Miller, and Dorothy Marquis5 conducted a
study which involved 170 children over a four year period
and which used electronic equipment to record changes in
sleep patterns after movie attendance. The children
viewed 58 movies ranging from low key films to some
studded with violence. Movement in sleep patterns after
movie attendance increased as much as 90 per cent in some
children. This condition persisted as much as two or
three nights. Children under ten years of age showed a
more frequent decrease in motility, a situation that the
authors thought characteristic of depressor drugs some-
times associated with insomnia.

Herbert Blumer and Philip Hauser report in two

6 that while movies do affect behavior

different studies
of children, they are an important factor in the develop—
ment of only 10 per cent of male delinquents. Twenty-five
per cent of the female delinquents studied, on the other
hand, were affected by films. Motion pictures played an
especially important part in the lives of children reared

in socially disorganized areas, but the researchers note

that films do influence non-delinquent children from less

 

51bid., p. 33.

6Ibid., pp. 36-47.

19

disorganized areas because the youngster forgets his own
identity when watching a film and gets deeply involved
emotionally, something that does not happen with adults
who tend to be more objective about evaluating movies
they attend. Films also play an important role in infor-
mal guidance of children. The researchers, therefore,
called for responsible behavior on the part of producers,
parents and the public and for experimentation until a

solution of the problem is found.

The Comics

 

During the 1950's there was a considerable flurry
of interest in crime comic books, a very popular pastime
with large numbers of children all over the United States
and Europe. Dr. Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist, who
was particularly interested in criminal psychology but
well known, as well, for his crusade in the fight against
censorship of adult fiction, was prominant in the debate
about crime comics. He used a clinical approach in his

book, Seduction of the Innocent, pointing out through

 

case studies that children become psychopathic because of
the social climate. He said that they are not born
violent; violence is planted in their minds, and crime
comics are a contributing factor in many maladjustments.
No organizations control the kinds of comics published;

as a result, too often the crime and not the punishment

is visible. In his opinion, children reading these comics

are retooling for illiteracy while moving in the direction

20

of delinquency and sex mania. If nothing else, he believes
we are teaching children to be insensitive.7

In another book, The Sign of Cain, Wertham further

 

concludes that adults accept crime comics because emotion-
ally healthy children do not appear to be harmed. Further—
more, adults think vicarious pleasure will allow children

to turn off real tendencies to violence through ”catharsis.”
Adults also think that family life will shield children,
that there is no real proof of the relationship between

real violence and fantasy violence.8 In his opinion,

these are serious errors in judgment.

A few years after the Seduction of the Innocent

 

appeared, a British psychologist, P. M. Pickard, undertook
a study of comics in England. Published in 1961, Dr.
Pickard asked over 500 British children, ranging in age
between nine and eleven, to fill out a questionnaire
describing what they liked and disliked about comics.

The children were also asked if they were fearful or had
dreams after reading crime comics. A group of adults
rated the same comics read by children. The author found
children and adults thought much the same kind of comic
was enjoyable; both preferred to avoid comics containing

horror and violence. She concludes, . . . it becomes

 

7Wertham, op. cit.

8Frederick Wertham, Sign of Cain (New York:
Rinehart, 1953).

 

21

patently clear that what they (children) dislike is having
their own horrid nightmares . . . without any assistance
towards surmounting them."9
Fredric Thrasher found that comic books were very
influential with 313 Chicago gangs who used comics in
their activities. The gangs obtained names and also
procured suggestions for vandalism and other destructive
activities directly from these sources.10 However,

in spite of this comment, the same author points out in

an article appearing in the Journal of Education Sociology

 

that Dr. Wertham was not scientific in his analysis of the
causes of juvenile delinquency because his propositions
were not supported by adequate research. Instead, the
latter's claims rested on a select group of extreme cases.
Thrasher concludes that up to that time (1949), there had
not been any acceptable evidence that there is a signifi-
cant relationship between comics and delinquent behavior.
Several content analyses of comic books were con—
ducted during the same period. Morton Malter analyzed the

content of 185 comic books from 17 publishers.’ His data

 

 

 

9P. M. Pickard, I Could a Tale Unfold. Violence,
Horror, and Sensationalism (New York: Humanities Press,
1961), p. 191. -
10

Mentioned in Senate Judiciary Hearings, Sub-
committee on Juvenile Delinquency, 83rd Congress, April
let and 22nd, and June 4, 1954, p. 12. (F. Thrasher,

The Gang.)

llF. Thrasher, "The Comics and Delinquency: Cause

or Scapegoat," The Journal of Educational Sociology (1949),

 

pp. 195—205.

11

22

suggests that the percentage of pages devoted to humor and
crime are about equal. He also found that approximately
one third of all comics were completely devoted to humor.
He, therefore, concludes that the attacks on the comics
were unwarranted.12 Somewhat along the same lines,

Parent's Magazine reports a study of the Committee on the

 

Evaluation of Comic Books. The group found 154 comics
were not objectionable. They used as criteria the art-
work, grammar, plot, characters, setting and morbid
emotionality.l3 The Interim Report of the Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency made to the Senate

on March 14th, 1955, contains a list of methods used in
crime and horror comics to portray violence; supernatural
phenomena involving werewolves, vampires, zombies, or
sometimes real people; words used to stimulate anticipa-
tion of the horror, reinforce belief, describe killings;
other symbols like the red background of a picture for
blood, sometimes the sequence may be used to stimulate the
imagination of the reader up to a shocking climax in the

next frame. In addition, the subcommittee points out that

criminal careers are glamorized in comic books; defenders

 

12Morton Malter, "The Content of Current Comic
Book Magazines," Elementary School Journal (1952), pp.
501-510. "

13Reported in Senate Judiciary Hearings. Subcom-
Tmittee Hearings on Juvenile Delinquency, 83rd Congress,
11954, United States Printing Office, p. 10.

 

23

of law and order are represented frequently as peOple who
kill and commit crimes to defend "justice."l4
Several studies attempted an analysis of the rela-
tionship between comic books reading habits and other
factors. Hoult,15 for example, reported a study of 235
children, aged 10 to 17. He found that delinquents and
non-delinquents read about the same number of comics, but
delinquents read many more harmful comics. Heislerl6
also found no significant relationship between reading
comics and factors such as reading ability, achievement
in English vocabulary, intelligence, personality or the
size of the home library.
The United States Senate concludes in its Interim
Report that the country cannot afford the "calculated
risk of feeding its children through comic books a concen—
trated diet of crime, horror and violence." With this

objective in mind, all materials that potentially exert

detrimental effects should be eliminated from publication.

 

14United States Senate Interim Report Number 62,
"Comic Books and Juvenile Delinquency," 84th Congress,
1955, pp. 10-15.

15Thomas Hoult, "Comic Books and Juvenile Delin-
quency,’ Sociology and Social Science Research, 33 (1949),
pp. 279—284.

16F. Heisler, "Comparison between Those Elementary
School Children Who Attend Moving Pictures, Read Comic
Books, and Listen to Serial Radio Programs to Excess with
Those Who Indulge in These Activities Seldom or Not At
All," Journal of Educational Research, 42 (1948), pp. 182—
190.

 

 

24

This aim was to be achieved through vigilance on the part

of parents, publishers and citizen's groups.l7

Television

 

In recent years television and violence on tele-
vision have taken precedence over comic books and movies
in the minds of many social scientists and critics partly
because television is ubiquitous, partly because tele—
vision is the most popular form of entertainment for
children.

Apparently, some children would rather watch tele—
vision than pass their time with any other entertainment.

Florence Brumbaughl8 asked a group of randomly selected

 

children to complete the statement: "If I could choose
one, it would be (books, comics, movies and
television)." Television ran first and books second.

What is it then that children watch on television?
The Association for Better Television and Radio monitored
programs in the Los Angeles area for one week between the
hours of six and nine in the evening. They found 91
murders, 7 stage holdups, 3 kidnappings, 10 thefts, 4
burglaries, 2 cases of arson, 2 jailbreaks, the murder of

15 or 20 persons by explosion, 2 suicides, blackmail,

 

17United States Senate Interim Report Number 62,
op. cit., pp. 32-33.

8Reported in Robert L. Shayon, Television and Our
Children (New York: Longmans and Green, 1951), p. 29.

 

25

cases of assault and battery too numerous to tabulate.19

Schramm found a similar high incidence of violence in

1960.20

In a study conducted by Robert O'Hara,21 two
prOgrams of each of the following action series were

watched: Peter Gunn, Mr. Lucky, Lawman, Bourbon Street

 

 

Beat, The Untouchables, Gunsmoke, Adventure in Paradise,

 

 

 

Marshal and Deputy. Out of 1250 minutes, there were 327

 

acts of violence directly involving the central characters.
In addition, there were 146 acts of violence, each of them
involving secondary characters. The violence ranged from
slapping, pushing and grabbing to extreme fistfights
ending in the injury and death of one or more of the
characters. Of 327 acts of violence, 287 were not logi-
cally grounded or supported by the plot. O'Hara concluded
that violence is frequently used in television as a means
of emotionally engaging the viewer and solving problems.
The author concludes, "People in the real world do, of
course, act emotionally and irrationally, but the media

gives the appearance that action of this sort, not only

 

lgIbid., p. 76.

 

OSchramm, o . cit., p. 139.

21Robert O'Hara, Media for the Masses (New York:
Random House, 1961).

 

26

is the rule, rather than the exception, but it is also
justified and desirable."22

Inspite of these findings, two important studies
have concluded that television is not harmful for normal
children. One was conducted by Dr. Hilde T. Himmelweit23
in England between 1954 and 1956, using a survey of two
age groups, ten to eleven and thirteen to fourteen along
with diaries and questionnaires. Viewers of both age
groups watched television eleven to thirteen hours a week
or about two hours a day. The amount of time these
children spent watching depended on intelligence, per—
sonality, availability of other activities and social
level of the home. In this study children preferred
adult programs, particularly crime thrillers. They also
liked variety shows, comedies and family serials. The
appeal of television lay partly in its easy availability,
consequent value as a time filler and the fact that it is
an entrance into the adult world.

A content analysis is included in the study. In
one week there were 25 plays on ITV (Independent Tele—
vision) and BBC. Of these, 18 dealt with lawbreaking.
Ninety—six per cent of the plays appearing on ITV were
adventure plays. Values were upper middle—class; manual

labor was given a very low status; goodness was also low

on the scale of values presented; success was achieved

 

23Hilde Himmelweit, A. N. Oppenheim and Pamela
Vinee, Television and the Child (London: Nuffield Founda-
tion, 1958).

 

27

through toughmindedness rather than kindness, thoughtful—
ness, etc. Violence was presented as inevitable, both
for good and bad people. The researchers conclude that
when parents are not available or when children are low
in intelligence, values presented on television are
important because they make a greater impact upon the
viewers.

In the study cited above, reactions of children to
television are also included. Children were frightened by
westerns only when young or insecure. Adolescents were
often frightened by crime, space fiction, detective murder

stories, stories like Jane Eyre, all of which were more

 

realistic than westerns. The authors conclude that, in
general, television is similar to other media in the
amounts of fear it engenders, regardless of violence. In
the opinion of Himmelweit, television is unlikely to
create aggressive acts, except in the emotionally dis-
turbed.

Wilbur Schramm and his colleagues conducted a
similar study in the United States. He found that an
increasing number of children watch television (14% of
the two year olds; 30% of the three year olds; 65% of
the four year olds; 82% of the five year olds). More than
any other media which "builds the set with which a child
approaches media" television is important in the lives of

children.24

 

24Schramm, op. cit., p. 27.

28

Dr. Schramm asked children the kinds of programs
they prefer. He found that "perhaps the most significant
thing . . . is how inarticulate they were on the topic.
In general, they want more of the kinds of material they

"25 When children reach the

already see a great deal of.
teens, Dr. Schramm found that they speak of television as
keeping them from getting bored. He suggests that perhaps
because the television provides such excitement, the rest
of life seems pallid by comparison. Schramm found that
taste in television programs ran toward adult programs,
much of it fantasy. Taste for public affairs programs was
little and late. Youngsters use television for many pur—
poses, including entertainment, escape, and a source of
information on social modes of behavior. For the very
young, it is an effective way to learn; children exposed
to television go to school with vocabularies about a grade
higher than those who have not had the opportunity to
watch. However, later incidental learning becomes less
important. The child may instead use it to escape from
conflict in the family. Television affects children in a
number of ways. They may, for instance, become frightened
when harm comes to some character with whom they identify.

They may also react aggressively.26

 

25Ibid., p. 54.

26Quote from testimony of Dr. Schramm as part of the
United States Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to
Investigate Juvenile Delinquency Hearings, "Effects on Young
People of Violence and Crime Portrayed on Television,"
Pursuant to S. Res. 48, 1962, p. 1770.

29

Dr. Ralph Banay, a psychiatrist at Columbia Univer—
sity, went even further than Schramm. He said that te1e~
vision is a preparatory school for delinquency.27 More-
over, Schramm's own study reports a number of incidents
which seem to back up Dr. Banay's contention.28 For
instance, a Los Angeles maid caught a seven year old boy
sprinkling ground glass into the family meal. Apparently,
the boy was trying to find out if the trick worked as well
as on television.

Television as a school for delinquency may be a
moot question, but the findings of Professor Victor Cline
of the University of Utah are not. He says that "children
who have watched television the most show least physiolo—
gical response to episodes of violence as measured with
electrodes. He concludes that we are creating violence
addicts. Many children are, as a result of television,
already desensitized. Cline believes violent scenes may
become models for later life. He says, "I am convinced
United States soldiers who shot down Vietnamese women and
children at Mylai were already desensitized."29

The children are not only desensitized; they are

also impressed by the effectiveness of violence.

 

27Testimony of Dr. Ralph Banay as part of the United
States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to
Investigate Juvenile Delinquency, S. Res. 62, 1955, p. 83.

28Schramm, op. cit., p. 161.

29V. P. Cline, "How Violence Affects Children,"

Life, 68, January 20, 1970, pp. 57-58.

30

Zanjenc3O found that they often approve of media behavior
because the actions of the characters "work," that is,
violent action is instrumental in achieving certain goals.
Another not so apparent effect is that children
develop expectations of other people from their experi-
ences in front of the television sets. Alberta Siegal3l
studied second grade children who heard one of two versions
of a previously prepared drama involving a taxi cab driver.
The experimental group watched a version in which the
dramatic conflict was resolved by physical aggression.
The next day the group completed a series of new stories
from current newspapers in a fashion which was supposed to
be similar to a real event. The experimental children
wrote more aggressive endings than the control children
who had not seen the aggressive conclusion to the film.
The children had apparently learned that taxi cab drivers
are aggressive.
Regardless of the model provided by television,
young people watch television more often as they become

more and more frustrated, at least among five and six

year olds from upper middle homes. Maccoby32 found no

 

3OR. Zanjenc, "Some Affects of the Space Serials,"
Public Opinion Quarterly, 18 (1954), pp. 367-374.

31Alberta Siegel, "The Influence of Violence in
the Mass Media Upon Children's Role Expectations," Child
DevelOpment, Volume 29 (1958), pp. 35-36.

32Eleanor Maccoby, "Why do Children Watch Tele-
vision?" Public Opinion Quarterly, Volume 18 (1954),
pp. 239-244.

 

 

 

31

such relationship in lower class homes with children of the
same age. The author indicated that this may well be
because upper class parents do not watch television often.
herefore, television becomes the means for escaping from
family activities. Upper lower class children, on the
other hand, watch television with their families. They,
therefore, use television as a friendly family activity,
and a means of socialization. Much the same relationship
was found by Riley and Riley33 and by Bailyn.34 The

latter also pointed out that the boys who like aggressive-
hero stories and who have been exposed to a lot of mass
media were likely to have attitudes of rebellious inde-
pendence and to be relatively frustrated and aggressive.

In addition, Riley and Riley conclude that younger children
are more likely to have a greater preference for violence
than older ones. The older ones who continued to watch
considerable mass media were likely to have relatively

few friends while being attracted themselves to peer
groups.

The weight against television, much of it listed

above, was such that the final report of the National

 

33Matilda Riley and J. W. Riley, Jr., "A Sociolo-
gical Approach to Communications," in The Process and
Effects of Mass Communications, edited by W. Schramm
IUrbana, Illinois: UniverSIty of Illinois Press, 1954).

34Lotte Bailyn, "Mass Media and Children,"
Psychological Monographs, 73 (1959), p. 471.

 

 

 

32

Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence35

recommends the following:

1. That the 'broadcasting of children's cartoons
containing serious, non-comic violence should
be abandoned.‘

2. That the 'amount of time devoted to the broad—
cast of crime, western and action-adventure
programs containing violent episodes be
reduced.‘

3. That 'more effective efforts should be made to
alter the basic context in which violence is
presented in television dramas.’

4. That the 'members of the television industry
should become more actively and seriously
involved in research on the effects of violent
television programs and their future policies
standards, and practices with regard to enter-
tainment programs should be more responsive to
the best evidence provided by social scientists,
psychologists and communications researchers.‘

5. That 'parents should make every effort to
supervise their children's television viewing
and assert their basic responsibility for the
moral development of their children.‘

6. That 'parents should express to the networks
and to the local stations both their disapproval
of programs which they find objectionable and
their support of programs they like.‘

7. That there be 'an evaluation of the effective-
ness of the new movie rated system with an
emphasis on the question of . . . violence and
the enforcement of the admission standards
regarding minors.‘

Literature

 

While there has been relatively little research on
violence in literature, there has been considerable dis-

cussion on the subject, much of it written in the last few

 

35United States Government Document, To Establish
Justice to Insure Domestic Tranquility. Final Report of
the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention Of
Violence (Washington, D. C.: United States Government
Document, 1969), pp. 279-280.

 

 

 

33

years. However, as long ago as 1957, De Boer36 argued
against violence in folk tales for children on the grounds
that most were not suitable to children and probably
damaging psychologically. By 1967, however, the whole
picture had changed. S. E. Hinton,37 writing in the N33

York Times Book Review, gave a strong argument for "tell—

 

ing it like it is" even when the materials must be
violent.

Adults who let children watch hours of violence,
unfunny comedy, abnormal behavior and suggestive
action on television scream their heads off when
a book written for children contains a fist fight.
But violence, too, is part of a teen-ager's life.
If it is not on television or in the movies, it's
a beating at the local drive-in. Things like this
are going to take place as long as there are kids.
Only when violence is for a sensational effect
should it be objected to in books for teen-agers.
Such books should not be blood and gore, but not
a fairyland of proms and double dates, either.

In an article published in the April 3, 1969 New

York Times38 Nicholson, editor of Delacarte books rein—

 

forced Miss Hinton's remarks when he said:
Judging from sales and mail, the most effective
books reflect what is going on in the country--
the racial problems, violence and so on.

In the same article John Donovan, head of the

National Book Council explains the reason for this

 

36John De Boer, "Violence in Children's Books,"
Elementary Egglish, Volume 35 (1958), pp. 469-473.

37S. E. Hinton, "Teenagers Are for Real,‘
York Times Book Review, August 27, 1967, p. 29.

38Harry Gilroy, "In Juvenile Books It's Not all
Fantasy," New York Times, Thursday, April 3, 1969, p. C49.

 

New

 

 

34

phenomenon. "There aren't many areas in our society that
children don't know about. A four year old acquires a lor
of wisdom in front of a television set."

If children fail to learn to read with enjoyment,
they do so because they cannot find books which seem
realistic to them. Reginald Maddock, author, put it as
follows:

There are those who resist reading because reading
is something adults make them do. Unless they are
young children, their reluctance does not neces-
sarily spring from lack of ability . . . Reading's
for squares. They've tried it and it does nothing
for them. The books they read as children--because
they were forced to read them--are about artificial
worlds nothing like the real world their young

lives are lived in. Teachers and parents may get
their kicks and fantasies from books, but they
(children) know easier ways to get them more swiftly.
I write at times for children like this. I try to
write about real kids with real problems similar to
their own. I write about bullies, hooligans,
vandals; about teachers, truancy, homework, etc.
These are the things they know about. These are the
characters they identify with.39

40 claims children can tell the dif-

Arnold Arnold
ference between legitimate fictional conflict and media
which exist only as a catalogue of sadism. Violence for

the sake of violence is not, in his opinion, something new.

Hoffman's Struwelpeter and Rohmer's FuManchu are examples

 

of older stories which dwell on violence. Many outstanding

 

39Quoted in Aidan Chambers, The Reluctant Reader
(New York: Pergamon Press, 1969). p. 90.

40Arnold Arnold, Violence and Your Child (Chicago:
Henry Rennery Company, 1969), pp. 50-55.

 

 

35

stories, however, use violence to sensitize the reader to
social problems or for some legitimate artistic purpose.

If anything, too often, children's books avoid mention of
any real issues like death. In his opinion, as long as
considerations for humanity are suspended, brutality,
sadism and exploitation of violence for kicks can be
infinitely escalated. He suggests that parents guide their
children's reading toward material with ethical content,
that publishers turn to materials with more social content,
more reality.

Kenneth Lynn41 claims that the recurring theme of
violence in American folklore and literature in general is
more than part of a long history. Rather it bears witness
to the continuing violence in American life. He points
out, however, that the social scientist takes too narrow a
view when studying an element like violence in literature,
for the scientist ignores the effects of "fictional

"42 for

conventions on the representations of realities,
instance, the dreams of peace which may be threaded through
the bloodiest of stories or comic juxtapositions which
”take the curse off the most unpleasant episodes." For

him, then, the thrust of the work is more important than

the details with which it is put together.

 

41Lynn, op. cit., pp. 219-233.

421bid., p. 219.

36

In a symposium on violence in literature, some of
the same thoughts were voiced. In addition, one of the
speakers, Solatoroff, pointed out that because action in
novels most often appears without pictures, some of the
"stench" is taken out of violence as it appears in writing.
By putting it in artistic form, that is, by making it part
of a more balanced view of nature and of life itself, more
of the bite of violence is removed. He claimed that
pornography does just the opposite; as does photography.

Another participant, Dr. Robert Coles,43 was of
the opinion that much of the worry about violence in
literature is unwarranted. We worry about the subject
because it is easier than to think about real war.
Moreover, it is impossible to remove all violence or
inclinations toward violence from individuals and thus
create a new non-violent society. As another speaker in
the symposium put it, "Violence and aggression are part
of man's resources for survival."44

Dr. Karl Menninger,45 in an article appearing in

the Saturday Review, suggested another reason for the

 

continuing importance of violence in literature. We like
it because it is exciting and dramatic. We can partici-

pate in it vicariously without danger of punishment.

 

43"Violence in Literature, symposium,"

Scholar, Volume 37 (1968), p. 484.

44Ibid., p. 495.

American

45Karl Menninger, "The Crime of Punishment,‘
day Review, September 7, 1968, pp. 218-225, 255.

Satur-

 

37

One of the few studies on violence in literature
is concerned with the same displacement. In his doctoral
dissertation, George 0. Wright46 claims that folk tales
and rituals which are aggressive in content provide a
device by which aggressive feelings can be displaced in
fantasy without disrupting effects, which would otherwise
result in their direct expression. He found that a large
amount of aggressive behavior in fantasy is connected with
severe punishment for overt aggression in child—rearing
practices. Thirty-three societies represented by 12 tales
each were scored for severity of punishment when connected
with expression of aggression. High anxiety for punish-
ment in actual child-rearing practices were found to lead
to folklore behavior in which the objects or agents of
aggression were least like the hero. The hero in such a
tale was not likely to triumph in the end. Low anxiety
punishment was connected with the expression of aggression.
The agents of aggression in such tales were similar to the
hero or the hero himself expressed aggression. The hero
was likely to be triumphant in the outcome of the story.
High punishment anxietyleads to more intense aggressive
behavior in folk tales. The author concludes that the
relationship between child-rearing practices and aggression

in folk tales is real.

 

6George 0. Wright, "Projection and Aggression: A
Cross-Cultural Study of Folklore for Aggression," Journal
of Abnormal and Social Psycholqu, Volume 49, pp. 523-528.

 

38

Two other studies also show our basic need to
express aggression and our ability to displace it. In
the first, L. M. Ames47 asked a group of boys and girls
ranging in age from two to five to tell the experimenter
stories of their own invention. The outstanding theme at
every age for both sexes was violence. There were more
violent themes in boys' stories than in girls'. Age
trends were highly variable but, in general, spanking was
strong for the youngest group. Between four and five,
many children told about victims who were dead or killed.
The author notes that although there are many themes of
violence, the children protected themselves in a number
of ways. They might, for instance, remove themselves
from the danger zone by having the bad things happen to
their brothers and sisters, to someone of the opposite
sex or to animals or objects. They also erased death
and disaster by not having the bad things happen. In
general, girls protected themselves more than boys.

E. G. Pitcher48 recounts a similar experiment with
another group of preschool children. She reports that
many of the stories told to her were a complete or partial
retelling of a fairy tale, a story of cowboys and.Indians

remembered from television or a recital from some Mother

 

47L. B. Ames, "Children's Stories," Genetic Psycho-
logy Monographs, Volume 73 (1966), pp. 337-396.

48E

dren's Literature,
1969), PP- 287-294.

 

 

. G. Pitcher, "Values and Issues in Young Chil-
" Elementary English, Volume 46 (March,

 

39

Goose. Basic concerns, those of security and independence
were integrated into the tales which were noteworthy for
their dramatic themes and which usually concluded with
good overcoming evil. Most surprising to Dr. Pitcher was
that the themes of aggression involving death and catastro—
phe, as well as violence, predominated. The author con-
cludes that the mainsprings of aggression and insecurity
are fundamental and methods of dealing with them represent
one of a whole gamut of solutions used during a lifetime.
Children solve the problem by not dwelling excessively on
the gruesome details. In her opinion, the stories chosen
for children to read should be Selected with children's
limited verbal understanding and his "extraordinary capa-
city for emotional experience" kept well in mind.49
Some people think that publishers have not kept
this in mind when permitting some recent, "relevant" books
to appear on the market. When Robert Beauchamp spoke out
against the "lilac—scented curriculum of Longfellow and

his contemporaries,‘ someone in the audience of librarians

before whom he spoke argued that a replacement of the
traditional curriculum did not "necessarily mean the dump—

"50

ing of the garbage can in the front room. It would

seem that a careful evaluation of recently published novels

 

491bid., p. 294.

50Ruth K. Carlson, "Analysis of Teenage Books," in
Evaluating Books for Children and Young People, Perspectives
in Reading (Newark, Delaware), p. 76.

 

 

40

for children should be made to see what is actually being
published. Moreover, further investigations of children's
reactions to violent content in realistic novels are also

called for.

The Psychology of Aggression

 

At the same time that critics and writers have
been discussing violence in mass media and literature,
experimental and theoretical psychologists have been
exploring the subject from their own point of View. Some
of their findings are relevant to violence in children's
literature.

The study of aggression is not, however, new to
psychology. It has been of considerable interest to
psychologists and other workers in the social sciences
since the time of Freud, who was the first to postulate
a theory of aggression. He believed, at least at one
point, that aggressive drives have a biological basis;
but that inhibitions develop during childhood as a result
of a resolution of the Oedipus Complex and the consequent
formation of the superego or conscience. He called the
aggressive drive, "Thanatos" or the death instinct, sug-
gesting thereby that man carries within himself the seeds
of his own destruction. With such a theory, there is
little to be gained by efforts to prevent aggressive
behavior from developing. All effort should, instead, be
directed toward child-rearing practices which will develop

inhibitions against violent behavior. One way to drain

41

off tension which develops from the presence of aggression,
according to this theory, is through catharsis, release of

emotional tension.51

Konrad Lorenz52 and Anthony Storr53 also believe
that aggression is innate in man. Both claim that present-
day civilized man suffers from insufficient discharge of
his aggressive drive, which was needed earlier for sur-
vival.54 Storr describes human aggression as an innate
drive growing out of man's early need for self-preservation,
a drive which is not only destructive but which also pro-
tected man in his drive for self-preservation. Then
aggression, according to him, serves several functions, to
preserve life through competition for food, to continue
life through mating, and finally to insure peace and order
within the community through some kind of social order,
what he calls "the pecking order." He further suggests
that the aggressive drive is always there. "It is probable
that when no outside stimulus for aggression exists, man
actually seeks such stimuli, much the way he does when

sexually deprived."55

 

51Ernest Jones, editor. The Collected Works of
Sigmund Freud (New York: Basic Books, 1959), Vol. 5,
Chapter 25.

 

 

 

2Konrad Lorenz, On Aggression (New York: Har-
court-Brace, 1966), pp. 231-235.
53

Anthony Storr, Human Aggression (New York:
Atheneum, 1968).

 

4Lorenz, op. cit., p. 235; Storr, op. cit., pp. 21-33.

55Storr, op. cit., p. 21.

42

Particularly interesting is Storr's interpretation
of aggression found in myths and legends. He feels that
because all myths describe one kind of aggression or
another, this proves that man is innately aggressive. As
he put it, "fantasies of an aggressive kind are so
ubiquitous amongst people of varying cultures that they
cannot possibly be considered exclusive to neurotic and

"56 These fantasies have in common

psychotic people.
children's need to explore the world around them, something
that is natural and necessary for the growing child.
According to Storr, the young child who is listening to
folk tales is undisturbed by them, for he can enter the
world of fantasy secure in the knowledge that he himself
is safe with his own parents. He may, in fact, have some
release from tension, some catharsis, because he can
enter his own violent world of fantasy in safety sur-
rounded by a loving family. As a result, he may be less
disturbed by violence in folk tales than his parents,
who tell him the story. As Storr put it:

There is little convincing evidence that reading

of heroes, slaying dragons, or even gangsters

shooting cops, has a disturbing effect upon or

provokes displays of violence in these children

who are not already predisposed. Whilst we may

deplore the vulgarity of horror comics, we are

not justified in supposing that such reading

matter has accounted for murder or other aggressive

actions in later life. This is not to deny that an

exclusive diet of violent literature and television
programmes may give a distorted picture of reality,

 

56Ibid., p. 43.

43

or have a harmful effect upon those children
whose actual experiences in the world has been
one of physical violence.57
In the opinion of Lorenz and Storr, we should turn
research attention to learning methods of preventing
aggression from becoming hostile.58 Among other things,
preventing men from abstracting may be one way to cut
down on hostility. Development of weapons permits man to
abstract his hostility because of the distance from the
actual violent situation. A close-up View, therefore,
would tend to make him aware of the horror involved.
Presumably, media which focuses on the real details of
violence actually taking place Would prevent abstraction.
Freud, Lorenz and Storr assume that aggression is
innate in man. Many psychologists studying the problem
have done so from a totally different point of View.

They have suggested, to quote the classic monograph of

1939, Frustration and Aggression,59 that "aggression is

 

always a consequence of frustration," a statement which
has been a source of considerable discussion and experi-
mentation since that time, much of the latter focusing
on the factors which influence the amount of perceived
frustration and the consequent instigation to aggression,

as well as inhibitions to aggressive behavior. The more

 

57Ibid., p. 52.

58£p£g., p. 85; and Lorenz, op. cit., p. 240.

59Dollard, et al., op. cit., p. 7.

44

significant experiments are discussed below, the first
group concerned with general principles, the second with

experiments directly associated with media of various

 

kinds.
Instigation to Aggression
Brown and Farber distinguished among four kinds of
frustrating conditions: physical barriers, delays between

initiation, and completion of the response sequence,
omission or reduction of a customary reward, and eliciting
a response tendency that is incompatible with the ongoing
one.6O

Dollard, et al.61 theorized that aggressive
behavior need not be overt. It could be expressed merely
through fantasy. They also suggested that behavior need
not be directed toward any frustrating situation or

62 "The individual

individual. As Berkowitz put it,
obviously will inhibit his hostile reactions if he is
anxious about the display of aggression and fears."

Moreover, this group maintains that frustration often

arouses and increases the instigation to aggression, not,

however, leading necessarily to open hostility.

 

60J. S. Brown and I. E. Farber, "Emotions Con-
ceptualized as Intervening Variables with Suggestions
Toward a Theory of Frustration," Psychological Bulletin,
Volume 48 (1951): PP. 465-495.

61

 

Dollard, et al., op. cit., p. 44.

62Berkowitz, op. cit., p. 28.

45

This group has admitted that aggression can occur
even when frustration is not an important factor in
behavior, for instance, in instrumental behavior. Bombers
in the second World War, for instance, were able to kill
thousands of people without anger. They were concerned
with winning the war. Bandura and Huston63 have also
shown that children can learn to behave with hostility
by imitating parents or other adults. Moreover, Berlyne64
has maintained that the individual's emotional state is a
factor which can create variable behavior so that assess-
ment of anger intensity from behavioral observations
requires consideration of the emotional state of the
hostile person, as well as the kind of behavior he has
learned in response to provocation. Brown and Farber65
have suggested that a child may learn to fight in order
to get parental attention. Cross-cultural studies have
also suggested that aggressive habits are learned through

direct reinforcements of society and social class.66 Even

within one culture social class can make considerable

 

63A. Bandura and Aletha Huston, "Identification
as a Process of Incidental Learning," Journal of Abnormal
and Social Psychology: Volume 63 (1961), pp. 311-318.

64D. E. Berlyne, Conflict Arousal and Curiosity
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960), P. 167.

65

 

 

 

Brown and Farber, op. cit., p. 495.

66Bandura and Walters, "Reinforcement Patterns and
Social Behavior: Aggresstion," in The Qynamics of Aggres-
sion, edited by Edwin Megargee and J. Hokanson (Harper and
Row, 1970), p. 36.

 

46

difference in socialization of children. Sears, Maccoby
and Levin67 report that aggressive behavior in small
children is "associated with environmental antecedents
(like) parental permissiveness for aggression." In
addition, they found such children come from physically
punitive homes where the mothers lack self-esteem. In
other words, parents provide an aggressive model and
permit children to behave aggressively in the lower
classes. These conclusions are congruent with the find-
ings of Robert Cole, who has pointed out that middle
class children are in remarkable control of themselves
at age five or six, even when they are disturbed and
when behaving aggressively. Ghetto children, by contrast,
lack built-in controls.68
McCord, McCord and Howard,69 on the other hand,
found aggression in boys instigated by punitive discip-
line, threat and rejection; but they found even the most
aggressive boys not aggressive if they were controlled

closely. They also found non-aggressive boys more likely

to come from families that place high demands on "polite,

 

 

67R. R. Sears, Eleanor Maccoby and H. Levin,
Patterns of Child Rearing (Evanston, Illinois: Row-
Peterson, 1957), p. 475.

68

Robert Cole, "Violence in Ghetto Children,"
Children, Volume 14 (1967), p. 101.
69W. McCord, Jean McCord and A. Howard, "Familial
Correlates of Aggression in Non-Delinquent Children,"
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Volume 62
(1961), PP. 79-93.

47

responsible behavior,‘ and who supervised the boys closely.

They concluded that familial environment was the variable
affecting a child's behavior.

In a recent paper70 the Yale group have concluded
that the strength of instigation to aggression in general
is dependent on:

1. The strength or amount of frustration, the
strength to instigation.

2. The effect of punishment, the inhibition
to aggression.

3. The displacement of aggression, movement
away from the object to which the aggres-
sion is directed.

4. The catharsis of aggression, the reduction
of instigation to aggression.

Inhibition of Aggression

 

Dollard, et al., formulated a general statement
in their 1939 monograph on the suppression of aggression:
The strength of inhibition of any act of
aggression varies positively with the amount
of punishment anticipated to be a consequence
of that act.71
Research by Chasdi and Lawrence72 lends support to this.

Twenty-three nursery school children, aged three through

six played with dolls during four periods. Half of the

 

7ODollard, et al., The Dynamics of Aggression,

 

p. 23.

71Dollard, et al., Frustration and Aggression,

 

p. 33.

2Eleanor H. Chasdi and M. S. Lawrence, "Some
Antecedents of Aggression and the Effects of Frustration
in Doll Play," in Studies in Motivation, edited by D.
McClelland (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1955).

 

48

children were punished verbally during the first two

ff)

ession for any display of aggression; the other half
were not. The first group showed significantly less
aggression by the third session. After the second
session, however, they were no longer scolded for
aggression. In the remaining two sessions overt
hostile behavior increased almost to the level of the
control group which had steadily increased from the
first session.

More recent research indicates, however, that
punishment is inhibiting only when the emotion is
roused. Once this emotional state has subsided, the
responses which were punished will return to their
initial strength. Therefore, punishment is only partly
successful in inhibiting behavior. Moreover, other
factors enter into the inhibition. Internal controls
may influence behavior, perhaps because of the social
status of the people involved. Aggression to a high
status person may lead to punishment and is, therefore,
avoided. Several studies have shown that people typi-
cally evaluate the position and power of individuals

before expressing aggression, (Cohen,73 Pastore,74

 

73A. R. Cohen, "Social Norms, Arbitrariness of
Frustration and Status of the Agent of Frustration in the
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis," Journal of Abnormal
and Social Psychology: Volume 55 (1955), pp. 222-226.

74N. Pastore, "The Role of Arbitrariness in the
Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis," Journal of Abnormal
and Social PSYChOlOgYI Volume 47 (1952), pp. 728-731.

 

 

 

 

49

Graham75 and Sears76). Also the individual may not wish

to express hostility merely because he wishes the approval
of the other individual, or because the frustrated sub-
ject knows the aggressive behavior is frowned on (even if
not actually punished) and he, therefore, chooses a path
of non-aggression.

Finally, cues provided by other people in a group
can also influence behavior strengthening or inhibiting
an instigation to aggression depending on the group in
which the individual finds himself. Individuals assembled
with peers for whom they feel an attraction exhibit
stronger aggression than those who find themselves in a
group of individuals whom they don't find attractive.
French77 found that when peOple have known each other for
a long time, they express significantly more aggression
than in an "unorganized group in which the individuals are
not well acquainted." The authors conclude that in the

second group the individuals anticipate more punishment

 

75F. K. Graham, W. A. Charwat, A. S. Honig and

P. C. Weltz, "Aggression as a Function of the Attack and
the Attacker," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology,
Volume 46 (1951), pp. 512-520.

76Sears, Maccoby and Levin, op. cit., p. 475.

 

77J. R. P. French, Jr., "Unorganized and Organize
Groups under Fear and Frustration" in Authority and Frus-
tration, Universityyof Iowa Studies in Child Welfare,
edited by K. Lewin (Iowa City: Ufiiversity of Iowa Press,
1944).

 

 

50

than in the first group, where the people are well

acquainted with each other.

Aggression and the Media

 

Even though watching television, attending a movie
or looking at a comic book cannot in themselves by con-
sidered strong frustrations or instigations to aggression,
many researchers have attempted to find out if these media
can act as an instigation to aggression. Some psychologists
have concluded they can.

Brown and Farber,78 for instance, believe that
innate responses to anger can become functionally connected
with almost any stimulus. Children can, as noted above,
get into fights with their peers to attract the attention
of some adult. Presumably the child who is already
instigated to anger can well react aggressively after
exposure to violent media of any kind. And some research
suggests that this is true. Bandura, Ross and Ross79
found that all groups of children exposed to an aggressive
model showed more aggression than the control groups
whether the experimental model was a filmed human model

or a filmed cartoon model. They concluded that filmed

mass media may serve an important source of social

 

78Brown and Farber, op. cit., pp. 465-495.

79A. Bandura, Dorothea Ross and Sheila Ross,
"Imitation of Film Mediated Aggressive Models," Journal
of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Volume 66 (1963),
pp. 1, 3-110

51

learning. They also suggested that the influence of mass
media is not limited to deviants alone.

Léivaas80 performed a similar experiment with an
experimental group who saw an aggressive cartoon and a
control group who saw a non-aggressive cartoon. Children
in the experimental group played with hitting a doll
afterwards more frequently than controls.

These hostile after-effects may even carry over
into free play, according to Alberta Siegel.81 Children
of the same sex were paired after watching an aggressive
or non-aggressive animated cartoon. Differences were not
consistent but trends congruent with Bandura and Lovaas
were found.

82 found much of the same

Mussen and Rutherford
trends in a 1969 experiment using 36 first grade boys and
girls who watched cartoons and then answered a series of

questions afterwards.

 

80Ivar Lovaas, "Effect of Exposure to Symbolic
Aggression on Aggressive Behavior," Child Development
Volume 32 (1961), pp. 37-41.

81Alberta Siegel, "Film Mediated Fantasy Aggres-
sion and Strength of Aggressive Drive," Child Development,
Volume 27 (1956). pp. 365-378.

82F. H. Mussen and E. Rutherford, "Effects of
Aggressive Cartoons on Children's Aggressive Play,"
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Volume 62
(1961), PP. 461-464.

52

83

Walters, Thomas and Acker studied the effects of

the knife-fight scene from Rebel Without Cause. Before

 

and after the experiment the subjects could inflict elec-
tric shock. Subjects exposed to aggressive film showed an
increased tendency to give shocks after seeing the movie.

However, an experiment of Hicks84 suggests that
influence of filmed aggressive models is not significant
on a long term basis. Children tested immediately after
exposure to aggressive models on film were influenced
appreciably by the violent content. However, six months
later, they were not affected at all by the filmed model,
but they were still affected by the actual adult model,
although only marginally.

What happens to the model, whether filmed or
actual, may influence imitation by the subjects. In 1963,
Bandura, Ross and R05585 assigned nursery school children
one of four conditions: aggressive model rewarded, aggres-
sive model punished, no exposure to a model, model expres-

sive but not aggressive. They found that children who

witnessed an aggressive model rewarded showed more verbal

 

83R. H. Walters, E. L. Thomas and C. W. Acker,
"Enhancement of Punitive Behavior by Audio-Visual Displays,‘
Science, Volume 136 (1962), pp. 872-873.

84D. J. Hicks, "Imitation and Retention of Film-
Mediated Aggressive Peer and Adult Models," Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, Volume 2 (1965),
pp. 2, 97-100.

85A. Bandura, D. Ross and S. A. Ross, "Imitation of
Film Mediated Models," Journal of Abnormal and Social
Psychology, Volume 66 (1963), pp. 601-607.

 

 

 

 

53

or physical aggression imitative of the model than did the
other groups. Walters86 found evidence to support this,

as did Lefcourt87 when he used Rebel Without Cause and

 

expressed disapproval of aggressive behavior of adolescents
while the film was being shown. Later, subjects were given
a chance to shock fellow students. There was an increase
in number of shocks among those who heard a confederate
approve the aggressive behavior in the film.

After a similar study, Berkowitz88 concluded that
filmed violence was less likely to elicit aggressive reac—
tions from recently frustrated observers, for whom violence
was presented as unjustified than those for whom it was
presented as justified because the victim is a villain.

89

Walters further explains the complications in evaluating

possible effects of television:

 

86R. H. Walters and E. L. Thomas, "Enhancement of
Punitiveness by Visual and an Audio-visual Displays,"
Canadian Journal of Psychology, Volume 16 (1963), pp. 244—
255.

 

87H. M. Lefcourt, et al., "Anticipated Social
Censure and Aggression-Conflict as Mediators of Response
to Aggression Induction," Journal of Social Psychology,
Volume 70 (1966), PP. 251-263.

 

 

8Leonard Berkowitz, "Effects of Film Violence on
Inhibitions against Subsequent Aggression," Journal of
Abnormal and Social Psychology, Volume 5 (1966Y, pp. 405-
412.

 

89R. H. Walters, "Implications of Laboratory
Studies of Aggression for the Control and Regulation of
Violence," Dynamics of Aggression, edited by E. Megargee,
p. 130.

 

54

An evaluation of the possible influence of film

and television productions that depict violence

is complicated by the fact that the hero often

engages in socially sanctioned aggression in

order to overcome the violent and aggressive

villain . . . (which) reflect an eye for an eye,

tooth for a tooth philosophy. The hero often

secures unconditional rewards for his counter-

aggression . . . with the . . . possibility that

his behavior will be increased . . . The violent

hero drama may have a strong potential for

eliciting violent acts if the observer is already

frustrated and has no other readily available

means of securing his goals . . .

Sex of the aggressor has also been shown to be a

factor in the transmission of aggression through the
imitation of aggressive models. In an experiment reported

in 1961 by Bandura, Ross and Ross,90

24 preschool children
observed either an aggressive adult model or an inhibited,
non-aggressive model.

Half observed same-sex models; half observed
models of the Opposite sex. Subjects were then tested
for the amount of imitative, as well as non-imitative
aggressive behavior. Imitation was found to be differently
influenced by the sex of the model with boys showing more
aggression than girls following exposure to the male model,
the difference being particularly marked on highly
masculine-typed behavior. The authors theorized that male
models influenced behavior more than female because social

deprivation of adult males in school settings or that

personal characteristics influenced imitation.

 

90A. Bandura, D. Ross and S. Ross, "Transmission
of Aggression through Imitation of Aggressive Models,"
Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Volume 63
(1961), No. 3, pp. 575-582.

 

55

Robert Albert91 attempted to find out how person-
ality variables interact with violence in the media and
what the effects of this interaction on a child's per-
sonality are. He studied 220 white,middle-class children
between eight and ten years of age, dividing them into
high and low aggression groups. He showed them a conven-
tional cowboy movie in which aggressive acts were com-
mitted by the hero, a spliced version of the same film in
JhiCh the villain rather than the hero won and went
unpunished, and a film in which there was no resolution
of the depicted aggression. He found that the novel
ending,in which the villain goes unpunished,does not
change the level of aggression. Children with high
aggression showed a significant decrease in aggression
when there was no ending. When there was an ending to
the film, there was a significant increase in aggression
among high aggression youngsters, but low aggression sub-
jects were less affected. Children with low I.Q.'s were
more affected than children with high intelligence.
Younger children were also more affected than older ones.
Albert theorized that high aggression subjects, high I.Q.
subjects, were more able to aggress against a great
variety of subjects. Triggering responses of high aggres—
sion subjects was a matter of interaction between aggressive

drive and the presence of frustrating objects of aggression.

 

91R. Albert, "The Role of Mass Media and the Effect

of Aggressive Film Content upon Children's Aggressive
Responses and Identification Choices," Genetic Psychologi-
cal Monographs, Volume 55 (1957), pp. 221-285.

 

 

56

Catharsis

 

While there seems very little doubt that
catharsis actually takes place in many contexts, there is
some doubt among psychologists when violence is involved.
Most psychologists (as noted in the section on the
Psychology of Aggression and Media) agree that violence
in the media rouses aggression rather than catharsis.
The minority believe that the latter takes place.
Catharsis is the process of releasing tension.
When applied to aggression there are two interpretations.
The individual performs an aggressive act and thus reduces
the instigation to aggression, assuming that there is no
further frustration; or the individual "lets off steam"
and reacts by feeling better. Dollard,92 s£_sl., accepted
the first theory in their famous paper of 1939. They also
suggested that the individual expressing hostility can
displace his anger against someone or something which
appears similar to the original object of hostility.
(See Brown and Farber, p. 29). Freudians thought that
full catharsis can be achieved toward a substitute object;

93

but Miller explained that substitute objects receive

less intense acts of hostility because the association

 

92Dollard, et al., op. cit., p. 35.

g 93N. Miller, "Theory and Experiment Relating
Psychoanalytical Displacement to Stimulus-Response Gener-
alization," Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology,
Volume 43 (1948), PP. 155-178.

 

57

between the original instigator to aggression and the
object of the aggression may be weak.

Regardless of the object of hostility, the
catharsis is always achieved through behavior to which the
individual has become accustomed. Hokanson94 found that
some subjects experience catharsis through friendly,
passive behavior while others do so through behavior of
a hostile nature. The author theorized that an individual
accustomed to violent reactions responded with catharsis
when he was allowed his accustomed response. The same was
true of passive people.

The process is valued mostly because of the
insight it affords the individual who experiences it.

At times the very act of talking about one's problems
may clarify them or relief accrue from lowering guilt
and anxiety and therefore lead to the reduction of internal

conflict. Catharsis may also come from the implicit

approval Of the therapist who does not punish the subject.93

Those who believe in catharsis as a reSponse to
aggression have claimed that this process takes place when
people view television or when children read crime comics.

Although he found that play with aggressive toys raised

 

94J. E. Hokanson and S. Shetler, "The Effect of
Overt Aggression on Physiological Tension Level," Journal
of Abnormal and Social Psychology, Volume 63 (1961),
pp. 446-448.

95Carl Rogers, The Clinical Treatment of the
Problem Child (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1939).

 

58

97 decided after a

the level of aggression,96 Feshbach
recent series of studies that aggressive activity experi-
enced vicariously will tend to increase the viewer's
aggression under certain circumstances and decrease under
others, increasing when the subject is not already aroused
emotionally and decreasing when the individual studied is
already excited. In another research project.98 Feshbach
and Singer found that groups of boys in a home for delin-
quents did not increase their aggressive behavior after
viewing violent programs for six weeks. The experimental
group, which had viewed the aggressive programs increased
only aggressive fantasy production. The control group,
which consisted of boys who had witnessed only non-
aggressive content on television, made up fewer aggressive
fantasies. Boys who had been exposed to aggressive tele-
vision content showed significantly less behavioral
aggression. The experimenters concluded that eXposure to
aggressive content seems to reduce or control aggression

in hostile boys from relatively low socio—economic back—

grounds. They believe the same is true of middle-class

 

96Seymour Feshbach, "The Catharsis Hypothesis and
Some Consequences of Inter-Action with Aggressive and
Neutral Play Objects," Journal of Personality, Volume 24
(1956): PP. 449-462.

97Seymour Feshbach, "The Stimulating Cathartic
Effects of a Vicarious Aggressive Activity, Journal of
Abnormal and Social Psychology, Volume 63 (1961), pp.
381-385.

98Seymour Feshbach, Television and Aggression
(New York: Jossey-Bass, 1971).

 

 

 

 

59

boys because the boys perceive the programs as fantasy.
Realistic content, like news or documentaries, would
have a sharply different effect on youngsters.

99 believe that catharsis is

Maccoby and Wilson
most likely to occur if the viewer covertly identifies
with the characters, that is, if the situation is relevant
to his life. This is particularly true if the viewer is
the same sex as the characters with whom he identifies.
Once this identification has taken place, he will remember
the words and actions of the character. Moreover, boys
react physiologically to violent scenes more than do
girls.

The same procedure--identification, catharsis and
insight--has been applied to a wide variety of emotional
problems by psychologists and teachers interested in
bibliotherapy. According to this group of people, an
individual with an emotional problem reads about a char-
acter with a similar difficulty. He identifies with this
person because he sees the similarity between himself and
the character. When the individual in the book resolves
his problem, the reader is also able to release tension
through catharsis and develop some insight into his own
problem. One advocate of bibliotherapy has described it

as a means of working with one's problems through "dynamic

 

99E. Maccoby and W. C. Wilson, "Identification and
Observational Learning from Films," Journal of Abnormal
and Social Psychology," Volume 55 (1957), pp. 76-87.

 

 

6O

interaction between the personality of the reader and
literature."100
. . 101 . . . .
C1anc1olo defines the steps in bibliotherapy
as:
1. Identification: the act of affiliating

some real or fictional character in litera-
ture with oneself or associates.

2. Catharsis: release of emotional tension.
A purge for the emotions of reader.
3. Insight: Seeing the motivation of his own

behavior more clearly.
Schrodes102 outlines the major principles of the molar or
Gestalt view of human behavior and the bibliotherapeutic
process in terms of this psychological viewpoint:

A problem situation (in real life) is conceived
(as) . . . unstructured life space. The problem
situations dramatized in literature are not only
structured but highly differentiated. The sub-
regions are connected by defined paths not only
from region to region, but from reality level to
unreality level, from past to present, and from
part to whole. Whether it represents a symboli-
zation or extension of one's own experience, a
novel or play is concerned with the same physical,
social, and conceptual world in which the reader
lives and with human beings whose emotions, needs,
hopes and goals are different only in degree from
his own. The reader can thus perceive the inner
personal regions of the character as they serve

as an impetus or deterrent to transversing the
barriers of his environment . . . In the very per-
ception of the barriers, in the awareness of the

 

100D. Russell and C. Schrodes, "Contributions of
Research in Bibliotherapy of the Language Arts Program,"
School Review, Volume 58 (1950), pp. 338-342.

101Patricia J. Cianciolo, "Children's Literature
Can Affect Coping Behavior," Personnel and Guidance Journal,
Volume 43 (May 1965), pp. 897-903. Similar definition is
found in C. Schrodes, "Bibliotherapy: A Theoretical and
Clinical Experimental Study" (unpublished Doctoral Disser-
tation, University of California, 1950), p. 35.

102

 

 

Schrodes, op. cit., pp. 884-885.

61

inner personal regions of the character, integra-
tion may take place. To the extent that the
reader participates emotionally in this journey
through topological space, he has recognized

and extended his own life space. Certain

barriers have been passed through symbolically

and can be penetrated again . . .

The important question is whether the identifi-
cation will be accompanied by insight, that is
whether cognitive reorganization will take place.
Not only may literature invoke a state of
heightened emotion, but it may give the reader
something to organize, interpret or analyze. This
in itself is an integrating activity. The degree
to which this organization will take place is a
product of a number of factors, such as the nature
and strength of the identification, the need of
the reader to maintain his defenses, the evocative
power of the piece of literature and the way in
which the problem is structured for him.

In addition to the dynamics of bibliotherapy,
several writers have also outlined approaches to the use

103 states that therapeutic

of this kind of therapy. Blair
use of books should only be undertaken when the books are
at the independent reading level of the child involved.
The child's personality should also be taken into consid-
eration. Bone104 and Timm105 favor the use of role
playing and other techniques.

Many writers have also attempted to show that many

different kinds of literature can be used to facilitate

more adequate personality development. Kircher10 notes

 

103Cianciolo, op. cit., p. 899.

lO4Ibid., p. 900.

R
lO'Ibid., p. 900.

106C. J. Kircher, Behavior Patterns in Children's
Books (Catholic University of America Press, 1966), p.
iii.

62

that books help to form character by providing emotional
release and by allowing the reader to learn modes of
behavior which lead to better self-management. Rosen-
blatt107 argues for all literature as a comprehensible
way to introduce the reader to the infinite possibilities
that life offers. Wenzel108 thinks that the dynamic
balance between emotional and intellectual components
permits the reader further socialization. Goldsmith109
suggests fables for character building in the elementary
school. StrodellO discusses the short story for develop-
ing self-insight. Meckellll explores the novel and its
impact on student personality. dPlanckllz discusses the

. . . 113 . 14
uses of sc1ence fiction and Agnes of poetry. Squires

 

107Louise Rosenblatt, Literature as Exploration
(New York: Noble and Noble, 1968), p. 6.

 

 

l08E. Wenzel, "Children's Literature and Personality
Development," Elementary English, Volume 25 (1948), PP-
12-31.

1098. Goldsmith, "The Fable as a Medium for Char-

acter Education," Elementary Education Review, Volume 16
(1939), pp. 223-225.

110J. Strode, Social Insight through Short Stories
(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1946).

111H. C. Meckel, "An Exploratory Study of Responses
of Adolescent Pupils to Situations in a Novel" (unpublished
Doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, 1946).

112R. Planck, "Science Fiction," American Journal
of Orthopsychiatry, Volume 30 (1960), pp. 799-810.

113M. Agnes, "Bibliotherapy for Socially Maladjusted
Children," Catholic Education Review, Volume 44 (1946),
pp. 8-15.

114James Squires, The Responses of Adolescents
While Reading Short Stories, N.C.T.E., 1964.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

63

even suggests that children can criticize literature more
effectively if they are emotionally involved.

Inspite of the wealth of writing on the subject,
there has been relatively little experimental research on

bibliotherapy. Several studies have shown that additu-

dinal change can take place after contact with books, howvvvr

Smith115 conducted a survey of 502 elementary school

children. Almost two thirds indicated that reading had

116

made them change their Opinions. Carleson showed that

bibliotherapy can be effective in improving attitudes

toward Negroes, as did Jackson.117

Some studies have been concerned with special

problems of students and the remedial effect bibliotherapy

has on them. Cahoell8 describes the technique with handi-

capped children. Junken119 advocates its use for tutoring,

 

115N. B. Smith, "Some Effects of Reading on Chil-
dren," Elementary English, Volume 25 (1948), pp. 271-78.

116G. R. Carleson, "A Study of the Effect of Read—
ing Literature about the Negro on the Racial Attitudes of
a Group of Eleventh Grade Students in Northern Schools"
(unpublished Doctoral dissertation, University of Minne—
sota, 1948).

117
tudes toward the Negro Race,
4 (1944), pp. 53-60.

118E. Cahoe, "Bibliotherapy for Handicapped Chil—
dren," NEA Journal, Volume 49 (1960), pp. 34-36.

119

Intellectually Adequate,‘
13 (1960). pp. 271-276.

 

E. P. Jackson, "Effects of Reading upon Atti-
" Libra£y_Quarterly, Volume

 

 

E. M. Junken, "Therapeutic Tutoring for the
' The Reading Teacher, Volume

 

64

Moody120 for remotivating students. Waite121 suggests the

procedure as an aid in tutoring reading. Witty122 presses
for bibliotherapy to be used with retarded learners, for
maladjusted students, and for various developmental prob-
lems, as well as for gifted students, for stutterers and
for satisfying the emotional needs of all students.

In only a few cases have studies been concerned
with the effect books have on hostile, aggressive children,
or even on aggression in general. Craig123 worked with a
group of juvenile delinquents and found that the boys were
able to get rid of their hostile feelings after reading
books. Slocum124 found bibliotherapy stimulated intro-

spection after catharsis, with a group of delinquents on

probation.

 

120M. T. Moody, "The Reader Who Needs Remotiva-

tion," ALA Bulletin,Volume 58 (1964), pp. 795-797.

121D. C. Waite, "Therapy for Reading Ills," Penn
School Journal, Volume 114 (1965), pp. 64—65.

122F. Witty, "Reading Success and Emotional Adjust-
ment," Elementary English, Volume 27 (1950), pp. 281-296;
"Needs of Slow Learning Pupils," Education, Volume 81
(1961), pp. 71-76; "Meeting Developmental Needs through
Reading," Education, Volume 84 (1964), pp. 451-458: "A
Balanced Reading Program for the Gifted," The Reading
Teacher, Volume 17 (1963), pp. 131-137.

123L. P. Craig, "Boys and Books Get Together,"
The Child, Volume 16 (1952), pp. 98—109.

124G. P. Slocum, "Books for Probationers: A
Court-Library Project," National Probation and Parole
Association Journal, Volume 1 (1955), pp. 20-24.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

65

While concerned with the social adjustment or
normal children, Heminghausl25 also touched on aggressive
feelings of children in elementary school. In a con—
trolled experiment in which one group received ordinary
school treatment, a second group of children read books
and then were exposed to a bibliotherapeutic process,
followed by guidance. California Test of Personality, the
Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Test and the Thematic
Apperception Test were also used. Significant changes
occurred in self-adjustment, social adjustment, total
adjustment and there was a decrease in aggression, the
latter to a .01 level of confidence. The Thematic Apper-
ception Test confirmed the direction and extent of the
personality changes. Heminghaus noted that adjustment
changes in the experimental group moved in a direction
not parallel to normal adjustment for early adolescence,
giving support to the hypothesis, namely that biblio-
therapy can be used in producing greater personal and
social adjustment.

Thus, even though bibliotherapy has been studied
from a number of points of View, none of them have been
directly or exclusively concerned with violence in litera-
ture as focus, nor have writers directed any attention to

reactions of normal children to violent episodes.

 

125E. G. Heminghaus, "The Effect of Bibliotherapy
on the Attitudes and Social Adjustment of a Group of
Elementary School Children" (unpublished Doctoral disser-
tation, Washington University, 1954).

66

Content Analysis

 

Content analysis has been described as a process
for objective systematic and quantitative description of

126 Objectivity

the manifest content of a communication.
is attained in this method, according to Berelson, by
constructing precise terms and categories and coding
those elements which fit these definitions. Scientific
research is systematic; this is also a characteristic of
content analysis. The data is obtained in such a way
that someone replicating the study will get essentially
similar results.

The success of a content analysis, according to
Richard Budd, is dependent on the selection of its cate-
gories. "No content analysis is better than its cate-
gories, for a system or set of categories is in essence

"127 Elements which have been

a conceptual scheme.
explicitly defined are grouped in several categories
which are mutually exclusive and which cover the entire

subject exhaustively. These elements are not standard

to content analysis in general. Instead, Budd

 

126Bernard Berelson, Content Analysis in Communi-
cation Research (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe,
1952), p. 16.

127Richard W. Budd and Robert K. Thorp and Lewis
Donahew, Content Analysis of Communications (New York:
Macmillan, 1967), p. 39.

 

 

 

67

suggests that the categories derive from the hypothesis and

from the goals of the study.128

Budd129 states that content analysis is concerned
with two units of measure, the coding unit and the context
unit. The former is the smallest selected segment of
content that is counted and scored. The context unit is
the amount of material read in order to analyze the

130 has developed one kind of

coding unit. Ralph White
content analysis, a value analysis. He conducted an
eight year empirical study of the value system of our
culture. From this work he developed 50 categories,
which, in his opinion, represents social values in America.
He argues strongly for the application of this set of
categories to any content because there is a core of
sameness to all communications.

Many research studies have used content analysis
in recent years. To mention only a few, Ralph Whitel3l
conducted one on the value system found in the writings

of Richard Wright. Lee Brown132 conducted a content

analysis of anti-Catholic documents circulated through

 

128Berelson, op. cit., p. 27.

129Budd, op. cit., p. 48.

130Ralph K. White, Value Analysis, the Nature and
Use of the Method (New York: Society for the Psychological
Study of Social Issues, 1951).

131

 

 

Ibid., p. 4.

132Lee Brown, "A Content Analysis of Anti-Catholic
Documents Circulated through the Mails during the 1960
Presidential Election Campaign" (unpublished Master's
thesis, University of Iowa, 1961).

68

the mails during the 1960 presidential campaign, the elec-
tion in which John F. Kennedy ran and was elected. Mary

Frances Yeazell133 used content analysis for a qualitative.
analysis of the value content of selected literature for

134 studied

ninth grade English classes. Dewey Chambers
social values in trade books for children ranging in age

from five to nine years.

Summary

The research reviewed in this chapter was divided

into several categories:

1. Violence found and studied in the Mass
Media
2. Violence found and studied in Literature

3. The Study of Violence in Psychology

4. Content Analysis

Mass media and psychology were reviewed as
parallel topics in which considerable research has been
conducted. Literature, on the other hand, has not been
studied for its violence until recently. In the past few
years, discussions have suggested that literature in
general, children's books among others, may well be

increasingly violent.

 

133Mary Frances Yeazell, "A Qualitative Analysis
of the Value Concept of Selected Literature from Ninth
Grade English" (unpublished Ed.D. dissertation, University
of Illinois, 1966).

134Dewey Chambers, "An Exploratory Study of the
Social Values in Children's Literature" (unpublished Ed.D.
dissertation, Wayne State University, 1965).

69

Studies in mass media have repeatedly suggested
that movies, comics and television have too much violent
content. Many studies suggest that children are affected
by the violent content of mass media. Their attitudes
change, emotional change takes place and physiological
change occurs.

Numerous psychological studies also show that
children are affected emotionally by the aggression they
View. Instigation to aggression can be caused by frus-
tration, but it also can be brought on by a model. Films,
cartoons or people can provide the needed model. Inhibi-
tion to aggression can be due to punishment, close super-
vision, a threatening model, to mention only a few.

While most psychologists believe that viewing
aggression leads to an increase in aggression, some few
experimenters believe that exposure to vicarious aggres-
sion leads to catharsis or a dissipation of tension.

Many studies on this subject were cited.

Finally, three well-known approaches used in
content analysis were described. The general principles
of content analysis were outlined, along with the opinions
of some writers in the field. Some studies using content

analysis were cited.

CHAPTER III

PROCEDURE

All realistic fiction books from the Notable Book
list from 1960 to 1970 were selected for study of violent
content. This special list was used because books included
on it are singled out by a committee of the American Library
AssociatiOn as outstanding children's books each year.1
They are, therefore, frequently bought by local libraries
and are readily available for children to read.2 Moreover,
publishers of children's books depend heavily on libraries
for their market; and the American Library Association
therefore figures as a more important arbiter of popularity
among children's books than they do among adult books.
These books then are those most frequently available for
children who read. Using the Notable Book list for the
ten years, there were altogether 170 books, all of which

were found and examined for violent content.

 

1Membership of the Committee changes each year.
Members are elected because of their leadership in Chil-
dren's literature and their roles as children's librarians
in school and public libraries.

2Patricia J. Cianciolo,"Criteria for the Use of
Trade Books in the Elementary School Program" (unpublished
Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 1963), pp.
136, 338-339.

70

71

Each of the books thus selected was analyzed in
the following fashion. To test the hypothesis:

Between 1960 and 1970 children's realistic

fiction as sampled in the Notable Books

selected for children by the American Library

Association increased in violence both in

amount and intensity.

Actual acts of violence constituted the coding
unit. All acts of violence in all realistic fiction books
were tabulated. For an episode or coding unit to be
included in the study, it had to contain an overt expres-
sion of force which was intended to hurt or kill. The
entire scene in which the violence takes place constituted
the context unit, not merely the section containing the
violence. The beginning and end of the scene was defined
by entrances and exits of characters, as well as by change
in topic or change in scene or locale.

The proportion of violent pages to total book
pages was expressed as a fraction and as a percentage for
each context unit found in the book.

CONTEXT UNIT (PAGES) : PROPORTION OF BOOK DEVOTED
TOTAL BOOK PAGES TO VIOLENCE (PERCENTAGE)

 

The following analysis was done to test the
hypothesis:

Between 1960 and 1970 heroes and villains

increasingly committed a wide variety of

violent acts in the Notable Book List

selected for children by the American
Library Association.

Each context unit was next subjected to further

analysis. A scale was developed to determine which actors

72

perpetrated violent acts in each context unit: villain,
hero, or minor character. In addition, the relationship
between individuals involved in a violent act was analyzed
for their relationship; namely whether the violent act was
expressed toward an object. The hero was the protagonist,
the villain the antagonist, intimates were participants
Awho knew each other.

The scale was represented in such a way as to
show the action or kind of violence described in the
context unit. Included were wrestling, boxing, shooting,
stabbing, wounding and killing. Other kinds of violent
acts were however, included individually by listing them
under "other." These actions were described by the actors
mentioned above. The chart was used to record each actor
and action involved in a given violent episode or context
unit. Some units included several violent acts with a
resulting "+" for each actor/action involved. Each "+"
was given a value of "1" so that the actor/action cate-
gory could be quantified for each context unit. Below is
an example of the action/actor scale:

ACTOR/ACT ION S CALE

Actor Involved Relationship

 

 

Minor
Hero Villain Character Strangers Intimates

 

 

Action

Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting
Stabbing
Wounding
Killing

Other (Specify)

73

The following analysis was done to test the
hypothesis:

Between 1960 and 1970 children's realistic

fiction,as sampled in the American Library

Association for the Notable Book lists,more

frequently presented violent content in a

sensuous or realistic fashion rather than in

a non-sensuous style.

To test this hypothesis each context unit was
analyzed for intensity. For this scale one axis of the
chart enumerated the details of the violence included in
that unit: physical blows, weapons, blood, wounds, pain
and death. These were described by a second axis indicat-
ing the mode used in presenting the material, either
verbal or pictorial.

Scoring was done with attention to treatment of
details for each violent act sentence by sentence.
Sensuous details presented verbally were given a "+".
Details without sensuous appeal were given a "-".
Examples of some sentences and their scores follow:

"I shot two of them."3 This received a minus,
"-", because it was lacking in sensuous detail. "He had
many times routed bands of Continental irregulars and
militia."4 This received a minus, "-", because the words

used lacked sensuous details even though some detailed

information was included.

 

3Scott O'Dell, The Island of the Blue Dolphins
(Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1960), p. 76.

4L. Wibberley, Treegate's Raiders (New York:
Ariel, 1962), p. 142.

 

 

74

An example of a "+" rating follows:

(1) "Just as the big cat leaped, Bristle Face

came from somewhere. .I don't know where."

(2) It was like he just popped up out of

solid rock. (3) He jumped at the cat at the

same moment it jumped at me, and they hit

together in mid air. (4) Well I never heard

such growling and screaming and squalling and

snarling and grunting and teeth slashing in

all my life. I didn't hear it very long . . .5
The fact that sentence 2 contained a simile was not
significant; it was given a "+" because it appealed to
the visual senses of the reader. Attention is on vivid-
ness of detail, not on style of writing. Sentences 3
and 4 also received "+" because of attention to sensuous
detail, hearing in these cases.

The same analysis was applied to pictures. They
were evaluated for attention to sensuous details of
violence, not for style. A representational picture
which did not focus on violent detail received a "-". An
example of this is found in the Year of the Bloody Stevens,
p. 96f'where a dead man drawn in a representational style
is viewed by the hero but hidden from the reader by a
tree. On the other hand pictures which appealed to the
reader's senses were given a score of ++, even when they
were distorted stylistically with expressionistic treat-

ment, as in the illustration found on page 52 of Haugaard's

Hakon of Rogen's Saga. Here the picture is not strictly

 

 

5Z. Ball, Bristle Face (New York: Holiday House,
1962), p. 79.

 

*See Appendix D.

75

representational, but focus is clearly on death, as shown
in the staring eyes of the Chieftain, in the female figure
in deep sorrow, hands over face, and in the heavy Viking
weapons in the background. Scoring on the intensity chart

is thus as follows:

TREATMENT OF VIOLENCE SCORE
Sensuous in verbal material +
Sensuous in pictorial material ++6

Nonsensuous in verbal material -

Nonsensuous in pictorial material -
Each "-" was totaled with a value of "-l". Each "+" was
totaled with a value of "+1". Thus, every context unit
could be evaluated for intensity on a quantitative basis.
All the context units in a single book were added together,
thus making available a raw intensity score for each book
analyzed. A higher score in the plus range indicated a
more realistic or sensuous treatment of violence. A
minus score indicated a less sensuous or realistic treat-
ment of violence, also. An example of the Intensity Scale

can be found below:

 

6++ was assigned to pictorial material because
pictures depicting violence call for a different kind
of interpretation. Nonsensuous material in pictures and
words, however, demand the same amount of imagination.
They therefore received the same score.

76

INTENSITY SCALE

Violent Acts Treatment of Violence

 

 

Verbal Pictorial

Physical blows
Weapons
Blood
Wounds
Pain
Death

A value scale was also treated. The attitudes
expressed toward aggression in each violent episode
included in the study were next analyzed in this scale.
Applying this scale only to acts of aggression, Ralph
White's value analysis was utilized in each context unit.7
Symbols suggested by White were first recorded in the margin
'of each episode and later tabulated under one of three cate-
gories: 1. Against aggression; 2. In favor of prosocial
aggression; and 3. In favor of anti-social aggression.

When the content for each of the 170 books had been
analyzed, the averages of the total number of pages of
all the Notable books for each year were determined in two
ways. Each percentage of each book was first calculated
by adding per cent for each book separately, dividing
by the number of books and multiplying by 100. This was

called the book average. Next all the violent pages of

all the books were added together. These then became the

 

7Ralph White, op. cit.

77

numerator, in which the total number of pages of all the

books of a given year was the denominator for the fraction:

All violent_pages for oneyyear = Page Average
Total number of book pages for one year for Year

 

An example of the two kinds of averages follow:
Two books were published in one year. If Book A had 20

pages, 10 of which were violent, the percentage would be

%% = 50%. If Book B had 300 pages of which 30 were violent,

3O 1

the per cent would be 366 = ID = 10%. Book and page average

would be calculated as follows:

Book Averages: 50% + 10% = 60% % 2 = 30%

Page Averages: 34 = % = 12%

O

[\J
O

In the book average each book regardless of length was
given equal value. In the page averages, longer books
were given greater weight. Thus, for example, in one
year, out of total of 3,858 pages there might have been
370 pages or 9.6 per cent of the total number of pages
that describe violent episodes. The percentage in a
group of books for this year would range from O to a
high of 32.1 per cent and the average over the total
number of books, 22 in this year, would be 8.3 per cent.
Books for each year were categorized as histori-
cal fiction or modern realistic fiction and the corres-
ponding page and book averages for violent pages were
obtained. For one year historical fiction might have

shown violent content of 16.6 per cent for the page

78

averages and 16.8 per cent for book averages. On the
other hand, in the same year modern realistic fiction
content might have been 5.78 per cent and 5.1 per cent,
respectively.

Since a substantial number of books were authored
by British and Commonwealth authors, a percentage of
violent episodes were found for those books originally
published in the United Kingdom. However, since the
total number of these books in any given year was not very
large, it was felt that no significant statistics could
be obtained by further division into modern realistic
fiction and historical fiction. For one year the page
and book averages for the United Kingdom books might have
been 9.7 per cent and 8.7 per cent respectively.

\When each detail for each violent context unit
had been evaluated, the totals of intensity scores for
each year were next averaged over each year. The average
raw intensity scores for one year might be +149. As
before, historical fiction and modern realistic fiction
were separated and books originating in the United Kingdom
were also separately considered.

\Since the total number of violent details obviously
depends on the total number of pages in any one year, it
was felt that a reasonably relative scale could be arrived
at by dividing the number of violent details by the total
number of book pages. It is this ratio which is referred

to as the intensity figure. In one year, within a total

79

of 3,858 pages 576 details of violence might have been
found, giving an intensity number of 14.9 per cent. Of
these 576 details, 415 appear among the historical novels
yielding an intensity figure of 30.4 per cent, as contrasted
with 6.5 per cent for the modern realistic fiction. United
Kingdom books in that year would have been the figure

13.8 per cent.

Next each author appearing on the Notable Book
Lists more than once was separated from the other authors
along with intensity scores for each of the books included
in the study and written by that author. In this case the
purpose of the scale was to find out whether writers pro-
duce books with consistent amounts of violence. Thus,
one author might have intensity score of 1.8 per cent for
one book and 1.2 per cent for a second book.

Procedure in the actor-action scale was as
follows: Each of the actors, hero, villain and minor
characters, for all the violence episodes in each year
were added and averaged. Each kind of violent action was
also added separately; wrestling, boxing, stabbing, wound-
ing and killing, with each category averaged for the year.
Out of a total of 168 violent episodes in one year 15
per cent would be committed by the hero, 14 per cent by
the villain and 71 per cent by minor characters. In the
same episodes 29 per cent might have involved intimates
(people who knew each other) and 70 per cent strangers.

Only 1 per cent of the violent acts would be directed

80

toward inanimate objects. Again these sub-categories were
divided between historical and modern realistic fiction.

Scores were also kept for kinds of violence, again
in this case percentages. In one year violent actions
might have included 20 per cent stabbings, 15 per cent
killings and 15 per cent shootings, among other actions.
In one year, 15 per cent of the violence in historical
fiction might have been committed by the hero, 14 per cent
by the villain and 71 per cent by minor characters.

Additional scales were developed in an effort to
prove the following hypothesis:

Between 1960 and 1970 Children's literature

more frequently presented violent content in

a sensuous fashion rather than a nonsenuous

style.
Treatment of violence was divided into two categories:
sensuous and nonsensuous. Raw scores were kept for each
year and average percentages developed for each of them.
Thus, for one year on the average 86 per cent of the
violent incidents might have included sensuous treatment
while only 14 per cent might have been nonsensuous treat-
ment. These figures were also divided into historical
fiction and modern realistic fiction.

In a second scale nonsensuous treatment were fur-
ther divided into two categories:

1. No special style; merely lacking in detail.

2. Treated in some special fashion, but also

lacking in detail.

81

The following was not considered stylized because
the information was offered without special effects:

"I shot two of them, not the leader."8
The following was considered stylized because the author
tried to make the speaker appear like a Cockney but no
details were offered:

"He kicked up a flipping row in the yard."9
Again raw scores were listed and percentages developed
from them.

One last analysis was done with the intensity scale
in an effort to find out whether, on the whole, authors
were including all the information of a given violent
episode, injury and suffering, as well as the actual
violent acts. Two categories were developed here:

1. The violent deed. This included the

"blows" and the "weapons."
2. The effect of the deed. This included
"blood," "wounds," "pain" and "death."
Again raw scores were averaged and presented in the form
of percentages.
One final hypothesis was investigated:
Between 1960 and 1970 attitudes expressed

about violent content in children's litera-
ture is most often against aggression.

 

8O'Dell, op. cit., p. 76.

9Florence Stucley, Family Walkup: A Stopy of the
Berners Family (New York: Watts, 1961), p. 154.

 

 

82

In this investigation a record was kept of all value

judgments about aggression, whether expressed directly
by the author or by one of the characters in the book.
All of these were recorded in abbreviated form as sug-

gested by Ralph K. White in Value Analysis: The Nature

 

and Use of the Method. The remarks were next listed in

 

three different categories:

1. Value judgments against aggression
2. Value judgments in favor of prosocial
aggression

3. Value judgments in favor of anti-social
aggression.

Again raw scores were converted into percentages. Thus,
in one year 89 per cent of the statements might have been
against aggression altogether, 11 per cent of the value
judgments might have been expressed in favor of prosocial
aggression and no value judgments might have been expressed
in favor of anti-social aggression.

In a further study, an attempt was made to prove
the following hypothesis:

A positive relationship exists between geo-

graphical location of the school the children

attend and the verbal response of children to

violence in realistic fiction.

Three episodes with violent content were chosen

from children's books:10

 

0See Appendix D for the entire episodes read to
the children.

83

Grade I Fitzhugh, Bang, Bang,You're Dead (entire book)

 

Grade III Armstrong, Sounder (pp. 21-34)

Grade VII Steele, The Year of the Bloody Sevens (pp. 91-
103)

 

Each of these selections was presented to three
groups of children in a tape recording, along with a
short introduction to each of the stories. Following
the reading, directions were read to the children for
answering a questionnaire. This set of directions was
also included on the taped reading.11

The complete questionnaire given to the students is
reproduced below. In addition to questions numbered 3, 4,
5, 6, 7 and 12, which were used in this study, several
other questions were included. These questions, which were
not graded, were intended to permit students from free
expression and to direct their attention to those aspects of
the story central to question numbers 3-7 and 12, and, at

least in part, to divert them from the intended purpose of

the questionnaire.

Questionnaire for Students

Name Grade

 

 

1. What part of the story did you like best?

 

 

 

llA taped reading was used in each case so that
the same procedure was followed for each group. By
presenting the episodes on a tape recorder, the reader
was able to avoid changes in emphasis or facial expres-
sion. The reader could also avoid reacting to the
environment in which the story was read.

10.

11.

12.

84

What part of the story did you like least?

 

 

In the scene, which of the following happened?

(a) A fist fight.

(b) A shooting.

(c) Somebody was hurt.

(d) Somebody was killed.

(e) Something else happened.

Who took part in the fight?

 

Who was hurt, if anyone?

 

Who hurt him or tried to hurt him?

 

The scene made me feel:

(a) Like not reading any more or hearing any more.

(b) Uncomfortable but unable to stop or unwilling
to stop. ’

(c) Interested in knowing more details.

(d) Eager to read some more or hear some more.

(e) As if I were living the scene myself.

After I was finished I felt:

 

 

 

 

(a) should have acted differently.
(b) did the best possible thing.

(c) Sorry for .

I could imagine how felt. Yes ( ), No ( ).
I could imagine how felt. Yes ( ), No ( ).

 

If I could, I would change the scene so that

 

 

 

 

I rate the scene:

(a) Exactly like real life.
(b) Somewhat like real life.
(c) Not much like real life.
(d) Not at all like real life.
(e) No opinion.

85

Question numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6 were aimed at
establishing the level of understanding of the story by
the student. These four questions are:

3. In the scene, which of the following
happened?

(a) A fist fight.

(b) A shooting.

(c) Somebody was hurt.

(d) Somebody was killed.

(e) Something else happened.

4. Who took part in the fight?

 

5. Who was hurt, if anyone?

 

6. Who hurt him or tried to hurt him?

 

If a student answered three of these questions
correctly, it was presumed that his or her level of under—
standing was sufficient to permit meaningful responses to
question numbers 7 and 12. Tabulations from the four com—
prehension questions were done in such a fashion as to
indicate average percentage scores for the three grade
levels and for the three geographical locations, suburban,
rural and inner-city.

The questionnaire was given to nine groups of
children, three groups each of children in the first grade,
third grade and seventh grade. For each grade, one class
was from a suburban school, the second from a rural school
and the third from an inner-city school.

There were 23 children in the first grade suburban

class, 25 children in the first grade rural school and 25

86

children in the first grade inner—city school. In the third
grade classes there were 29 children in the suburban school,
21 in the rural school and 19 in the inner-city school.

The seventh grade suburban school had 29 students, the
seventh grade rural school had 21 children and the seventh
grade inner—city school had 24 students. The number of

children in each class is given in Table 1.

TABLE l.--Sample for Pilot Study.

 

Grade Location Number of Students
I Suburban 23
I Rural 25
I Inner-City 25
III Suburban 29
III Rural 21
III Inner-City 19
VII Suburban 29
VII Rural 21
VII Inner-City 24

 

In addition to the comprehension questions the
questionnaire contained the following two questions for
which answers were tabulated:

7. The scene made me feel:

(a) Like not reading any more or hearing
anymore.

(b) Uncomfortable but unable to stop or
unwilling to stop.

(c) Interested in knowing more details.

(d) Eager to read some more or hear more of it.

(e) As if I were living the scene myself.

87

12. I rate the scene:

(a) Exactly like real life.
(b) Somewhat like real life.
(c) Not much like real life.
(d) Not at all like real life.
(e) No opinion.

The first of these questions served as an indicator
of the child's enjoyment of the violent episode. Answers
(a) and (b) indicated dislike for the scene, a feeling of
discomfort. On the other hand, answers (c), (d) and (e)
indicated a positive feeling about the scene.

The purpose of the second question was to see
whether or not the children related closely to the events
described in the scene.

Scoring was conducted as follows. For each class
the total number of students who understood two-thirds of
the comprehension questions was first tabulated, including
number and percentages. The percentage of children from
each grade level and from each geographical location who
understood the story and found it more or less like real
life was, therefore, available. In addition, the chil—
dren's feelings about the violent episode were scored
according to grade level and geographical location.
Differences in percentages were to be considered proof of
the relationship of geographical location and verbal
response of the children.

A second hypothesis was examined. This hypothesis

was:

88

A positive relationship exists between

personality as established by the Sears
Aggression Test and individual responses
to violent episodes in children's books.

To test this hypothesis student reSponses to ques-
tion number 7, reproduced on the preceding page, were
used. First grade children were excluded from this part

of the study since the Sears Aggression Test was validated

on twelve year old children.12

Some weeks later, the children from the third grade
and seventh grade classes were asked to answer the ques-
tions from the Sears Aggression Test, a standardized per-

sonality test developed at Stanford University by Robert

R. Sears and validated on twelve year old children.13

This test contains questions aimed at assessing the
following personality attributes:

1. Aggression Anxiety (feeling of fear, discomfort
and dislike of aggression).

2. Projected Aggression (measure of tendency to
attribute aggression to sources outside of the
self).

3. Self-aggression (injury or punishment to the
self).

4. Prosocial Aggression (aggression used in a
socially approved way for purposes that are
acceptable to the moral standards of the group).

5. Anti-social Aggression (aggression normally
unacceptable socially in the normal pattern of
our culture).

 

12R. R. Sears, "Relation of Early Socialization

Experiences to Aggression in Middle Childhood," J. Abnorm.
Soc. Psychol., Vol. 63 (1961), pp. 461-465.

13

 

 

Ibid.

89

The tests were scored according to instructions
provided. A number score for each child and for each of
the five categories was thus determined.

For each class and each category of the Sears
Aggression Test two scatter diagrams were prepared. The
first of these included one point on each scatter diagram
for each aggression scale for each child who completed the
questionnaire. The second set of scatter diagrams con-
tained one point for each child who completed the ques—
tionnaire and who answered two—thirds of the comprehension
questions correctly. Using only those students who had
demonstrated adequate understanding of the story, product-
moment correlation coefficients14 were calculated for each
class and each of the five categories of the Sears Aggres-
sion Test with respect to the responses of the children to
the five choices of question number 7. In these calcula~
tions, responses (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) were assigned
the numerical values of l, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively.

Finally, the teacher in each class was asked to
fill out a questionnaire for every one of the students
in that class. The purpose of this questionnaire was to
assess the child's intelligence, reading level, and socio-
economic background. While most teachers filled out
the form, the majority failed to state the source of

information ("Name the test used:"), making their

 

l4Allen E. Edwards, Statistical Methods, Sec. Ed.

(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967), p. 102.

 

90

responses generally unreliable. For this reason the
teacher's questionnaire was not used in this study. The

questionnaire given to the teachers is reproduced below.

Teacher's Questionnaire

Name of Student Grade School

 

 

 

Place a circle around one of the following:

1. The child has

(a) A high level of intelligence (above average).
(b) A middle level of intelligence (average).
(c) A low level of intelligence (below average).

2. The child has:

(a) A high general reading level (above grade
level).

(b) A middle general reading level (approximately
grade level).

(c) A low general reading level (below grade level).

3. Father's (or mother's) occupation

 

4. Highest educational level achieved by father

 

5. Highest educational level achieved by mother

 

Reliability of Ratings
To establish the reliability of the Scores used in
this content analysis, two procedures were followed. The
author read each context unit twice in widely separated
periods of time, thus permitting test-retest for each unit.
In addition, three persons were asked to read one of the

books, Durango Street by Frank Bonham, and carry through a

 

complete content analysis. These persons were supplied with
blank forms identical to those used by the writer and were
given detailed instructions on the method used by the writer

in the performance of the content analysis. In each case

91

the author did one analysis with the reader. The three
individuals were a graduate student specializing in chil-
dren's literature at Michigan State University, an elemen—
tary school librarian, and a former elementary teacher in
the East Lansing Public School System.

Eight items in the content analysis were subjected
to the reliability test. These items are: the percentage
of the total book pages that are devoted to violence; the
intensity score, in per cent, normalized to the total
number of book pages; the six categories of the actor-
action scale, expressed in percentages. These last six
items are the percentage of the times the violent acts are
committed by the hero, villain, and minor characters, and
the percentage of the times violence occurs between
strangers, intimates, or is directed at inanimate objects.

Two schemes are used to estimate reliability.

The first is that suggested by Robert L. Ebel.15 The
eight items are treated equally and given equal weight.
Using this scheme, the reliability of the ratings is 0.935,
and the reliability of the average rating is 0.983.

Since the various items in the content analysis
are not identical, although all concern violent content
in one form or another, a second scheme was employed to

estimate the confidence level for each separate category.

 

15Robert L. Ebel, "Estimation of the Reliability

of Ratings," Psychometrika, Vol. 16 (1951), pp. 407-424.

 

92

»For each category the standard deviation from the mean
rating was obtained, and these standard deviations are

also presented. These standard deviations are also

fairly small, ranging from 1.0 per cent to 5.7 per cent.

The largest is for the intensity score.

The calculations of the reliability of the
ratings and of the standard deviations for the separate

categories are shown in Table 2 and Table 3.

93

 

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CHAPTER IV

RESULTS: CONTENT ANALYSIS

The writer first tested the following hypothesis:

There was an increase both in amount and

intensity of violent content contained in

children's literature published between

1960 and 1970.

The analysis of books published during the ten
year period, 1960-1970, showed considerable fluctuation
in violent content. There were highs of approximately
16 per cent in the years 1961, 1964 and 1967, and lows
in the years 1960, 1962 and 1966, all near 10 per cent.
This pattern is apparent from the graph, Figure 1, show—
ing page and book averages. The page averages for the

ten year period were:

Page Averages

 

Year All Books
1960 10.6%
1961 16.0%
1962 9.6%
1963 11.6%
1964 15.3%
1965 13.4%
1966 10.8%
1967 16.6%
1968 12.0%
1969 13.2%

95

96

Figure 1.--Annual averages of violent content, expressed in
per cent of space devoted to violence. Book and
Page Averages are shown. Results are presented
for all books and separately for historical fic-
tion, modern realistic fiction, and for books
originally published in the United Kingdom. The
dashed line is a least-squares fit for Page
Averages of all books.

97

 

 

30“ Page Book 7
Avg. Avg.
0 . All Books
U I Historical Fiction
L A A Modern Realistic FiCtion
25‘ V V United Kingdom
20‘t
- 6
I
I
I I I I O '
: . -
I
15~ 95 V’ I “
Y7 ,,. —*' "
0"" " .
...———— O
,— ———-— V . ‘
..——-— VA
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10" 1 A . -
[3 AL
V ‘ A
‘ A
V'
A A; 4A
A A $7
54+ A
V’
0 : : 4 4 ; ; F ; +1- +
1960 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69
Year

Figure 1

96

Figure l.--Annua1 averages of violent content, expressed in
per cent of space devoted to violence. Book and
Page Averages are shown. Results are presented
for all books and separately for historical fic-
tion, modern realistic fiction, and for books
originally published in the United Kingdom. The
dashed line is a least-squares fit for Page
Averages of all books.

97

30‘

. I
Page Book I
Avg. Avg.-

0 0 All Books

D I Historical Fiction

.A A Modern Realistic Fiction
25“ V V United Kingdom

20t g;

 

 

I
I
I
I I I . I '
: -
I
15~ ?! ‘r I 4A
Y7 _,, -" ‘T
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5*L .A
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1960 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69
Year

Figure l

The book averages,
much the same fluctuating pattern.
show less fluctuation than page averages,
a rise to approximately 15 per cent in 1961.
1965 and 1967,
highest score, however,

more than 16 per cent.

appearing in Figure 1,
While book averages

there is still

there are rises to 12 per cent.
is in 1969 with a book average of

The averages are below:

Book Averages

 

Year All Books
1960 11.8%
1961 15.3%
1962 8.3%
1963 11.5%
1964 12.3%
1965 12.2%
1966 10.5%
1967 12.5%
1968 9.9%
1969 16.5%

In 1964,

The averages for pages varied far more widely for
modern realistic fiction. Here the range in fluctuation
is much broader than in the previous analysis with low
figures (5.7%) appearing in 1962 and 1963 and high figures
in 1964, 1965 and 1968, each of these between 12 and 13
per cent.

Page Averages

 

Year Modern Realistic Fiction
1960 6.5%
1961 9.9%
1962 5.7%
1963 5.7%
1964 12.1%
1965 12.0%
1966 8.3%
1967 8.8%
1968 12.9%

1969

8.5%

99

The scores above do not indicate the actual amount
of violence in any given episode. Context units may well
be relatively long while containing only a short moment

of violent action. An example of this is Ribbon of Fire

 

by Allan McLean. Pages 15-20 represent one context unit.
However, only one sentence refers to the actual act of
violence:

The Factor caught me a stinger on the back of the
hand with his riding crop.

In the same book, between pages 76 and 83, there is
another violent episode in which the Factor and Lachlan
Ban have a fight. In this context unit almost all of the
space between pages 76 and 83 describes the violent scene,
which is far greater intensity than the scene described
above.

For this reason, the intensity score of each book
is a better indicator of violence than the page and book
averages. It is also for this reason that the fluctua-
tions from year to year can be seen more clearly on the
graph based on the intensity scale, Figure 2.

There is a rapid rise from 1960 to 1961, with
intensity scores reaching a level of more than 20 per cent.
After a dip in 1962 and 1963, there is a decided rise again
in the ensuing years with the peak at 21.4 per cent in
1966. The last two years again show a drop, this time
between 11 per cent and 12 per cent. The average intensity

score for all books for each year is as follows:

100

Figure 2.--Annua1 Average Intensity Score, expressed in
percentage of book pages. Results are shown
for all books and separately for historical
fiction and modern realistic fiction.

Intensity Scores, Per Cent

 

101

 

 

0 All Books
35w [3 Historical Fict. V I
A Mod. Real. Fict.
V United Kingdom
300- I
I
I
25* V
I
20¢
15«
10?
. ‘
5.,
V
0 ; : : : ; : : ; : :
1960 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68- 69
Year

Figure 2

102

Intensity Score

 

Year All Books
1960 10.5%
1961 20.4%
1962 14.9%
1963 15.9%
1964 17.0%
1965 21.4%
1966 16.0%
1967 19.2%
1968 10.8%
1969 11.9%

The intensity scores have a wider range, on the
whole, than those found in book and page averages.
Despite the erratic fluctuations, two conclusions may be
drawn. First, contrary to the hypothesis, the violent
content of these books did not change substantially over
the ten year period although there is a steady increase
between the year 1960 and the middle 1960's, followed by
what may be the beginning of a trend toward less violence
in the books examined. Over the entire ten year period
the straight line in Figure l, computed by a least-
squares fit of the points to a linear function, shows a
gradual increase in space devoted to violence from a level
of approximately 12 per cent to approximately 15 per cent.

Second, although the book averages and page
averages follow each other quite closely, the page
averages are almost invariably higher than the book
averages. This indicates that the shorter length books
contain relatively fewer violent episodes, the latter
generally being found in longer books, which are, for the

most part, intended for older Children. In particular,

103

picture books which have between 20 and 48 pages are
almost devoid of violence. A typical example of the
treatment found in picture books is Sam by Ann Herbert
Scott. A beautifully illustrated book, this story is
about the smallest one in the family in search of some
attention. Verbal rejection, not physical violence,
makes Sam cry and get comfort from his family.

The one year which does not have a lower book
average than page average is 1968. Here the change can
be attributed to one book, The Barn, by John Schonherr.
This very short modern realistic fiction book contains
an anomalously high number of pages devoted to violence,
nearly 90 per cent, all of it concerned with a skunk and
an owl in search of food.

By breaking the scores down into several cate-
gories, additional information about the books beyond
testing the hypothesis was obtained. When the averages
for historical fiction were compared with average scores
for modern realistic fiction, a pattern emerged which
was consistent throughout the ten year period, as can be
seen in Table 4 and Figure 2. Space devoted to violence in
historical fiction is twice as great as in modern realis-
tic fiction, on the average. This is true both for the
amount of space devoted to violent episodes and for the
intensity scores.

Scores for historical fiction and modern realistic

fiction also follow a widely fluctuating pattern. High

104

points in the fluctuations are again 1961, 1964, 1965, each
of these years being in a range between 17.7 and 18.8 per
cent. Intensity scores for historical fiction for the ten

year period are:

Intensity Score

 

Year Historical Fiction
1960 15.2%
1961 21.5%
1962 30.4%
1963 23.1%
1964 18.7%
1965 26.2%
1966 26.9%
1967 35.0%
1968 17.9%
1969 15.6%

Similar fluctuations can be seen in the average
intensity scores for modern realistic fiction, interestingly

enough following the same fluctuating pattern:

Intensity Score

 

Year Modern Realistic Fiction
1960 6.9%
1961 17.9%
1962 6.5%
1963 7.5%
1964 17.7%
1965 18.8%
1966 9.8%
1967 10.0%
1968 7.5%

1969

6.6%

105

TABLE 4.--Comparison of Historical and Modern Realistic

 

 

 

 

Fiction.

Historical Fiction Modern Realistic Fiction
Year Pages Intensity Pages Intensity
1960 15.5% 15.2% 6.5% 6.9%
1961 18.8% 21.5% 9.9% 17.9%
1962 16.6% 30.4% 5. % 6.5%
1963 18.1% 23.1% 5.7% 7.5%
1964 16.8% 18.7% 12.1% 17.7%
1965 15. % 26.2% 12.0% 18.8%
1966 15.4% 26.9% 8.3% 9.8%
1967 30.1% 35.0% 8.8% 10.0%
1968 9.9% 17.9% 12.9% 7.5%
1969 16.5% 15.6% 8.5% 6.6%

 

Examination of the above tabulation shows that
1964 and 1965 are the only years in which page or inten-
sity averages of historical fiction are not at least two
times the scores for modern realistic fiction. In 1964,
modern realistic fiction edges up closer to the average
scores for historical fiction although the former are
still considerably below the latter, 12.1 per cent and
13.7 per cent for modern realistic fiction and 15.9 per
cent and 18.7 per cent for historical fiction. Intensity
scores for 1965 show a greater disparity with 26.2 per
cent for historical fiction and 18.8 per cent for modern
realistic fiction although historical fiction still does
not have twice the violent content. By way of contrast,
historical fiction books published in 1967 are more than
three times as violent as modern realistic fiction books
published the same year. For the former, page and inten-

sity scores are 30.1 per cent and 35.0 per cent, while

106

for the latter page and intensity scores are 8.8 per cent

and 10.0 per cent.

At least part of the reason for the disparity is
explained in the following chart. It lists the average
intensity scores for all historical fiction books in the
ten year period, but divides these books into those with
a war setting and those with a non-war setting. The
average intensity scores for books with war settings are
very much higher than those for books with non-war

settings (see Table 5).

TABLE 5.--Comparison of Historical Fiction Books with War
and Non-War Settings.

 

Intensity Score

 

 

Year War-Setting Non-War Setting
1960 1.3% 15.1%
1961 28.2% 17.9%
1962 36.2% 24.7%
1963 48.4% 13.5%
1964 25.6% 14.2%
1965 49.0% 14.0%
1966 26.9%
1967 50.0% 29.5%
1968 25.4% 10.3%
1969 21.2% 8.3%

 

In all the years studied, except 1960, average
intensity scores for books with a war setting are con-
sistently higher than those with a non-war setting. This
may well explain the disparity between modern realistic
fiction and historical fiction, even though in the entire
list of historical novels only 20 have a war setting. The

remaining 42 have a non-war setting.

107

For purposes of comparison, the space devoted to
violence in books from the United Kingdom was also
analyzed. It was felt that books originally published in
countries other than the United States might reflect dif-
ferent treatment of violence. Governments of some countries
like Denmark and Switzerland do not permit children to view
films with violent content. It is conceivable that these
governments might impose censorship on children's fiction,
as well.

There are some books on the list published in
France, Germany, Holland and Greece and later translated
and published in this country. However, there are so few
books from these countries that it would clearly have been
futile to attempt general conclusions. There are, however,
36 books from England, Canada or Australia. These were
tabulated for page and intensity average scores. Even
when all the Commonwealth countries are treated as one
category, there are still some years when there are
relatively few books on the Notable Book List. For
instance, there are none in 1961, only one in 1964, two in
1963 and 1968. Thus even for British and Commonwealth
books, the sample is perhaps too small for meaningful
comparison.

Moreover, conclusions must be read with some
caution for another reason. Selection of these books for
the Notable Book List was made by American critics, who

may have chosen foreign books following a prevalent

108

American pattern. Selections of these books for publica—
tion were originally made by publishers interested in
pleasing American readers for sale on an American market.

Helen W. Painter in Evaluating Books for Children

 

and YoungPeoplel says that children's books are generally

 

selected for translations according to certain criteria,
a universal theme, a well-developed plot, characters that
are memorable, to mention only a few. In the opinion of
the writer, Mrs. Painter may well be overlooking one
important criterion. When publishers meet at the Frankfurt
Book Fair they probably are looking for good literature,
but they also hope to sell a product. To achieve their
goal, they need writing that will please their public.
A high degree of violence may be one criterion needed.
With these limitations in mind, the writer com-
pared the average page and intensity scores for each year.
Interestingly enough, the average number of pages devoted
to violence in books from the Commonwealth countries is
very similar to the averages for all books analyzed. The
same is true for the average intensity scores. The years
1960, 1961, 1962, 1966 and 1969 differ from each other
by less than three points. In 1963 and 1968, British

books scored lower on page and intensity averages than all

 

lHelen W. Painter, "Translations of Traditional
and Modern Material," Evaluating Books for Children and
Young People. Perspectives in Reading, No. 10, comp.
and ed. by Helen Huss (Newark, Delaware: International
Reading Association, 1968), pp. 41-55.

109

the other books. In 1963, the scores are 2.9 per cent
and 7.3 per cent for page and intensity scores, as com-
pared with 11.6 per cent and 15.9 per cent for all books.
However, for 1964, 1965 and 1967, intensity scores on
British books are considerably higher than others. For
example, for 1965 the page and intensity averages are

14.9 per cent and 26.6 per cent, while for all books the
corresponding figures are 13.4 per cent and 21.4 per cent.
However, when averaged over the entire ten year period
page and intensity scores for Commonwealth books and for

all books are within one point of each other (Table 6).

TABLE 6.--Comparison of Commonwealth and All Books.

 

 

 

 

Commonwealth All Books
Year Page Intensity Page Intensity
1960 8.1% 9.7% 10.6% 10.5%
1961 No Books 16.0% 20.4%
1962 9.7% 13.8% 9.6% 14.9%
1963 22.9% 7.3% 11.6% 15.9%
1964 14.9% 35.3% 15.3% 17.0%
1965 14.9% 26.6% 13.4% 21.4%
1966 13. % 15.8% 10.8% 16.0%
1967 19. % 24.8% 16.6% 19.2%
1968 7.5% 2.4% 12.0% 10. %
1969 15. % 13.9% 13.2% 11.9%
Avg. 11.7% 16.5% 12.5% 15.2%

 

In another analysis involving intensity scores,
each author writing more than one book during the ten year

period was listed along with intensity scores for each

110

book written by that author. Not surprisingly, on the
whole, authors include approximately the same amount of
violence from book to book. For instance, Ivan Southall's
books have scores of 1.8 per cent and 1.2 per cent.

DeJong's The Last Little Cat had an intensity score of

 

1.0 per cent; Nobody Plays with a Cabbage scored a low

 

0.7 per cent; and his third book, The Singing Hill was

 

1.0 per cent. Patterns were found to be consistent, with
author after author producing approximately the same
amount of violence from book to book. Thus, a reader of
James Forman could reasonably expect a relatively large
amount of violence (31.7%, 88.7%), as can a reader of
Eric Haugaard (62.8%, 30.0%, 39.7%). On the other hand,
books by Paula Fox may be expected to be low in violent
content. The same is true of books by Mary Stolz,
Virginia Hamilton and E. Konigsburg.

However, authors in the latter group do not
necessarily avoid violence altogether. It is true that
books by Mary Stolz and Konigsburg are notably lacking
in violent activity, but some of the authors in this group
include violent situations avoiding, however, intense
treatment of the situation. In Paula Fox's book, Edgar
Allan, for instance, Ku Klux Klan members burn a cross
on the front lawn of the hero's house. The author
handles the situation by having it take place "off stage."
We learn about the event the next morning when the family

wakes up and sees the grass burned in the form of a cross.

111

The same is true of Virginia Hamilton's book, The House of

 

Dies Drear. Pluto does smear the food all over the family

 

kitchen, but we do not learn about the deed until he is
gone and the family enters the scene.

On the other hand, Rosemary Sutcliff includes
considerable detail in every violent episode. At the

beginning of Mark the Horse Lord, for example, the hero,

 

Phaedrus, is a gladiator. He fights a battle with a
fellow slave with the reader learning about each blow.
We share his weak feelings after an injury to his knee.
We watch his partner's death. In short, we are with him,
on stage, throughout the violent episode.

In conclusion, then, the hypothesis was not proved.
Only a slight increase in amount and intensity of violence
took place during the ten year period. However, certain
other facts come to light from this study. Historical
fiction proves to be twice as violent as modern realistic
fiction. Picture books are low in violent content. His-
torical fiction with war settings score higher than those
with other settings. Books published in the Commonwealth
countries are of approximately the same level of violence
as American books. Finally, writers appear to produce
books with the same level of violence again and again.

The writer next undertook to prove the following
hypothesis:

Between 1960 and 1970 heroes and villains in

children's literature increasingly committed

a wide variety of violent acts against indi-
viduals they knew.

112

The National Commission on the Causes and Preven—
tion of Violence2 showed in a study of television drama
considerable conflict between villain and hero with the
latter acting aggressively in a pro-social fashion. In
an effort to find out if the same kind of aggressive
behavior was common in children's literature, the actor—
action scale was developed.

During the period studied the average scores
for heroes and villains again fluctuate considerably. In
1961 and 1967, on the average relatively few heroes
commit violence. Both scores are 9 per cent. In 1961,
more villains commit acts of aggression, 36 per cent;
in 1967, however, minor characters are more frequently
the offenders, 72 per cent of the time. Villains score
higher on aggressive acts in 1969 also; that is, they
commit acts of violence 48 per cent of the time. Through—
out the period minor characters commit approximately half
of the violent acts, but again there is considerable
fluctuation from year to year. Minor characters commit
most violent acts in 1960, with 56 per cent of all aggres-
sive acts, in 1961 with 55 per cent, 1964 with 63 per cent,
in 1967 with 72 per cent. The smallest number of aggres-
sive acts by minor characters is in 1969 with 36 per cent.
This erratic pattern is apparent in Figures 3 and 4 and

Table 7.

 

2National Commission on the Causes and Prevention
of Violence, op. cit., p. 194.

113

Figure 3.--Actor-Action Scale. The percentage of the times
aggressive acts are committed by hero, villain
and minor characters are shown for each year.
Results are presented for all books and separately
for historical fiction and modern realistic
fiction. The lines are least-squares fits, as
indicated.

Minor Characters, Per Cent

Villain, Per Cent

Hero, Per Cent

 

114

0 All Books
———-—————C1 Historical FictiOn

-— -—— —- ——-- A Modern Realistic Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

801
— 9 A :83 o
- A
60 -- A a o A
O n o A
o
c
404—
o
F D
20"
0.______.———f
60" D
' o
40" A
_B
_ - A- _
‘m- ________ 8 3.— -
20" o —————————— O
8 g Q ‘r-A-—__
. A A O
o._,, D ___
40"
- A 8
8 A g A A
20‘- 8 O
6 D A E
- D o
O A O
A D
1960 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69

 

Year

Figure 3

115

Figure 4.--The Actor—Action Scale. This figures shows the
percentage of the times the aggressive acts are
committed by the hero, villain or minor charac-
ters for each year of the ten year period.

l--designates hero
2—-designates villain
3--designates minor characters

Percentage

lOO~~

804-

60«

40..

20+-

 

116

1 - Hero
2'- Villainf
3 - Minor Character

M

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

F” 1221'

 

1960 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69

Year

Figure 4

 

117

TABLE 7.-—Distribution of Violence among Characters;
Average Scores.

 

 

Year Heroes Villains Minor Characters
1960 25% 19% 56%
1961 9% 36% 55%
1962 15% 14% 71%
1963 30% 26% 44%
1964 11% 26% 63%
1965 26% 15% 59%
1966 18% 13% 69%
1967 9% 19% 72%
1968 21% 11% 68%
1969 16% 48% 36%

 

Inspite of the erratic scores from year to year,
some generalizations can be made about trends. As was
pointed out already, for both historical fiction and
modern realistic fiction neither villain nor hero are
principally involved in these actions. More than half of
the time it is minor characters who display aggressive
action. Next, using a least—squares fit to a linear
function, the relative frequency with which the villain
is involved in the violent actions diminishes somewhat
over the ten year period. This trend is particularly
noticeable in modern realistic fiction, as is evident
from Figures 3 and 4 and Table 8.

Interestingly enough, a second scale included in
the study of the characters does not complement the find-
ings of the actor-action scale. Here the objective was

to find out the relationship between the aggressor and his

118

TABLE 8.--Distribution of Violence among Characters;

Average Scores.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Year Heroes Villains Minor Characters
Modern Realistic Fiction
1960 29% 10% 61%
1961 4% 41% 55%
1962 16% 11% 73%
1963 24% 32% 44%
1964 8% 22% 70%
1965 23% 14% 63%
1966 15% 12% 73%
1967 17% 14% 69%
1968 24% 16% 60%
1969 26% 16% 58%
Historical Fiction

1960 23% (25% 52%
1961 11% 34% 55%
1962 15% 14% 71%
1963 31% 25% 44%
1964 12% 27% 61%
1965 29% 16% 55%
1966 20% 14% 66%
1967 17% 14% 69%
1968 16% 3% 81%
1969 13% 60% 27%
victim. Are they strangers? Do they know each other, or

is the victim an intimate object?

on the Causes and Prevention of Violence3

The National Commission

found that

violence in television drama often occurs between

strangers who may well have no reason for aggressive

actions against each other.

realistic, perhaps less intense.

to the plot development.

 

Ibid., p. 194,

Their aggression is then less

It is often not necessary

119

High points for aggression between strangers are
1961 (79%), 1964 (76%) and 1969 (81%). Only in 1968 does
aggression between intimates reach a high of 44 per cent.
The rest of the time scores are often considerably lower,
as low as 16 per cent for 1969. Therefore, throughout
the period between 1960 and 1970 most violence in chil-
dren's books occurs between strangers.

Again, through the ten year period there is con-
siderable fluctuation, as can be seen from Figure 5 and
Table 9. Nevertheless, using a least-squares fit to a
linear function, a slight trend away from violence between

strangers and toward intimates is discernible.

TABLE 9.--Relationship Between Aggressor and Victim Average
Score for All Books.

 

 

Year Strangers Intimates Objects
1960 60% 39% %
1961 79% 20% 1%
1962 70% 29% 1%
1963 69% 29% 1%
1964 76% 24% 0%
1965 56% 41% %
1966 55% 35% 10%
1967 74% 21% 5%
1968 49% 44% %

1969 81% 16% 3%

 

120

Figure 5.--Actor-Action Scale. The percentage of the times
aggressive acts occur between strangers and
between intimates are shown for each year.

Results are presented for all books and separately
for historical fiction and modern realistic fic-

tion. Least-squares fits for the two categories
of books are shown.

Per Cent

Intimates,

Per Cent

Strangers,

60

40

20

80

60

40

 

 

 

 

O ll-Book
, ‘3 Histor Fiction
’~’ —~«A Modern lis 0 Fiction
A
A
O
% A O A ’,///”
A - A 0,,9/6”
- - ///’/ D
EDI/«0’ _ g
B/ ’A U " A
/’// O - A
o D 8 -
O
D
A
A
D
D O
—__U.- 0 /£%/,’
‘é‘M‘g /’/’ D A
////,7 ~‘_ A
y’/’ ‘~‘~
D ~~§
O Q ~_~
A ~~~
A O -
A
1960 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69

Year

Figure 5

122

When the data are broken down further into scores
for modern realistic fiction and historical fiction, the
trend mentioned above becomes more clearly discernible.
For modern realistic fiction, high points for strangers
occur in 1961 (93%), 1962 and 1969 (71% in both years).
With the exception of 1968, all of the scores in the
"strangers" category are more than 50 per cent. On the
other hand, none of the scores in the "intimates" cate-
gory are more than 50 per cent, with the exception of
1968 (54%).

Throughout this period most violent episodes in
modern realistic fiction take place between characters
that do not know each other; but there is still a small
trend toward increased aggressive activity between people
that know each other.

For historical fiction average scores again fluc-
tuate widely. High points for strangers were 81 per cent
in 1964 and 86 per cent in 1969; the low point is 58 per
cent for 1960. As in the case of modern realistic fiction,
most fighting takes place between strangers. However, in
contrast to modern realistic fiction, historical fiction
exhibits a trend toward aggression between strangers and
away from aggressive activity between intimates (Table
10).

In summary, then, the hypothesis was once more not
proved. Throughout the ten year period most aggression is

committed by minor characters. For both modern realistic

123

TABLE lO.--Relationship between Aggressor and Victim
Average Score.

 

Year Strangers . Intimates Objects

 

Modern Realistic Fiction

 

1960 63% 37% 0%
1961 93% 7% %
1962 71% 27% 2%
1963 60% 36% 4%
1964 59% 41% %
1965 53% 47% 0%
1966 51% 39% 10%
1967 68% 26% %
1968 36% 54% 10%
1969 71% 23% %

 

Historical Fiction

 

1960 58% 41% 1%
1961 74% 25% 1%
1962 69% 30% 1%
1963 71% 28% 1%
1964 81% 19% 0%
1965 59% 35% 6%
1966 59% 31% 10%
1967 76% 20% 4%
1968 72% 28% 0%
1969 86% 13% 1%

 

fiction and historical fiction, villains commit fewer acts
of aggression on the average. Although heroes commit more
aggressive acts in modern fiction, they actually do so
less often in historical fiction during the ten year
study. For all years studied, changes are only slight;

in fact, significant changes do not appear. In both kinds
of literature acts of aggression most often occur between
strangers, rather than between people who know each other.

There is a slight trend toward acts of aggression between

124

intimates in modern realistic fiction, but in historical
fiction the trend is toward aggression between strangers.

Throughout the ten year period a tabulation was
kept of the kinds of activity carried out in the violent
action.

While shooting and killing were most common of the
actions originally identified in the action scale, this
scale was found inadequate for tabulating all the action,
which normally ranged very widely, and therefore, the
"other" category was added to the scale. For instance,
for 1962, 46 per cent of the notations fall into this
"other" class, which includes tearing, beating (most
common), throwing, burning, clawing, biting, kicking,
trampling, tying up. Percentages from year to year are
shown on the following page.

Evidently, the activities cover the panoply of
violent behavior, with shooting and killing generally
most common except for the catch-all "other" category
describing the variety of aggressive activities enumerated
on the following page.

Next, an attempt was made to prove the following
hypothesis:

Between 1960 and 1970 children's literature

more frequently presented violent content in

a sensuous fashion rather than in a non-

sensuous style.

Throughout the ten year period most descriptions

of violent activity was handled in a sensuous fashion by

125

 

 

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wmm wma wed wm wm wo we moma
wom on wmm wm wo wna wH mood
wow wHH wom wn wm wn wo ooma
wom wva wma wHH wHH woa wo moma
wmv me wmm wa wm w wm voma
wom wvm me wHH wvm wm wo moma
wow wHH me woa wn wo wm momH
wmv wom wn wv wow wm wo Homa
wmm wmm wom wn wn wn on coma
Hocuo mcfluoosm mcflaaflx mcflccsoz mcflnnmwm mcflxom mcflaumouz “mow

 

mcofluod ucoaofl>

126

the authors involved. Sensuous treatment ranges between

85 per cent in 1967 and 95 per cent in 1966. Only a small
percentage of the violence is treated in a non-sensuous
manner. The largest percentage occurs for the year 1967
(15%), the smallest for the year 1967 (5%). It is clear
from this that the authors of realistic children's books
attempted to present material in a fashion similar to life.

The year by year percentages are tabulated in Table 11.

TABLE ll.--Treatment of Violent Actions; All Books.

 

 

Year Sensuous Non-Sensuous
1960 92% 8%
1961 91% 9%
1962 86% 14%
1963 91% 9%
1964 92% 8%
1965 92% 8%
1966 95% 5%
1967 85% 15%
1968 92% 8%
1969 92% 8%

 

A division of the data between historical fiction
and modern realistic fiction shows that there is no
significant difference between these two kinds of books,
although in 1967 sensuous treatment reaches a low of 75
per cent for modern realistic fiction, with a correspond-
ing high of 25 per cent for non-sensuous treatment. Tabu-
lations are shown in Table 12 for both modern realistic

and historical fiction.

127

TABLE 12.--Treatment of Violent Actions.

 

Year Sensuous Non-Sensuous

 

Historical Fiction

 

1960 92% 8%
1961 84% 16%
1962 84% 16%
1963 89% 11%
1964 91% 9%
1965 93% 7%
1966 94% 6%
1967 92% 8%
1968 93% 7%
1969 93% 7%

 

Modern Realistic Fiction

 

1960 93% 7%
1961 94% 6%
1962 90% 10%
1963 99% 1%
1964 94% 6%
1965 91% 9%
1966 95% 5%
1967 75% 25%
1968 91% 9%
1969 87% 13%

 

The content studied consistently used sensuous
treatment of violent episodes. Therefore, the hypothesis
was proved.

One other analysis was done with the non-sensuous
materials. In an attempt to find out what kind of non-
sensuous sentences were included in the books studied,
the quotations were listed under one of two categories:

1. No special style; merely lacking in detail.

2. Treated in some special fashion, but also

lacking in detail.

128

The following was not considered stylized. The
information was offered without special effects. "The
foxes came when I was cooking my food and stood outside
gazing. The wild dogs also came, gnawing at the whole
ribs, growling because they could not come in. I shot
two of them, not the leader."4

The following was considered stylized because the
author tried to make the speaker appear like a Cockney.
However, no details were offered. "He was kicking up a
flipping row in the yard."5

When all the non-sensuous sentences were thus

listed, it was found that the majority treated non-sensuous
sentences without special stylistic effects. In other
words, on the whole, writers of children's fiction either
use realistic treatment of violence or pass over the
material without special attempts to create effects.
This, of course, is totally different from the treatment
given aggression on television, where pictorial violence
is frequently highly stylized. Year by year percentages
for non-sensuous treatment are shown in Table 13.

One further analysis was done with the intensity
scale. In an effort to find out where the emphasis was

placed, the scale was divided into two parts. The first

part, weapons and blows, was considered a reference to the

 

4O'Dell, op. cit., p. 76.

5Stucley, op. cit., p. 154.

129

act of aggression. The second part of the intensity scale
deals with the effects of the blows-—injuries, blood, pain,
death. The objective of this analysis was to find out if
the authors of children's realistic fiction give the reader
a complete picture of violence. Television programs often
present the act (for instance, a gun fight), but the conse-
quences of the act are passed over without detail (for
instance, the suffering and death of the character).

In the case of children's realistic fiction
almost every writer presents some information about
effects in almost every book. For instance, Treegates
Raiders by Wibberley, a historical fiction book about the
Revolutionary War, has a score of 107 for "blows" and a

score of 55 for "effect of blows." Hills End by Southall

 

has corresponding scores of 7 and 10, respectively. A
few books, like Jennifer, Hecate, William McKinley and

Me, Elizabeth by Konigsburg, have no description of the

 

blows. It should be noted, however, that this book, like
other books with zero score under "effect of blows," has
very little violent activity at all. The score for this
book, for instance, under the "blows" category is 1.
The blow in this case was a description of the heroine
stepping on the toes of her hostess at a birthday party.
After effects naturally enough were minimal.

The following tabulation gives the ratio of the
raw intensity score attributable to the effects of violence

divided by the total intensity score.

130

 

Year Effects of Blows
1960 41%
1961 43%
1962 36%
1963 39%
1964 34%
1965 38%
1966 42%
1967 44%
1968 37%
1969 40%

Finally, an effort was made to test the following
hypothesis:

Between 1960 and 1970 attitudes expressed about

violent content in children's literature is

most often against aggression.

Not surprisingly, the great majority of the
writers expressed negative attitudes about violent content
at some point in the content unit, particularly when the
violence was anti-social. Pro-social violence, on the
other hand, appeared more frequently.

As in the case of other scales, scores for values
fluctuate widely. There are highs for expression of
attitudes against aggression for the years 1962 (89%) and
1966 (85%). The lowest score, 52 per cent, is for the
year 1960. While more than one half of the values expressed
are opposed to aggression, most of the time from 10 to
30 per cent of the remaining values are expressions of
attitudes in favor of socially acceptable aggression.

Only an insignificant number of values are expressed

toward anti-social aggression. The highest score for this

last category is 6 per cent (1965 and 1968). (See Table 13).

131

TABLE l3.--Value Scale.

 

For Aggression

 

 

Year Against Aggression Pro-Social Anti-Social
1960 58% 37% 5%
1961 52% 45% 3%
1962 89% 11% 0%
1963 76% 20% 4%
1964 78% 21% 1%
1965 59% 35% 6%
1966 85% 15% 0%
1967 70% 27% 3%
1968 82% 12% 6%
1969 73% 27% 0%

 

In spite of the fluctuations in these percentages
which are evident in the preceding table, there do appear
some small trends, as evidenced in Figure 6. Least-
squares fit of the data points to a linear function show
a small increase in values expressing opposition to
aggression during the decade, and a corresponding small
decrease in values favoring pro—social aggression.
Admittedly, the trend is not very pronounced. In any
event, throughout this ten year period more than half
the values expressed in the literature were against
aggression. Thus, in this instance the hypothesis was

proved.

132

Figure 6.--Va1ue Scale. The percentage of the times expres-
sions favoring pro-social aggression and opposing
all aggression appear are given for each year.
Least-squares fits are also shown.

Per Cent

Value Scale,

133

______ A Against Aggression

 

- '- C) For Pro-Social Aggression

 

 

100«
A
A A
am A ,’~”
A I”.——-
’___,———"" A
’,._.——” A
60«
A A
A
C)
40+
C)
C)
\~\
~\_\__ 0 0
\~
20‘)- O O \_\
C)
C) C)
0 : i

1960 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69

Year

Figure 6

134

Discussion

 

Fluctuations

 

Several points should be made about the tabula-
tions described in the preceding section. First of all,
even though the least-squares fit was used to smooth out
the fluctuations, the fluctuations themselves may have
meaning.

The often erratic variations may be accidental,
or they may be due to several factors, for instance, the
authors, the kinds of books written, the time the book
was written, or even the selection committee of the
Notable Book List.

There is always the possibility that authors
writing at a given time are influenced by the public mood.
After the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther
King and Robert Kennedy in 1963 and 1968, there was a
general public revulsion against violence in public life.
This disgust might well have made writers sensitive to
the ugliness of aggression and, therefore, particularly
careful to avoid violent materials. In addition, from
1965, a general escalation of the Vietnam war might have
had much the same effect on the artists. Since approxi—

mately a year is needed for writing a book6 and another

 

6 . .
Variations are, of course, great. Some books
are done in a few weeks, others in five years.

135

year is needed for publication, effects would be felt
almost two years after the public event influencing it.

If this line of reasoning is correct, low points
in violence should appear in 1965 and 1970. The score
for 1965 is neither high nor low. In fact, it falls
directly on the line for the least-squares fit, thus
suggesting that it is at the median. The year 1970, of
course, is not part of the study. It should be noted,
however, that only a small swing downward occurred after
1965.

Turning to the actual titles of certain years,
the year highest in violent content is 1967. In that
year there are eight historical fiction books out of a
total of 23 books. One of these is Forman's Horses of
finger, a book about life in Nazi Germany during the
Second World War. This book rates as the most violent
for the entire decade (except for the short picture book,
The Barn, by Schonherr). Even some of the modern realis-
tic books for that year score rather high on the violence

scale. An example of one of these is The Contender by

 

Lipsyte, the story of a black boy who becomes an amateur
boxer rather than be part of the drug scene or the under-
world. Many of his fights are described in vivid detail.
By way of contrast, 1968 is the year with the
lowest intensity score for violence. There are only four
historical fiction books out of a total of 16, none of them

particularly outstanding for aggressive behavior. Journey

136

from Peppermint Street, a story of life in Holland by
Meindert de Jong, one of these, has nearly none. The

Little Fishes, a historical fiction book about Italy in

 

the Second World War, is also not particularly high in
intensity. The modern realistic fiction on the list also

happen to be relative low in violence. The Stone-Faced

 

Boy has practically none. The same is true of Edgar

Allan by Neufield, The Dream Watcher by Wersba and The

 

House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton. To be sure,

 

The Barn by John Schonherr appears in the 1968 Notable
Book List. As noted earlier, this book contains a con-
siderable amount of violence, thus enhancing the book
average for that year. However, it is a picture book with
a total of only 41 pages, a rather small number when one
considers that there are 2,221 pages in the entire list
for the year.

The scores for individual authors add further
weight to this argument. As shown above, patterns are
consistent from author to author with each writer produc-
ing approximately the same amount of Violent content from
book to book. Thus, a reader of James Forman could
reasonably expect a relatively large amount of violence,
as can a reader of Rosemary Sutcliff. On the other hand,
books by Mary Stolz may be expected to be low in violent
content. The same is true of books by Virginia Hamilton
and E. Konigsburg. These authors were not affected by

public mood, at least as far as style is concerned. To

137

be sure, they were writing about subjects of topical
interest, but they handle their subject in individual
ways.

It would seem, then, that the erratic fluctuation
of violence in children's books, specifically those in
the Notable Book List, from year to year is due to the
kinds of books listed and the authors of the books
included that year. Since these lists are so easily
affected by the habits of specific authors and the kinds
of books listed, a further conclusion must be made. The
sample, 170 books, an average of 17 books per year, is
too small. This is particularly apparent for those years
in which only a few books are included, for instance,
1961 (8 books) and 1964 (12 books). Conclusions must,
therefore, be made with reservations.

The fluctuation of the annual scores, but
especially the wide variation of individual book scores
in a given year allow some conjecture concerning the
selection committee for the Notable Book List. Whatever
may influence the decisions of the committee, and pre-
sumably high literary merit is the principal criterion,
violent content is apparently not very important. Each
year, violent content in books selected, even neglecting
picture books and counting only full length fiction, spans
a range from 2 per cent or less to 30 per cent or more.
The more violent among these books compete effectively in

this respect with many television adventure programs.

138

Clearly, the selection committee does not allow violent

content to influence its decision.

The Content Analysis

 

A comparison of content analyses for mass media
with this one will help to clarify the meaning of the
scores mentioned above in the section on Conclusions.
Edgar Dale in his study of movies7 found that approxi-
mately 50 per cent of the violence was performed by
villains, 19 per cent by heroes or heroines. The remain-
ing 31 per cent was carried out by minor characters.
Other content analyses of mass media show much the same
relationship.8 The modern realistic fiction included in
this content analysis showed more than 50 per cent of the
violent acts committed by minor figures with the remain-
ing Violence divided approximately equally between heroes
and villains. Since the latter do not commit a large
proportion of the violent activity in the stories, the
villains must not necessarily be painted in black and
white colors.

In fact, a close look at some of the villains in
the stories shows that they are clearly more than one

dimensional. For instance, in John Rowe Townsend's book,

 

7W. W. Charters, Motion Pictures and Youth: A
Summary (New York: MacMillan, 1933).

 

8National Commission on the Causes and Prevention
of Violence, To Establish Justice, to Insure Domestic
Tranquility (U. S. Government, 1964), pp. 191-194.

 

 

139

Goodbye to the Jungle, the villain, Uncle Walter, is a

 

thoroughly unsavory character who only half supports his
family. He thinks nothing of walking out on them. He
commits arson and theft. On the other hand, he is also
very proud of his gifted son. He is capable of generosity
and is occasionally ashamed of his behavior. He is a
villain, but a very human one. He is a man capable of
acting violently, but he is also a man capable of a full
range of human activity.

The villain in Flambards by Peyton, Russell, is

 

a man particularly given to violent behavior, beating his
sons for every minor infraction of his unpredictable
rules. On the other hand, he is also a man with a passion
for fox hunting and horseback riding, neither of which he
can do, thanks to a crippling accident. The reader learns
to pity him and his futile rage against society and his
useless legs.

Clearly, these characters cannot be identified

exclusively as "bad guys,’ something that is fairly easy
to achieve in the movies or television programs. The
same is true of heroes and heroines. They are not neces-

sarily "the good guys." Veronica, in Veronica Ganz by

 

Sachs, enjoys fighting with the boys in her class, parti-
cularly with the boys who dare to fight back. When she
loses a battle, she plans her revenge, only to discover
that she has another weapon at her command, the fact that

She is a girl.

140

Belinda in Little Plum behaves badly, stealing a

 

doll and beating up her neighbor, Gem. She decides that
if the little girl next door is unfriendly, she, too, can
be unfriendly. She proceeds to do just that, acting
anti-socially in the process.

In these stories, then, it is not easy to identify
the characters, whether they are heroes or villains, as
"good guys" or "bad guys." The villains are capable of
good behavior, the heroes are capable of bad behavior.

The plotting is sometimes so realistic that
identifying the villain is not perfectly straight-forward.
To be sure, the villain is the antagonist, but sometimes
several characters act as antagonists to the hero. For

instance, Guido and his friends in The Little Fishes by

 

Eric Haugaard want to run away from the war. The Nazis
become the antagonists at one point in the story, the
Americans with their bombing of Naples at another. At
still a third point the children come across an Italian
who forces them to become part of his thieving schemes.

Queenie Peevie in the story of the same name
also seems at odds with many people, partly to save her
own self-respect, partly to protect her father, who is
in jail. Then her father returns from prison and shows
himself as the individual who hurts her most.

Clearly, then, plotting in these books is more
complicated than in television programs. The heroes do

not achieve their goals through physical confrontation

141

and violence; the villains may not use aggression so
readily.

Often, however, violent behavior is not central
to the story at all. There is violence and excitement in

Bristle Face by Ball, but it occurs as a single incident

 

between the hero, his dog and a mountain lion which
endangers their lives. The boy and the dog fight only
because they must do so to save their lives. This con-
stitutes a single moment of excitement in a book largely
devoid of violence.

The same is true of Hills End by Ivan Southall.

 

Children caught in a sudden storm return to the village
to find it deserted. They also find a dangerous bull
wandering around loose. They have no alternative but to
fight it with the only weapon they have at hand, a rifle.
The great majority of the books in the sample follow this
pattern.

Many of the stories lack violence altogether,
25 out of 170. These stories do not lack conflict, but

they do lack violence. In Landslide by Day some children

 

are caught in a great landslide. They wake up in a house
under the enormous pile of earth. No one knows where they
are; and so, they have to free themselves entirely on
their own. The story deals with their efforts to become

free, toward which all activity is directed.

142

In Stevie by Steptoe the hero makes it clear that
he does not like Stevie, but he does not fight with the
little boy so unwelcome in the former's home.

When there is violent behavior, one of the charac-
ters or the author express values which are socially
acceptable. For the most part expressions are against
aggression. Less often opinions for socially acceptable
aggression are expressed. For instance, Rufus in Durango
Street thinks violence will only hurt him in the end; he
becomes part of it because he cannot, at first, find
another mode of behavior.

Belinda in Little Plum knows that her anti-social

 

behavior will lead to punishment. She accepts this fact
and proceeds anyway.

As noted earlier, violence ranged on the average
between 12 per cent and 15 per cent for all the books
studied in that decade. Modern realistic fiction scored
even lower. In the final report of the National Commis—
sion on the Causes and Prevention of Violence9 researchers
found that in 1967 approximately eight out of every ten
programs on television contained some violence, with 6.7
acts of violence occurring per hour on the average. If
each of these episodes were to take three minutes (a

conservative estimate), then 20 minutes out of every hour

 

9National Commission on the Causes and Prevention
of Violence, op. cit., p. 194.

143

would be concerned with some act or acts of violence.

That is 33 per cent of the time, or more than twice as

much as found in the modern realistic fiction books studied
in this content analysis.

Not only is the amount of space devoted to violence
relatively low in these books. Even the violent materials
themselves are handled differently from the mass media.
Violent acts range over a wide group of activities. Most
frequently treated in a sensuous fashion, even non-sensuous
materials, as noted above, are handled largely without
stylistic flourishes. Moreover, aggressive acts are
presented in such a way that the reader is aware of the
suffering and other consequences of each act of violence.
By comparison, physical pain, the details of physical
injury or death as a consequence of violence are shown
in only one out of four violent acts on television.10

Television and the books in this study are similar
in only two respects. Aggressive acts occur more fre-
quently between strangers in both media. Attitudes
expressed are most often against aggression. The latter
is perhaps no great surprise. Attitudes in favor of
aggression would not be acceptable in this country at the
present time. Even pro-social aggression is less and less

frequently condoned, according to this study.

 

lOIbid., p. 194.

144

Emphasis on aggression between strangers is, on
the other hand, surprising. One would expect that in
realistic fiction fighting takes place between individuals
that know each other. Presumably such violence would be
more intense, more like real life. A close look at the
modern realistic fiction books suggests at least one
reason for this. Most books, with only a few exceptions,
deal with the problems and the solutions to these problems
outside of the home. Even when there is a serious problem
in the home, most of the stories do not treat the conflict

within the family. Thus, Dave in It's Like This, Cat has

 

some disagreements with his father, but he works out his
difficulties outside the home.

The same is true of Veronica Ganz, who comes from
a broken home. She and her mother have differences but
aggressive conflict between them is not the focal point

of the story. The Rough Road by MacPherson is an excep-

 

tion to this. Conflicts between his foster parents and Jim
are spelled out in considerable detail. For the most
part, however, realistic children's books in this study
do not emphasize aggression within the family. Instead,
much of it takes place outside the home, increasing the
probability that violence will take place between
strangers.

Nevertheless, the modern realistic fiction books
included in this content analysis are written with the

intention of honestly reflecting life. If they hold

145

their audiences, it is not through excessive violence.
Rather, interest may well be aroused through realistic
treatment of a number of subjects of universal interest
in the United States. Many of the books, do, indeed,
treat current problems. Soul Brothers and Sister Lou by
Hunter, for instance, is about police harassment of

Blacks, Family Walkup by Stucley, Durango Street by Frank

 

 

Bonham and The Contender deal with gangs in the slums.

 

The Rock and the Willow by Lee, Roosevelt Grady by Shot-

 

 

well, The Loner by Wier and Queenie Peevie by Burch are

 

 

concerned with poverty.

Chambers, writing in The Reluctant Reader,11
said that modern stories about real problems found in
the actual world appeal to the young of today, particularly
to those who have never been interested in reading before.
Clearly, these books do not depend on sensationalism but
rather on realism for their success.

These conclusions are not necessarily applicable
to historical fiction and picture books, however. The
latter, with the exception of a few stories like The Barn
by John Schonherr, lack violence almost entirely. They,
therefore, do not really figure in the discussion.

Historical fiction, on the other hand, is about

twice as violent as modern realistic fiction. Some of the

books on the historical list are extremely violent, much

 

llA. Chambers, The Reluctant Reader (New York:
Pergamon Press, 1969), p. 91.

 

146

more so than television or the movies. More than half of

Horses of Anger and nearly half of The Year of the Bloody

 

 

Sevens by Steele are devoted to scenes of battle. The
Cossacks by Bartos-Hoppner scored a high 55 per cent for
intensity and has 77 pages of the story devoted to fighting

out of a total of 245. Horses of Anger, with 156 pages

 

out of a total of 244 devoted to aggressive activity, has
an intensity score of 89 per cent, the highest of the
entire study.

These are perhaps exceptionally violent books, but
because of their extreme violence, they can be used as an
example of something very common in the historical fiction
books in the study. They, like many of the historical
fiction books are about war. As a result, the trend is
increasingly for violence to occur between strangers, a
reflection of fighting on the battlefield. Thus, in

Horses of Anger the young boys in the story spend more

 

than half of the story shooting at Allied planes on their
way to bomb local factories. There are descriptions of
war in Russia and Normandy, descriptions of Hans' family
being bombed in their little city. Then there are des—
criptions of removing the bodies and debris after the

battle is over. The Cossacks and many of the other war-

 

oriented stories have similar scenes, even though they
may not be so intense.
The stories, in fact, deal with violent moments in

history. The hero becomes less important than his

147

counterpart in modern realistic fiction. Individual
problems are not emphasized. In fact, a scrutiny of tne
story line in several historical fiction stories bears
this out. Each has a young boy hero attached to an army
or warring group. The character’s personal life is
secondary and sometimes sketched out in the barest detail.

In I Marched with Hannibal by Hans Baumann we never learn

 

anything about the hero's life except that he was the
caretaker for an elephant in Hannibal's army. The young

hero of Horses of Anger has a more developed personal

 

life; even so, he never acts as a free agent. He merely
reflects the growing horror felt by the German people
during the war. Even at the end of the story he remains
a figure on whom others act. He becomes attached to a
group of young Nazis intent on fighting to the end even
though he finally understands the futility and madness
of war.

Not surprisingly, villains in the historical
fiction books also tend to be one dimensional. Lieutenant

Rabbe in Horses of Anger is hardly more than a sadistic

 

monster. Until the final battle when he collapses under
the strain, we only know him as a stereotype of the Nazi
SS officer.

The villain in Across Five Aprils, Guy Wortman,

 

is also drawn with the broadest strokes although the hero
is developed more fully. He and his gang attack Jethro's

family by burning down their barn and putting oil in the

148

well. They threaten the Creightons in many other ways,
but we never learn why they behave so badly. We merely
know them as cowards.

Inspite of the treatment of heroes and villains
the actor-action scores for historical fiction are much
the same as for modern realistic fiction. Because the
focus of the story is on the historical panorama, much of
the violent action is between contenders in the public
battle. The villain and the hero are swept along in a
drama much larger than their own. Much of the fighting
goes on between other persons.

The same is true of the intensity scale.
Historical fiction books like modern realistic fiction
books treat violence in realistic terms. The reader
learns about the deed and the consequences of the deed.

For instance, in Horses of Anger we learn about Ernst's

 

burns and suffering after the tower falls.

Clearly, then, historical fiction books for
children present a kind of public reality for their young
readers. Emphasis is not on individual problems but
rather on public. In the process wars and all their
violence become an increasingly important part of the
story line.

Then, in large part, realistic fiction books are
honest in their treatment of violence. Authors of chil-
dren's books for the most part present a kind of reality
to their young readers, consistently treated in an honest,

balanced fashion.

149

However, while some of the historical fiction
books are much more violent than the modern realistic
fiction in the sample, they still are not as violent,
on the average, as the mass media. Only in 1967 do they
approach the average of 33 per cent. In that year the

average for historical fiction is 30 per cent.

Summary

In general, then, modern realistic fiction books
for children (as sampled from the Notable Books between
1960 and 1970) are not excessively violent. They present
violence realistically with a wide variety of peOple
performing aggressive deeds. Violent acts are described
in such a fashion that the reader is aware of the act and
the emotions involved. The values are socially acceptable
with only a few exceptions. In short, modern realistic
fiction books for children in this sample reflect a real
world in several categories, one of them violence.

Historical fiction books, on the other hand,
reflect historical events realistically, but they do not
present individual reality. Because they tend to focus
on dramatic moments in history many deal with wars. The
hero, as a result, tends to be a passive figure and the
villains stereotypes. Real focus is on the historical

panorama.

CHAPTER V

RESULTS: RESPONSES OF CHILDREN

In this chapter we present the results of an
attempt to prove two hypotheses. The first of these is:

A positive relationship exists between

geographical location of the school the

children attend and the reaction of the

children to violence in realistic fiction.

Nine groups of children listened to three different

episodes from three different books. Selections were read

from Bang, Bang, You‘re Dead, Sounder and The Year of the

 

Bloody Sevens.

 

The first book was read to three first grade
classes, one in an urban inner-city school, one in a
suburban school, and one in a rural school. Sounder was
read to three third grade classes in inner-city, suburban
and rural settings. Finally, The Year of the Bloody
Sevens was read to three seventh grade classes, again in
the same three settings.

The children listened to the stories from readings
previously recorded on tape. Following the story, they
heard, also on tape, directions for answering a ques-

tionnaire.

150

151

All of the children in all the groups answered
questions 3 through 6 of the questionnaire:

3. In the scene, which of the following
happened?

(a) A fist fight.

(b) A shooting.

(c) Somebody was hurt.

(d) Somebody was killed.

(e) Something else happened.

4. Who took part in the fight?

 

5. Who was hurt, if anyone?

 

6. Who hurt him or tried to hurt him?

 

These questions were included to ascertain the
children's level of understanding of the episode. If they
answered two-thirds of the questions correctly, it was
presumed that the level of understanding was sufficient
to permit meaningful responses to the remainder of the
questionnaire.

Two hundred and seventeen children answered the
questionnaire. Of these, 169 answered two—thirds of the
above questions correctly. At each grade level the chil—
dren from the inner—city communities displayed the highest
degree of understanding with the children from the seventh
grade scoring highest. In the inner-city schools, chil—
dren in first grade scored 80 per cent, those at the third
grade level scored 79 per cent and those at the seventh
grade level scored 96 per cent. The third graders from
the rural community evidenced the lowest level of under—
standing. Only 52 per cent of these children indicated

that they understood at least two-thirds of the episode.

152

Of the first graders in the rural school 76 per cent
showed that they understood at least two-thirds of the
episode, and 86 per cent of the seventh graders from
rural areas displayed understanding.

The results are tabulated below.

Level of Understanding

 

Percentage

 

Total Number Number who who
Grade Location of Students Understood Understood
I Suburban 23 17 74%
I Rural 25 19 76%
I Inner-City 25 20 80%
I Sub-Total 73 56
III Suburban 29 19 66%
III Rural 21 ll 52%
III Inner-City 19 15 79%
III Sub-Total 69 45
VII Suburban 23 21 91%
VII Rural 28 24 86%
VII Inner-City 24 23 96%
VII Sub-Total 75 68
Total 217 169
Several interesting points should be made about
these scores. In the inner-city third grade class, out of

19 children, 13 interpreted the episode from Sounder incor-
rectly. They concluded that the dog, Sounder, was not
injured, but rather killed in the scene in which the

deputy shoots the dog. In other respects, however, these
students appeared to understand the substance of the story

correctly.

153

The number of students involved in the study was
very small, so much so that in the first grade the addi—
tion of one person (from 19 to 20 in rural and inner-city
schools) raises the percentage from 76 per cent to 80 per
cent.

In general, there was an increase in level of
comprehension from first grade to seventh grade. In all
cases inner-city students scored higher on the questions
although the difference is perhaps not large.

The next question which was analyzed was number 12.
This question reads as follows:

12. I rate the scene

(a) Exactly like real life.
(b) Somewhat like real life.
(c) Not much like real life.
(d) Not at all like real life.
(e) No opinion.

The purpose of the question was to see whether or
not the children related closely to the events described
in the scene.

In assembling the results, the writer included
only those students who were able to answer two-thirds or
more of the first set of questions. It should be noted
that some of the students did not answer this question at
all, most probably because it was the last one on the
questionnaire and some students worked so slowly that
they did not complete the questionnaire at the end of the

hour. In addition, all first grade children were excluded

from this question, as well as all other questions

154

following number 6.1 Therefore, the total number of
responses is not the same as the total number of students
who answered the questionnaire.

In Table 14 the results of student responses to
question number 12 are summarized. The first column,
labeled T gives the total number of students in each
class who not only answered question number 12 but also
had demonstrated an adequate understanding of the episode.
Thus, the number in this column is either equal to or
less than the number of students who understood the story
correctly. The next column, labeled T', gives the total
number of students who fulfilled not only the previous two
conditions, but also expressed an opinion, i.e., the
difference between the numbers under column T and column
T' is just equal to the number of students who circled
answer (e)--no opinion. Thus, in the third grade suburban
class, out of a total of 19 students who had demonstrated
an adequate understanding of the story, only 16 answered
question number 12. Of these 16 children, 13 expressed
an opinion and three circled answer (e) of question number
12.

Since the number of students who expressed an
opinion in each class is relatively small, the tabulation

presented below lists the actual number of students who

 

lFirst grade children were excluded from the
entire study except for the comprehension questions
because the Sears Aggression Test is validated for chil—
dren between the ages of eight and twelve.

155

 

 

 

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s OH m «H m mm mm Hmuoe

0 am a o 0 HM a mH m MH mH sHHonHmccH HHH
m o o o 0 am a ma m s 0H Hausa HHH
m mm m mm m as m m H mH GH cmnusnsm HHH
.02 a .02 a .02 a .02 a .02 .e e coHHMOOH mange
Ame lee luv lav Ame

mmmsommmm mHQHmmom mHmpoe

 

.mH coHummso on

mmmsommmm mo wumEEDmll.vH mqm<e

156

answered one of the choices as well as the percentages
for those who answered (a), (b), (c) or (d). The per-
centages are given relative to the number who did express
an opinion, that is, relative to the number under column
T'.

In the third grade suburban school one half of the
students thought that Sounder was rather like real life.
The other half thought that the story was not like real
life. In the third grade rural class, the pattern is
substantially different and this difference may be signi-
ficant. Out of 11 students who understood the story and
answered the question, seven gave an opinion. Three, or
43 per cent of the children thought it was exactly like
real life and four, or 57 per cent, thought that it was
somewhat like real life. None of the students in the
rural school thought it was unlike real life. The fact
that the story is placed in a rural setting may suggest
the reason for this. Even though the story takes place
90 years ago on a Black sharecropper tenant farm in the
South, the children understood something of life in the
country and could relate more readily to the action. It
may be that this question deserves further study.

As regards the third grade inner-city class, 13
students understood the story and all 13 expressed an
opinion. Two, or 15 per cent, said it was exactly like
real life, seven, or 54 per cent, said it was not at all

like real life, and four, or 31 per cent, concluded it

157

was somewhat like real life. In other words, in the inner—
city school about half concluded that the story was close
to reality and the other half concluded that it was unlike
real life.

Turning now to the seventh grade, the pattern that
emerges is rather different. At the suburban school 20
students answered the question. Of these, 18 gave a
definite Opinion; six, or 33 per cent, concluded that it
was exactly like real life, eleven, or 67 per cent thought
that it was somewhat like real life, one, or 6 per cent,
thought it was not much like real life. No student said
that it was not at all like real life.

In the rural school, of the 23 students who
answered question number 12 and who understood the story,
17 gave an opinion. Of these 17, nine, or 53 per cent,
concluded that it was exactly like real life, four, or
23 per cent, said that it was somewhat like real life,
one, or 6 per cent, said that it was not much like real
life, and three, or 18 per cent, concluded that it was
not at all like real life.

Finally, in the inner-city seventh grade class,
of the 23 students who understood the story, 21 answered
question number 12. Of these, 19 stated an opinion.
Seven, or 38 per cent, said it was exactly like real life,
eight, or 42 per cent, said that it was somewhat like real
life, two, or 10 per cent, said it was not much like real
life, and two, or another 10 per cent, said that it was

not at all like real life.

158

Several patterns emerge from these seventh grade
responses. In all three schools the vast majority, some
place between 76 per cent and 94 per cent of the students,
concluded that the story, The Year of the Bloody Sevens,
was very much like real life. Only a small number con-
cluded that it was not like a real situation. Moreover,
there did not appear to be substantial differences between
the responses in the three schools. This is in contrast
to the result for the third grade classes.

It should be noted that the book, The Year of the

 

Bloody Sevens, is about a white boy traveling through

 

Indian territory to Kentucky during the Revolutionary War.
Although the content is handled realistically (see Appen-
dix C), it still has the trappings of a cowboy and Indian
story. Therefore, any assessment the children may have
made could easily have been colored by their experiences
with cowboy and Indian stories on television.

The responses to question number 7 were also con-
sidered in relation to the location of the schools. This
question reads as follows:

7. The scene made me feel:

(a) Like not reading any more or hearing
any more.
(b) Uncomfortable but unable to stOp or
unwilling to stop.
(c) Interested in knowing more details.
(d) Eager to read some more or hear some more.
(e) As if I were living the scene myself.

Answers (a) and (b) indicate a dislike for the

scene, a feeling of discomfort. On the other hand,

159

answers (c), (d) and (e) indicate a positive feeling about
the scene.

In all of the third and seventh grade classes more
than one half of the students circled (c), (d) or (e).
That is, more than one half of the students indicated that
they liked the violent scene. The figures ranged between
55 per cent and 76 per cent for the third grade classes,
and between 61 per cent and 73 per cent for the seventh

grade classes. The percentages are shown in Table 15.

TABLE 15.-—Summary: Percentage of All Students Who Liked
Violent Scene.

 

 

Location Third Grade Seventh Grade
Suburban 55% 61%
Rural 62% 73%
Inner-City 76% 71%

 

There is a difference, but not a large one, in the
groups from different schools, although it is true that
the percentages are somewhat lower in the suburban schools
and the third grade of the rural school. The difference
is slight, however, not large enough to indicate an actual
distinction in attitude, especially when one considers the
small sample, 144 students.

The sample becomes even smaller when the students

who scored low on comprehension are excluded. Including

160

only those students who scored at least two-thirds of the
comprehension questions correctly, the percentages are

shown in Table 16.

TABLE l6.--Summary: Percentage of Students Who Understood
the Story and Who Liked Violent Scene.

 

Location Third Grade Seventh Grade
Suburban 58% 62%
Rural 50% 73%
Inner-City 80% 70%

 

Again, in this more limited sample, there is essen-
tially no difference in answers between this group and the
larger one which includes the children who did not under-
stand the episode well. There is, now however, a decided
difference between the third grade suburban and rural
children, as contrasted to the inner-city students. On
the other hand, the figures for the seventh grade are all
within the same range.

Part of the difference at the third grade level
may well be due to a local crisis at that inner—city
school. According to one teacher, the school had recently
been the scene of two violent fights. In one, a boy was
killed. In the second, one mother used a broken coke

bottle to cut up another mother. Therefore, the children's

161

positive reactions may well be due to factors other than
normal reactions to the stories.

Another point should be made about this question.
In all classes except the third grade at the inner—city
school the children immediately became attentive when
they realized that the story dealt with something violent.
Even when the students were talkative just before the
story began, they invariably settled down and gave the
episode their complete attention. In the third grade
inner-city class, this was not the case. Throughout the
reading, there was a constant movement in the room.
Someone was whispering most of the time. Inspite of the
children's apparent inattention, comprehension, if any-
thing, was higher than in the other third grade classes.

There were, however, demonstrations in all
classes which indicated that many, if not all, of the
children enjoyed the story. In the suburban seventh
grade class one child said, "Gee, I would read a lot more
if I knew I could read about things like this." Many of
the children wanted to hear the story several times. They
wanted to borrow the book, which the writer invariably
brought in addition to the tape. Many asked for a detailed
recounting of the rest of the story. Many started to act

out the story. Some made up a poem.2

 

2Bang, Bang, you're dead
We got you in the head.

162

In spite of this positive reaction, it appears
that no unequivocal conclusions can be drawn from the
available data as regards the hypothesis. The reason for
this is that the number of students in the sample is too
small. Within these limitations, the following trends
might possibly prove significant on further study.

In the first grade classes the level of under-
standing was substantially the same for all three groups.
The same was also true for the seventh grade. Only in
the third grade classes is there a noteworthy difference.
Third grade students from the inner-city school understood
more of the violent episode. When only those who scored
two-thirds or more on the comprehension questions are
included, more of the children in the inner-city school
liked the story than in the suburban and rural schools.
On the other hand, inner-city school children in the same
class related less closely to a story about Blacks in the
South 90 years ago even though the class was more than
one half Black.3 Instead, they reacted the same as
suburban school children who were almost entirely White.
Both groups were equally divided between those who
thought it was like real life and those who did not. The
children in the rural school, on the other hand, thought

Sounder close to real life.

 

3At one point in the story Sounder the sheriff's
deputy refers to the tenant farmer's color.

163

At the seventh grade level, there is a less marked
difference in comprehension. In all three groups the
large majority of the students understood the story.
Moreover, in all three groups the majority of students

concluded that the episode from The Year of the Bloody

 

Sevens was much like real life. Approximately the same
fraction of the children in all three groups said they
liked the story and the violent episode. The range is
between 62 and 73 per cent.

In conclusion, in the most tentative terms, there
is possibly some connection between the location of the
school the children attend and the children's reaction to
violence in children's books.

The second hypothesis which was examined is:

A positive relationship exists between

personality as established on the Sears

Aggression Test and individual responses

to violent episodes in children's books.

To test this hypothesis the students were asked
to answer the following question:

7. The scene made me feel

(a) Like not reading any more or hearing
any more.

(b) Uncomfortable but unable to stop or
unwilling to stOp.

(c) Interested in knowing more details.

(d) Eager to read some more or hear some
more.

(e) As if I were living the scene myself.

An increasing enjoyment of violence was indicated

from (a) (least amount of enjoyment) to (e) (most

enjoyment).

164

Some weeks later the children were asked to answer
the questions of the standardized Sears Aggression Test.
Scores of the Sears Test were correlated with scores on
question number seven, and were also displayed on standard
scatter diagrams.

Thus, for instance, for the inner-city third grade
class there are five scatter diagrams labeled I-III-l,
I-III-Z, I-III-3, I-III-4 and I-III-S. The five Arabic
numbers refer to the five categories of the Sears Aggres-
sion Test listed above. For example, I-III-l is the
scatter diagram for the Aggression Anxiety scale and the
student responses to question number 7 in the inner-city
third grade class.

In that class there were two students who gave
response (a) to question number 7. Two responded (b);
three responded (c); six responded (d); and one responded
(e). In addition, one student responded (b) and (c);
one student responded (c) and (d); three students
responded (d) and (e). For these students the corres-
ponding point on the scatter diagram appears midway
between (b) and (c), (c) and (d) and (d) and (e), respec-
tively.

As mentioned earlier, student answers to questions
number 3 through 6 showed that some students did not
understand the details of the violent episode read to
them. Those children who did not answer two-thirds of

the above questions correctly were next eliminated. A

165

second set of scatter diagrams were constructed using only
those students who understood two-thirds or more of the
violent episode.

These new scatter diagrams are labeled with a
prime ('). Thus, the scatter diagrams labeled S'-III-l,
S'-III-2, S'-III-3, S'-III-4, and S'-III-5 refer to
samples that include only those children in the suburban
third grade class who understood the story.

In the case of the seventh grade classes, however,
the number of students who did not understand the episode
was very small. Therefore, no new scatter diagrams were
made for this group of classes. Instead, those few
students who did not understand the episode are indicated
by means of a small circle surrounding the appropriate
dot. In the case of the inner-city school, there is only
one circled point. In the case of the rural seventh
grade class there are four such points. For the suburban
seventh grade class there are two such points.

If, for example, there existed a positive correla-
tion for this group of students between Aggression Anxiety
and enjoyment of aggression in this episode, we would
expect that the students who responded (a) would have a
low score on category 1 of the Sears Aggression Test.

On the other hand, students who responded (d) or (e) to
question number 7 would have a high score in that category.
If the correlation were negative, the converse would be

true. Students responding (c) might be expected to have

166

intermediate scores. The one instance in which a corre—
lation coefficient, r, with a value in excess of 0.5 was
obtained, namely for Sears category 1 and the third grade
rural school, does show this pattern quite clearly.
Correlation coefficients used were the product-

moment correlation coefficients defined by the equation4

[SKY - (SX)(SY)/nl

2 2 %
[(SXZ ‘ (5X) /n)(SY2 - (SY) /n)]

 

r:

where X and Y are the values of the two variables and the
symbol S denotes the appropriate sum. A sample calcula—
tion of the product-moment correlation coefficient r is
presented following the table of calculated correlation
coefficients. Correlation coefficients were calculated
for each class and separately for each of the five cate-
gories of the Sears Aggression Test. A correlation coef-
ficient for each category for a composite of all students
was also calculated. In these calculations only those
students were included who had demonstrated adequate
understanding of the episode. In these calculations,
responses (a), (b), (c), (d) and (e) were assigned the
numerical values of l, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively.

It is clear from the scatter diagrams and also

from the correlation coefficients given on the following

 

4Allen E. Edwards, Statistical Methods, sec. ed.
(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1967), p. 102.

 

167

page, that there is no correlation between student scores
on any of the categories of the Sears Aggression Test and
their responses to question number 7, with the anomalous
exception already mentioned. Hence, within the limitations
due to the small size of the sample, the results do not

support the hypothesis.

168

Product-Moment Correlation Coefficients

 

Sears Aggression Test Category

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Class Grade 1 2 3 4 5
Suburban 3 -.06 .ll -.21 -.13 -.07
Rural 3 +.68 +.03 -.29 —.16 +.23
Inner-City ‘ 3 +.l4 -.29 +.20 +.25 +.3l
Suburban 7 -.39 -.14 -.08 -.02 +.40
Rural 7 -.20 +.15 -.30 -.14 +.34
Inner-City 7 +.29 -.4l +.20 -.12 +.05
All Classes +.07 - 12 -.08 —.06 +.lC
Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient
Sample Calculation
Class: Rural, Grade 3. Sears Test Category: 1 and 4.
2 2 2
X Yl X Yl XYl Y4 Y4 XY4
l 31 l 961 31 24 576 24
l 26 l 676 26 23 529 23
l 21 l 441 21 21 441 21
2 37 4 1369 74 22 484 44
2 29 4 841 58 13 169 26
3 29 9 841 87 23 529 69
3 29 9 841 87 12 144 6
5 48 25 2304 240 26 676 130
5 36 25 1296 180 20 400 100
5 35 25 1225 175 18 324 90
5 33 25 1089 165 15 225 75
33 354 129 11884 1144 l 217 4497 638
. _ _ 33x354 _ _ _
SXY (SX)(SY )/n — 1144 —__II_ — 1144 1062 — 82
1 l
2 a
8X2 — (SX) /n = 129 - 99 = 30; (30) = 5.48
2 2 _ 2 _ _
SY - (SY ) /n — 11884 - (354) /ll - 11884 - 11392 — 492
l l

(492)? = 22.2

r1 = 82/[5.48x22.2] = 0.675

Similarly, r4 = -13/[5.48xl4.7] = -0.l62.

169

Figures 7 to 32.—-Scatter Diagrams: Personality attributes
as measured by the Sears Aggression Test and
responses to question number 7 of student ques—

tionnaire.

Each figure, except Figures 27 u 31, shows two
or more scatter diagrams, which are labeled
according to the following code. The capital

letter designates the location of the school:
S--suburban, R--rural, I--inner-city. The

Roman numeral gives the class grade: III--
third grade, VII--seventh grade. The Arabic
numeral refers to one of the five categories of
the Sears Aggression Test: l--Aggression
Anxiety, 2--Projected Aggression, 3--Self
Aggression, 4--Pro-social Aggression, 5--Anti-
social Aggression. A prime (') on the capital
letter for the third grade classes indicates
that only students who had demonstrated adequate
comprehension of the story are included. For
the seventh grade classes, students who demon-
strated inadequate understanding of the story
are shown by a small circle. Figures 27 to 31,
labeled T, are comprehensive scatter diagrams,
including students of all grades and all schools.

170

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CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

This study involved two separate but related

research projects. The first was a content analysis of

realistic fiction books on the Notable Book List, from

1960 to 1970, for children ranging between three and

fourteen years of age. The second was a pilot study of

children's reactions to violent episodes in selected

children's books.

Content Analysis

 

The content analysis was divided into four parts:
All violent episodes, defined as episodes in which
an overt attempt to hurt or injure a second party
were identified and counted. Average percentages
were calculated for each year from 1960 to 1970.
Thus at the conclusion of this part of the study the
amount of space per year devoted to episodes contain-
ing violence was available.
A second scale was developed in which all details

pertaining to the violent acts were included. The

196

197

details about the violent acts that were tabulated
were: physical blows, weapons, blood, wounds, pain,
and death. Each time a detail was mentioned in

a violent episode it was recorded. The scores thus
secured when combined with percentages of violent
episodes became the intensity scores. Averages for
each year was calculated from the intensity scores

of all the realistic fiction for children of every
year from 1960 to 1970. The average intensity scores
were considered a more accurate estimate of violence
than the scores obtained from the total pages alone.
A record was kept of each hero, villain and minor
character who performed a violent act. In this way
scores were kept for characters who most often per-
formed acts of aggression. The same kind of tabula-
tion was done on the relationship of the individuals
involved in any act of violence. The participants
were listed either as strangers or intimates (meaning
they were acquainted). Again for each book a score
was available and an average score for each year.
Details for violence were listed under two possible
categories, sensuous and non—sensuous. Non—sensuous
details were divided into two more categories, those
which used some kind of stylized treatment and those
which did not.

The values that the authors or the characters gave to

violent acts were also recorded with a procedure

198

developed by Ralph K. White in Value Analysis. Values

 

were tabulated under one of three categories, atti-
tudes in favor of prosocial aggression, those in favor
of anti-social aggression and attitudes against aggres-

sion of any kind.

Results of Content Analysis

 

Results from the content analysis were as

follows:

1.

Children's books, as listed on the Notable Book List
between 1960 and 1970, did not increase in actual
space devoted to violence or in intensity of violent
episodes although there was considerable fluctuation
from year to year.

When the average intensity scores were divided into
categories, historical fiction, and modern realistic
fiction, there was a distinct difference between the
two. On the average, historical fiction was twice

as violent as modern realistic fiction. Inspite of

a few notable exceptions, picture books lacked violent
content altogether. Some exceptions were The Barn by
John Schonherr and Goggles by Ezra Jack Keats.

When intensity scores were divided for books published
in Great Britain and the Commonwealth countries, there
were not differences between books written and published

abroad and those written and published in this country.

199

Individual writers whose works had been selected for
the Notable Book List more than once were also
singled out for analysis. Certain writers repeatedly
wrote books with approximately the same level of
violent content.
There were no discernible trends in the actor-action
scale. In all the books read for the study, approxi-
mately one half of the book-characters carrying out
violent acts were minor characters. The remaining
characters were fairly equally divided between heroes
and villains. Throughout the period the majority
of the violent incidents occurred between strangers.
A slight trend was discernible in historical fiction
toward more acts of violence between strangers.
When the intensity score was divided into events
described in a sensuous and a non-sensuous fashion,
the overwhelming majority of violent acts were des-
cribed in a sensuous fashion. Moreover, non-sensuous
descriptions were not handled in a stylized fashion.
When the intensity scale was divided into details
referring to the blows and those referring to the
injuries and death of the characters, all authors
included both kinds of information.
The great majority of values expressed in the violent
episodes were attitudes against aggression. Of those
opinions and value judgments expressed in favor of

aggression, most were in favor of prosocial aggression,

200

violence, which is socially approved. Only a small
proportion of the value judgments were in favor of
anti-social aggression. The great majority of the
authors express opinions about aggression which is

disapproved by society.

Discussion--The Content Analysis
Several general conclusions grew out of the fluctua-
tions. The variations were due to individual writers,
and kinds of books included from year to year. Writers
appear to be less influenced by external events and
more influenced by personal inclinations for style.
The selection committee of the Notable Book List

apparently did not avoid violence in choosing books.

Additional general conclusions were made about the
content analysis. While modern writers may treat

real problems with frankness, they do not dwell on
violence. Violent episodes, while fluctuating widely,
ranged on the average between 12 and 15 per cent. In
modern realistic fiction, authors do not use the hero
or villain to perform violent acts in large part.

Many or all of the characters in these stories are
developed three dimensionally. In historical fiction
the heroes and villains also do not figure so large
in acts of violence. The reason here, however, is
different. The heroes and villains are often onlookers

in the historical drama unfolding in these books. They

201

often act as a bridge to the past rather than as focal

points in the story.

Pilot Study

 

There were seven aspects considered in the Pilot

Study:

1.

The writer read three stories to 217 children from
schools in three different locations in Central
Michigan. Two schools were in an urban inner—city
setting, two were in a suburban setting and two in

a rural setting.

The children answered a questionnaire, some questions
of which were intended as a measure of comprehension.
Those children who did not answer two-thirds of the
latter questions correctly were separated from the
rest of the children because the writer did not
believe their answers to the remainder of the ques—
tions would be meaningful. Once these children were
removed, 169 children remained.

The children were given a multiple choice question in
which they rated the story for its realistic qualities.
The children answered a question, also multiple choice,
in which they reported their reactions to the violent
episode. Answers ranged from (a) which indicated they
did not enjoy hearing about the violence to (d) in
which they indicated they liked the violence and

wanted to hear some more.

202

Each group of third and seventh graders took the Sears
Aggression Test, a standardized personality test
designed to reveal aggressive inclinations on five
different scales.

The correlation between geographical location and the
scores of third and seventh graders on the Sears
Aggression Test to the same questions was also calcu-
lated, this time by percentages.

In addition, the relationship between the children's
evaluation of the realism of the story and their

geographical location was also calculated.

Results of the Pilot Study

 

The youngest children in the first grade understood
less of the details of the story that was read to

them (Bang, Bang, You're Dead!), than the older ones.

 

As the children grew older, they were able to note
details with more accuracy. However, those children
who attended an urban school which had been the scene
of real social disorder comprehended more of the
details at an earlier age.

The majority of the children liked violence. How-
ever, more of the children from the urban school with
real social disorder liked violence.

There was no correlation between personality and, as
revealed by the Sears Aggression Test, the reactions

of the children to written violence.

203

4. The third grade children in the rural school more
frequently thought Sounder was close to real life
than those in the city school or those in the suburban
school. This story was set in the rural South on a
Black tenant farm. The sheriff of the community
arrested and physically attacked the Black farmer
and also shot the dog owned by the farmer.

5. The great majority of the seventh graders thought

that The Year of the Bloody Sevens was realistic.

 

The latter book was set in Kentucky during the Revol-

utionary War and involved a fight between Indians and

two White woodsmen. The writer noted that the story

was similar in format to many cowboy and Indian stories.
Conclusions and Implications of the

Relationship of the Content Analysis
to Children's Responses

 

 

 

As a result of this study, the use of the content
analysis technique revealed some advantages and limita-
tions to the writer. One can analyze the manifest content
of a book with a quantitative statement. In this study
quantitative statements relating to the amount of violence,
intensity with which it was depicted, and value judgments
of the author about aggression were revealed by means of
the content analysis.

However, there are some kinds of information that
are not available from a content analysis. It does not

reveal artistic quality of a literary selection. Most

204

importantly, it does not help one to learn the reader's
reactions to the content.

The study discussed in Chapter V suggests that the
content analysis will have more meaning if viewed in the
light of the study findings, tentative though they may be.

The reason for this is that the raw content is
not most important because the reaction of the reader may
have relatively little to do with the real content of any
episode. The reader applies a meaning to a scene of
violence, but it may not be the same meaning as the writer,
perhaps because the reader did not decipher the words
correctly, perhaps because he lacks the experience or
imagination. His perception is then of prime importance.

The pilot study suggests that reactions to
violence are probably not related to personality, but
rather to past experiences. The children who had been
exposed to real violence liked it and understood it more
that other children, although all liked it. In a way,
the children who knew real aggression had been fed a
diet of violence and had developed a taste for it. Even
their understanding of violent episodes was higher than
the understanding of the children not so exposed.

We as a nation however are notable for violence
in public life, in literature, in films. In a sense then
all of the children had been in contact with a certain
amount of violence on television programs. In fact, all
of the children had developed a tolerance for, even a

pleasure in, violent episodes.

205

It may be that realistic fiction for children
will influence the trend toward violence because of
two trends in children's books. Modern realistic fiction
books dealing with subjects like drugs, gang warfare,
racial problems and the like rarely appeared on publish-
ing lists for children before the late 1950's. In books
published since that time topics such as these are common-
place. Some examples from the ten year study are Family

Walkup by Stucley, The Rock and the Willow by Lee, The

 

Loner by Wier and Jazz Country by Nat Hentoff.

 

While historical fiction books published in the
years before 1960 often dealt with dramatic, even violent
moments in history, the stories have most often taken
place long ago. In effect, they were romantic stories of
thinly disguised of derring-do set in well—documented
history. Many recent historical fiction books on the
Notable Book List between 1960 and 1970 relate modern
history with all its emphasis on war, death and violence.

Examples are The Winged Watchman by Van Stockem, Ring the

 

Judas Bell by Forman and Burton's In Spite of all Terror.

 

 

In short, the trend in fiction for children is
toward a new realism from which most children have been
protected in the past. To be sure, modern realistic
fiction books do not dwell on violence, but authors also
do not avoid it. Some writers of historical fiction, on
the other hand, by their choice of subjects, actually do

dwell on aggression. Nazism in Horses of Anger and

 

206

Dunkirk in Inspite of all Terror, Nazi occupation of

 

Holland in The Winged Watchman, the Italian theater in

 

the Second World War in The Little Fishes by Haugaard.

 

Because of the new realism, many children may find
themselves in these books. Many urban youth may readily

relate to the ex-convict in Durango Street, the hero of

 

The Contender who is close to the drug culture, the young

 

people of Soul Brothers and Sister Lou who are harassed

 

by the police. It is easy to sympathize with Hans, the

hero of Horses of Anger who is presented as a sensitive

 

boy, one who wants to write poetry, who loves his grand-
father, an outspoken anti-Nazi and former professor of

literature; or with Anna in Ring the Judas Bell. The

 

three children, Guido, Anna and her little brother,
fleeing war-torn Naples present a sensitive picture in

The Little Fishes, which may well move many readers.

 

To be sure, the very young may be limited to

their immediate environment, as in the case of Sggpdgg,
which was used in the study of children's responses; but
older children will soon be able to find themselves in
these modern heroes, even when the story takes place in
Italy or Germany. The eight year olds in the study could
not understand Sounder as realistic except when they lived
in a setting very similar to the one in the study. On

the other hand, children in the seventh grade found a

story, namely The Year of the Bloody Sevens, which was

 

even further from their own experiences, realistic.

207

Because the children can empathize with these
heroes, the books can have a special impact. A boy wno

relates to Rufus in Durango Street may live through gang

 

fights very intensely although vicariously. The reader

of Horses of Anger may easily share something of the horror

 

of Nazism, yet not have actually lived under Nazi rule.
In other words, the relevance and the realism of these
books gives them more power, more impact on young people.
The violence in books may sometimes be less intense than
in mass media, but the violence is more important if it
is relevant to the reader, if the violence is realistically
depicted and if the action and characterization permits
emotional identification on the part of the reader.

In the study of children's responses, seventh

graders thought that The Year of the Bloody Sevens was

 

realistic. The scene was treated in a realistic fashion,
and the children may have been able to empathize with a
hero from Revolutionary times for this reason. It was
also noted that the children may have thought the episode
realistic because it was similar in format to "Cowboy-
and-Indian" stories, a kind of story with which they

were very familiar, due to television and the movies

that they viewed. None of them had lived in a period

when cowboys and Indians were at odds. Frequent exposure
to and repetition of similar types of action and plot have

given the violent situation credibility.

208

Children reading stories which treat violence
realistically may come to expect stories with that kind of
treatment and that kind of impact on them. In the pro-
cess, the children may well develop additional tolerance
for violent treatment of subjects.

The review of the literature revealed that
violence on television and other media raises the chances
for aggression in viewers. The writer is not aware of
research that considered young reader's reactions to
violence. The study conducted by the writer suggests
that young readers become intensely interested in violence,
enjoy it, and develop a taste for it. Therefore, perhaps
the best treatment of aggressive behavior in books for
children is one which is honest but which does not dwell
on gory details.

Most modern realistic fiction books for children
do not dwell on aggression particularly, if at all. A

few books like Horses of Anger, however, may be trend-

 

setters for historical fiction. (Of the historical fic-
tion books on the Notable Book List eleven deal with
recent history, much of it recent war history.) While

the authors concerned should be commended for their
believable treatment of problems, the emphasis on violence
in historical fiction may represent a new turn of events

in children's books.

209

The Relation of Personality and
Reactitnus Lo Vjcut~nn~

 

 

f

the study discussed in Chapter V suggests that

reactions to violence are probably not relaten to per—
sonality. This situation may be due to several possible
reasons.

There may be no correlation with the Sears Aggrese
sion Test because the test may not be valid as a measure
of children's responses to written violence. The test was
validated as a measure of overt behavior, not as a measure
for enjoyment of violence. A study similar to the one
conducted by the writer might be carried out and children
permitted to role play violent episodes from literature
that have been read to them. Under these circumstances a
closer correlation might well be found between personality
and reactions to violence.

On the other hand, there may be no correlation
between enjoyment of violence and personality at all.
Perhaps every child who reads a book about a violent
episode feels a thrill of excitement. Chambers claims
that reluctant readers like books with excitement (some-
times violent) in them.1 According to Ames,2 the fanta—
sies of young children are overwhelmingly violent. If

one follows this line of reasoning, it is possible to

conclude that Lorenz's or Storr's theory is correct.

 

lChambers, op. cit., pp. 41—63.

2L. B. Ames, "Children's Stories," pp. -37-396.

210

Man may be innately violent. Children may feel a thrill
of excitement when they View violence at a safe distance.
One other explanation should be offered for the
apparent lack of correlation. Possibly the children may
like aggression because they feel a release of tension
when hearing a story. The reaction is a kind of cathar-
sis. In short, violence would then have a bibliothera-

peutic effect.

Implications for Research

 

Many related research projects should prove
fruitful. Some of these are listed below:

1. This study showed that during the last ten years
realistic fiction for children has not increased
appreciably in violent content. Other periods, each
period covering a ten year span, at a minimum, could
be analyzed for violent content. A minimum of ten
years is clearly needed because individual years
are not representative of any trend.

2. This study dealt only with realistic fiction for
children. Other content analyses could be conducted
on fantasy, which is often violent. Again a minimum
of ten years is needed.

3. A study dealing with science fiction and violence
should prove particularly useful because much of
recent science fiction has been concerned with

technology and its impact on social problems,

211

including wars and restricting actions and thoughts
of people.

A study dealing with violence in books most popular
with children should prove a valuable contribution.
The content of the books thus chosen could then be
compared with the content of this study, thus answer-
ing an important question. Do children, in fact,
choose books for their violent excitement? Such a
study might, in addition, answer other questions like
the kinds of heroes and heroines children relate to
and the kinds of stories they find most interesting.
This study showed that individual writers tend to
produce the same amount and intensity of violence
from book to book. Other elements should be studied
in individual authors--humor, value judgments and
treatment of technical aspects of the novel, among
others.

Modern realistic fiction published in Britain and
then published in the United States was found of
approximately the same level of violence as books
originally published in the United States. An
interesting study would be a content analysis of
books published in Britain or other countries but
not republished in this country. Such a cross-
cultural study would make a valuable comparison with
materials available in this country. Such a study

would permit a comparison of treatment in two

212

countries. The same kind of comparison could be
done for other subjects, social problems, values,
literary components, attitudes toward women, work
attitudes, religious opinions, attitudes toward
minority groups or foreign groups.
The study in Chapter V showed that all of the Ameri-
can children in the group studied enjoyed Violence.
A revealing study would be a cross-cultural study of
another group of children who are not exposed to
considerable violence. An excellent group to choose
would be children in a country which censors content
of entertainment of children for violence, for
instance, Denmark or Switzerland.
This study revealed that many children in the groups
studied enjoyed violence, at least they reported that
they did find the violent episodes read to them
exciting.

An interesting follow-up would be a study in
which the children are given an opportunity to imitate
the violent behavior of the characters in the stories.
While television and other visual forms of mass media
have been shown to provoke aggressive behavior on the
part of the observer, no studies have been conducted
to find out if hearing or reading a book about violent
behavior will produce the same kind of behavior. Again,

such a study could be related to the personality of

213

individuals, for passive enjoyment of violence may
be quite different from overt aggressive behavior.
9. A study might be conducted to determine the rela-
tionship between understanding of or interest in a
story and the period of time during which a story
takes place (contemporary realistic fiction and

historical fiction).

Conclusion

 

In conclusion, this study has contributed a
comprehensive and detailed content analysis for violence
in books judged outstanding in the area of children's
literature over a decade. This content analysis goes
beyond superficial measures such as a count of weapons
and the number of pages containing violence. More refined
and subtle aspects, such as literary style, expression of
values related to violence, the participants in the
violent action and their relationship to each other were
investigated. These were included in such a way as to
provide quantitative measures. Moreover, beyond this
comprehensive content analysis, the dissertation reports
the results of a pilot study investigating some possible
relationships between student reactions to violence in

literature and personality and geographical locations.

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Strode, J. Social Insight through Short Stories. New
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223

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Res. 62, June 15—18, 1955.

United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Subcom—
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. United States Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee to
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CHILDREN'S BIBLIOGRAPHY

Almedingen, Martha Edith.
Venture.

Young Mark: The Story of a

 

Illustrated by Victor G. Ambries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New York: Ariel Books, Farrar, 1968.

Amerman, L. Guns in the Heather. New York: Harcourt—
Brace, 1963.

Armstrong, William. Sounder. New York: Harper-Row,
1969.

Arthur, Ruth M. Requiem for a Princess. New York:
Atheneum, 1967.

Baker, Betty. Walk the World's Rim. New York: Harper-
Row, 1965.

Balderson, Margaret. When Jays Fly to Barbmo. New
York: World, 1969.

Ball, Zachary (pseudonym for Kelly R. Masters). Bristle
Face. New York: Holiday, 1962.

Bartos-Hoppner, Barbara. The Cossacks. Translated by
Stella Humphries. Illustrated by Victor G.
Ambrus. New York: Walck, 1963.

Baumann, Hans. I Marched with Hannibal. Translated by
Katherine Potts. Illustrated by Ulrich Schramm.
New York: Walck, 1962.

Behn, Harry. The Faraway Lurs. New York: World, 1963.

Berna, Paul. The Knights of King Midas. Illustrated by
Brian Wildsmith. New York: Pantheon, 1961.

Bloch, Marie Halun. Aunt America. Illustrated by Joan
Berg. New York: Atheneum, 1963.

Bonham, Frank. Durango Street. New York: Dutton, 1965.

 

225

226

Bonzon, Paul Jacques. The Orphans of Simitra. Translated
by Thelma Niklaus. Illustrated by Simon Jeruchim.
New York: Criterion, 1962.

 

Bradbury, Bianca. Two on an Island. Illustrated by
Robert MacLean. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1965.

 

Burch, Robert. Queenie Peavy. Illustrated by Jerry
Lazare. New York: Viking, 1966.

 

Burnford, Shiela. The Incredible Journey. Illustrated by
Carl Burger. Boston: Little-Brown, 1961.

 

Burton, Hester. In Spite of All Terror. Illustrated by
Victor G. Ambrus. New York: World, 1969.

 

Byars, Betty. Trouble River. New York: Viking, 1969.

 

Candill, Rebecca. A Certain Small Shepherd. Illustrated
by William Pene Du Bois. New York: Holt-Rinehart
and Winston, 1965.

 

Candill, Rebecca. A Pocketful of Cricket. Illustrated by
Evaline Ness. New York: Holt, 1964.

 

Candill, Rebecca. Did You Carry the Flag Today, Charley?
Illustrated by Nancy Grossman. New York: Holt-
Rinehart and Winston, 1966.

 

Carlson, Natalie. Carnival in Paris. New York: Harper-
Row, 1962.

 

Carlson, Natalie. The Empty Schoolhouse. Illustrated by
John Kaufmann. New York: Harper, 1965.

 

Carlson, Natalie. The Orphelines in the Enchanted Castle.
Illustrated by Adriana Saviozzi. New York:
Harper-Row, 1964.

 

Chauncey, Nan. Devil's Hill. Illustrated by Geraldine
Spence. New York: Watts, 1960.

 

Clark, Mavis Thorpe. The Min—Min. New York: Macmillan,
1968.

 

Cleaver, Vera and Bill. Where the Lilies Bloom.
Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1969.

 

Clymer, Eleanor. My Brother Stevie. New York: Holt,
1967.

 

Coatsworth, Elizabeth Jane. The Princess and the Lion.
Illustrated by Evaline Ness. New York: Pantheon,
1963.

 

227

Constant, Albert Wilson. Willie and the Wildcat Well.
Illustrated by Aldren A. Watson. New York:
Crowell, 1962.

 

Constant, Alberta. Those Miller Girls. Illustrated by
Beth and Joe Krush. New York: Crowell, 1965.

 

Day, Veronique. Landslide! Translated from the French
by Margaret Morgan. Illustrated by Margot Tomes.
New York: Coward-McCann, 1964.

 

De Jong, Meindert. Far Out on the Long_Canal. Illustrated
by Nancy Grossman. New York: Harper-Row, 1964.

 

De Jong, Meindert. Journey from ngpermint Street. Illus-
trated by Emily Arnold. New York: Harper-Row,
1968.

 

De Jong, Meindert. Nobody Plays with Cabbage. Illustrated
by Tom Allen. New York: Harper-Row, 1962.

 

De Jong, Meindert. The Last Little Cat. Illustrated by
Jim McMullen. New York: Harper—Row, 1961.

 

De Jong, Meindert. The Singing Hill. Illustrated by
Maurice Sendak. New York: Harper-Row, 1962.

 

Dillon, Eilis. The Coriander. Illustrated by Vic Donahue.
New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1964.

 

Ellis, Ella Thorp. Roam the Wild Country. New York:
Atheneum, 1967.

 

Enright, Elizabeth. Return to Gone Away. Illustrated by
Beth and Joe Krush. New York: Harcourt, 1961.

 

Ets, Marie Hall. Just Me. Illustrated by the author.
New York: Viking, 1965.

Fall, Thomas (pseudonym of Donald Clifford Snow).
Canalboat to Freedom. Illustrated by Joseph
Cellini. New York: Dial Press, 1966.

 

Forman, James. Horses of Anger. New York: Farrar, 1967.

 

Forman, James. Ring the Judas Bell. New York: Farrar,
1965.

 

Fox, Paula. How Many Miles to Babylon? Illustrated by
Paul Giovanopoulos. New York: David White, 1967.

 

Fox, Paula. Portrait of Ivan. New York: Bradbury Press,
1969.

 

228

Fox, Paula. The Stone Faced Boy. New York: Bradbury
Press, 1968.

 

Fritz, Jean. Brady. Illustrated by Lynd Ward. New York:
Howard-McCann, 1960.

Fritz, Jean. I, Adam. Illustrated by Peter Burchard.
New York: Coward-McCann, 1963.

Garfield, Leon. Smith. Illustrated by Anthony Maitland.
New York: Pantheon, 1967.

George, Jean Craighead. Gull Number 737. New York:
Crowell, 1964.

 

Godden, Rumer. Little Plum. Illustrated by Jean Primrose.
New York: Viking, 1963.

 

Godden, Rumer. Miss Happiness and Miss Flower. Illus-
trated by Jean Primrose. New York: Viking, 1961.

 

Godden, Rumer. The Kitchen Madonna. Illustrated by Carol
Barker. New York: Viking, 1967.

 

Greene, C. A Girl Named Al. New York: Harper—Row, 1968.

 

Grice, Frederick. Out of the Mines, the Story of a Pit
Boy. Illustrated by Brian Wildsmith. New York:
Watts, 1961.

 

Hamilton, Virginia. The House of Dies Drear. Illustrated
by Eros Kieth. New York: Macmillan, 1968.

 

Hamilton, Virginia. Zeely. Illustrated by Symeon Shimin.
New York: Macmillan, 1967.

Haugaard, Erik. A Slave's Tale. Illustrated by Leo and
Diane Dillon. Boston: Houghton—Mifflin, 1965.

 

Haugaard, Erik Christian. Hakon of Rogen's Saga. Boston:
Houghton—Mifflin, 1963.

 

Haugaard, Erik Christian. The Little Fishes. Illustrated
by Milton Johnson. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1967.

 

Hentoff, Nat. Jazz Country. New York: Harper-Row, 1965.

 

Hightower, Florence. Dark Horse of Woodfield. Illustrated
by Joshua Tolford. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1962.

 

Hill, Elizabeth Starr. Evan's Corner. Illustrated by
Nancy Grossman. New York: Holt, Rinehart and
Winston, 1967.

 

229

Hoban, Russell. The Sorely Trying Day. Illustrated by
Lillian Hoban. New York: Harper, 1964.

 

Hodges, Cyril Walter. The Marsh King. Illustrated by
the author. New York: Coward—McCann, 1967.

 

Hodges, Cyril Walter. The Namesake. Illustrated by the
author. New York: Coward-McCann, 1964.

 

Holm, Ann. North to Freedom. New York: Harcourt-Brace
and World, 1965.

 

Hunt, Irene. Across Five Aprils. New York: Follett,
1964.

 

Hunt, Irene. Up a Road Slowly. New York: Follett, 1966.

 

Hunter, Kristin. The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou. New
York: Scribners, 1968.

 

Ish-Kishor, Shulamith. A Boy of Old Prague. Illustrated
by Ben Shahn. New York: Pantheon, 1963.

 

Ish-Kishor, Shulamith. Our Eddie. New York: Pantheon,
1969.

 

Jackson, Jacqueline. The Taste of Spruce Gum. Illustrated
by Lillian Obligado. Boston: Little-Brown, 1966.

 

Jarrell, Randall. The Animal Family. Illustrated by
Maurice Sendok. New York: Pantheon, 1965.

 

Johnson, Annabel and Johnson, Edgar. Bearcat. New York:
Harper, 1960.

Johnson, Annabel and Johnson, Edgar. A Golden Touch.
New York: Harper, 1963.

 

Johnson, Annabel and Johnson, Edgar. The Grizzly.
Illustrated by Gilbert Riswold. New York:
Harper, 1964.

 

Johnson, Annabel and Johnson, Edgar. Torrie. New York:
Harper, 1960.

Johnson, Annabel and Johnson, Edgar. Wilderness Bride.
New York: Harper-Row, 1962.

 

Jones, Weyman. Edge of Two Worlds. New York: Dial,
1968.

 

Kaufmann, Herbert. Adventure in the Desert. Illustrated
by Eugene Karlin. New York: Obolensky, 1961.

 

230

Keats, Ezra Jack. Goggles. Illustrated by the author.
New York: Macmillan, 1969.

Keats, Ezra Jack. The Snowy Day. New York: Viking, 1962.

 

Keats, Ezra Jack. Whistle for Willie. New York: Viking,
1964.

 

Kim, L. The Happy Days. Illustrated by Arthur Markvia.
Boston: Little-Brown & Co., 1960.

 

Kingman, Lee. The Year of the Raccoon. Boston: Houghton-
Mifflin, 1966.

 

Konigsburg, E. L. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil
E. Frankweiler. New York: Atheneum, 1967.

 

 

Konigsburg, E. L. Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William,
McKinley and Me, Elizabeth. Illustrated by the
author. New York: Atheneum, 1967.

 

 

Kroeber, Theodora. Ishi, the Last of his Tribe. Illus-
trated by Ruth Robbins. Berkeley: Parnassus,
1964.

 

Kyle, Elizabeth (pseudonym for Agnes Mary Dunlop). The
Story of Grisel. New York: Nelson, 1961.

 

Lauritzen, Jonreed. The Legend of Billnyluesage.
Illustrated by Ediv Chavez. Boston: Little-Brown,
1961.

 

Lee, Mildred. The Rock and the Willow. New York:
Lothrop-Lee, 1963.

 

L'Engle, Madeleine. Meet the Austins. New York:
Vanguard, 1960.

 

Linde, Gunnel. The White Stone. Translated from the
Swedish by Richard and Clara Winston. Illustrated
by Imero Gobbato. New York: Harcourt-Brace, 1966.

 

Lipsyte, Robert. The Contender. New York: Harper-Row,
1967.

 

Little, Jean. Mine for Keeps. Illustrated by Lewis
Parker. Boston: Little-Brown, 1962.

 

MacPherson, Margaret. The Rough Road. Illustrated by
Douglas Hall. New York: Harcourt-Brace, 1965.

 

McGraw, Eloise Jarvis. The Golden Goblet. New York:
Coward, 1961.

 

231

McLean, Allen. Ribbon of Fire. New York: Harcourt-
Brace, 1962.

 

McNiell, Janet. Goodbye, Dove Square. Boston: Little-
Brown, 1969.

 

McNiell, Janet. The Battle of St. George Without. Illus-
trated by Mary Russon. Boston: Little, Brown
and Company, 1968.

 

Mayne, William. The Blue Boat. New York: Dutton, 1960.

 

Mayne, William. A Grass Rope. New York: Dutton, 1962.

 

Miles, Miska. Fox and the Fire. Illustrated by John
Schonherr. Boston: Little-Brown, 1966.

 

Miles, Miska. Nobody's Cat. Boston: Little-Brown, 1969.

 

Morey, Walter. Gentle Ben. Illustrated by John Schonherr.
New York: Dutton, 1965.

 

 

Ness, Evaline. Josefina February. Illustrated by the
author. New York: Scribners, 1963.
Ness, Evaline. Sam, Bangs and Moonshine. Illustrated by

 

the author. New York: Holt, 1966.

Neufield, John. Edgar Allan. New York: G. G. Phillips,
1968.

 

Neville, Emily. Berries Goodman. New York: Harper,
1965.

 

Neville, Emily. It's Like This, Cat. Illustrated by
Emil Weiss. New York: Harper-Row, 1963.

 

Nordstrom, Ursula. The Secret Language. Illustrated by
Mary Chalmers. New York: Harper, 1960.

 

O'Dell, Scott. Island of the Blue Dolphins. Boston:
Houghton-Mifflin, 1960.

 

O'Dell, Scott. The Black Pearl. Illustrated by Milton
Johnson. Boston: Houghton—Mifflin, 1967.

 

O'Dell, Scott. The King's Fifth. Decorations and maps
by Samuel Bryant. New York: Houghton-Mifflin,
1966.

 

Ottley, Reginald. Boy_Alone. Illustrated by Clyde Pear-
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232

Paradis, Marjorie Bartholomew. Mr. de Luca's Horse.
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Pearce, Ann Philippa. A Dog So Small. Illustrated by
Anthony Maitland. Philadelphia: Lippincott,
1963.

 

Petry, Ann. Tituba of Salem Village. New York: Crowell,
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Peyton, K. M. Flambards. Illustrated by Victor G.
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Peyton, K. M. The Maplin Bird. Illustrated by Victor G.
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Peyton, K. M. Sea Fever. Illustrated by Victor G.
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Phipson, Joan. Birkin. Illustrated by Margaret Horder.
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Phipson, Joan. The Familpronspiracy. Illustrated by
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Polland, Madeleine. Beorn the Proud. Illustrated by
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Potter, Bronson. Antonio. Woodcuts by Ann Grifalconi.
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Raskin, Ellen. Nothing Ever Happgns on My Block. New
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Raskin, Ellen. Spectacles. New York: Atheneum, 1968.

 

Richard, Adrienne. Pistol. Boston: Little-Brown and
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Robinson, Veronica. David in Silence. Illustrated by
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Rodman, Bella. Lions in the Way. New York: Follett,
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Sachs, Marilyn. Veronica Ganz. Illustrated by Louis
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Schaefer, Jack Warner. Mavericks. Illustrated by
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233

Schaefer, Jack. Old Ramon. Illustrated by Hal West.
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Schoenherr, John. The Barn. Illustrated by the author.
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Scott, Ann Herbert. Sam. Illustrated by Symeon Shimin.
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Shotwell, Louisa. Adam Bookout. New York: Viking, 1967.

 

Shotwell, Louisa. Roosevelt Grady. New York: World
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Southall, Ivan. Ash Road. Illustrated by Clem Scale.
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Southall, Ivan. Hill's End. New York: St. Martin, 1963.

 

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Steptoe, John. Stevie. Illustrated by the author.
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234

Stolz, Mary Slattery. The Dog on Barkham Street. New
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Stolz, Mary Slattery. A Wonderful Terrible Time. New
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Stucley, Florence. Family Walkup, A Story of the Berners
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Sutcliff, Rosemary. Dawn Wind. Illustrated by Charles
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Sutcliff, Rosemary. The Mark of the Horse Lord. New
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Sutcliff, Rosemary. Knight's Fee. Illustrated by Charles
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Taylor, Theodore. The Cay. New York: Doubleday, 1969.

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Tresselt, Alvin. Hide and Seek Fog. Illustrated by Roger
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Turkle, Brinton. Thy_Friend, Obadiah. New York: Viking,
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Weaver, Stella. A Poppy in the Corn. New York: Pantheon,
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Wersba, Barbara. The Dream Watcher. New York: Atheneum,
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235

Wibberley, Leonard. Sea Captain from Salem. New York:
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Wibberley, Leonard. Treegate's Raiders. New York:
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Wier, Ester. The Barrel. New York: McKay, 1966.

 

Wier, Ester. The Loner. Illustrated by Christine Price.
New York: McKay, 1963.

 

Willard, Barbara. Storm from the West. Illustrated by
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Williamson, Joanne S. The Glorious Conspiracy. New
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Wilson, Gage (pseudonym for Mary Q. Steele). Big Blue
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Wojciechowska, Maia. Shadow of a Bull. Illustrated by
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Wrighton, Patricia. A Racecourse for Andy. Illustrated
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Wrightson, Patricia. The Feather Star. Illustrated by
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Yashima, Taro. The Golden Footprints. New York: World

 

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Yates, Elizabeth. Carolina's Courage. Illustrated by
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Zei, Al'Ki. Wildcat under Glass. Translated from the
Greek by Edward Fenton. New York: Holt, Rinehart
and Winston, 1968.

 

APPENDICES

236

APPENDIX A

SEARS AGGRESSION TEST

237

Strongly Agree

r—l
[—1

[—1
L_J

[]

[J

[l

[J

[1

Agree

[—1
L4

[1

[l

[l

[l

[J

[1

Not Sure

f—_l
L__l

fl
L_l

[l

[l

[J

[l

Disagree

fl
L_J

r—1
L__1

[J

[J

[J

[l

[J

Strongly Disagree

r-u
L_J

r—x
L__J

[J

I]

[l

[1

[J

SEARS AGGRESSION TEST

It makes me uncomfortable to see two of
my friends fighting.

If someone gets hurt in an auto accident,
I usually try to get a good View of what
happened.

My close friends trust me enough so I
never have to wonder what they think of
me.

I really enjoy reading an adventure story
with a lot of good fights in it.

When I am hungry, I would like to eat
something sweet (like cake) better than
something filling (like a meat or peanut
butter sandwich).

A boxing or wrestling match is more excit-
ing when it's a real grudge fight, and
the fighters are really made at each other.

Every club should have a set of definite

rules for the members, and someone should
be chosen to enforce the rules.

238

Strongly Agree

f—1
t__1

[J

[l

[J

[—1
I -_J

[l

[J

I]

[l

[J

[1
I]

Agree

[1

[l

[l

[l

[l

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J
[1

Not Sure

f_|
Q

[J

[J

[1

[l

[l

[l

[J

[J

[l

[J
E]

Disagree

fl
L__J

[]

[l

[l

I]

[l

[J

I]

[l

[J

[J
[J

Strongly Disagree

h
F]

[l

[l

[l

[l

[l

[J

[J

[J

[1

[J
I]

239

It upsets me to think that some thought-
less word or crack of mine might hurt
someone's feelings.

There is a good chance that radiation from
atomic bombs will kill off the human race.

A good cleanly fought football game is
about the best sport there is.

There are really important differences
between boys and girls in the kinds of
books they like to read.

When I get angry, I usually feel bad
afterward.

A lot of adults seem to have it in for
kids, and always are causing them trouble.

I cannot imagine what it would be like
really to consider committing suicide.

Hitting somebody smaller than you is
absolutely never excusable.

I think it is important for boys and girls
of my age to begin thinking about how to
get ahead in life.

It makes me nervous to hear a gang of boys
getting argumentative even when I'm not
involved.

Big dogs are likely to be dangerous.
Schools ought to pay more attention to

track and field sports and swimming, and
less to football and boxing.

Strongly Agree

[—1
L_J

f—_1
l_.J

[J

[J

[l

[l

[J

[l

[l

[1

Agree

f—l
L__J

[]

[l

[l

[J

[J

[J

[J

[l

[1

Not Sure

r“;
l_.l

r‘—1
l__.l

[J

[1

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[l

[]

Disagree

f—I
|_.J

r—l
L_l

[l

[l

[l

[l

[J

[l

[l

[l

[]

Strongly Disagree

r—n
l__l

f_l
l_J

[J

E]

[J

[l

[l

[J

[J

[J

[l

240

Laws against fighting ought to be more
strictly enforced.

I usually feel happier on the week-ends
than I do during the week.

Sometimes I feel that I have about as
many enemies as I have friends.

When I get too angry, I'm liable to get
in trouble.

A romantic movie always leaves me feeling
dreamy afterward.

Sometimes I feel that there are so many
bad people in the world that even my own
town is about as dangerous to live in as
a real jungle.

I like almost any kind of work or play at
which I can compete with someone else and
maybe win.

It is all right for a teacher to criticize
someone in front of the class if that person
has broken a rule.

If I had a change to play a part in a
Hollywood movie, I would enjoy it very
much.

There are too many vicious crimes described
in the newspapers.

When someone does not pay attention to me,
or just seems to look right through me, it
is usually because he is secretly mad at me.

Strongly Agree

F—l
l_J

r—1
1...]

[l

[l

[l

[J

[J

[J

[l

[l

[l

[J

Agree

F_'I
LJ

[1

[J

[J

[J

[l

[1

[l

[J

[J

[1

Not Sure

f_1
l_l

(“‘1
gJ

[1

[l

[J

[l

[l

[J

[J

[J

[J

[]

Disagree

F—1
[_J

[—1
L__J

[J

[1

[J

[l

[l

[J

[l

[l

[1

[]

Strongly Disagree

[—1
L_l

f—_I
L4

[1

[J

[l

[l

[l

[l

[J

[l

[l

[l

241

A good argument is all right if everybody
keeps his temper under control.

If an older boy is mean to a younger one,
the younger one has a perfect right to get
even with him in any way he can, even in
some secret or sneaky way.

Stamp-collecting is one of my favorite
hobbies.

I hate to hear people at a baseball game

yelling "Kill the umpire.

I have to be careful what I say to people
because they get mad so easily.

It is perfectly natural for boys to want
to fight sometimes.

I would like to be a politician as a
career.

Sometimes I think I deserve more punishment
than I get for the things I do.

If a person has a quick temper, you just
have to expect him to blow up sometimes,
and you shouldn't pay too much attention.

I get along best with my friends when I am
with just one or two at a time instead of
a whole crowd.

I usually don't show it when I get angry,
but it leaves me shaking inside afterward.

Farming would be a good job because it
gives you a chance to watch things grow.

Strongly Agree

[—7
L4

F—l
L__.'

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

Agree

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

Not Sure

7‘1
L4

[—1
L_l

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

Disagree

[—1
LJ

[—1
I—J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

Strongly Disagree

[—1
l___1

f—l
l__J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

242

I don't think there is anybody who really
is trying to do me harm.

I get nervous when a big crowd of people
are coming toward me.

Teasing kind of jokes are always a little
dangerous because the kidding may get out
of hand.

When a person has broken an important rule,
he should definitely be punished for it.

Everybody in school should have a chance
to act in a play sometime.

Teachers should be very careful never to
let a class discussion get too heated or
too personal.

If you treat people decently, they nearly
always treat you that way too.

Just when things are going best for me,
I seem to do something that brings down
punishment on me.

Every boy ought to be taught how to box.

I usually feel pretty happy when I wake up
in the morning.

I like to watch a real man-sized slugging
match in a movie or on TV.

Most of my troubles have been started by
other people.

There is too much emphasis these days on
competitive sports.

Strongly Agree

{—1
w

[—1
l_.'

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

Agree

r-1
L_s

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

Not Sure

f—"I
L_l

[—1
l_J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

Disagree

f_'l
u

[—1
I—J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

Strongly Disagree

{—1
l_]

{—0
L_l

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

[J

243

Sometimes an actual fight is the only way
to settle an argument.

When you are feeling lonesome and unhappy,
eating something is the best thing to do.

Even with your best friend, a good fight
often seems to clear the air and make you
feel better.

Sometimes I have dreams in which somebody
hurts me.

There have been times when I was so angry
I felt like practically killing myself.

At school, teachers should never permit
any pushing or shoving among the children
because someone might get hurt.

I would like to be very good at mechanical
things, such as fixing automobiles or
using power tools in a shop.

Arguing nearly always leads to trouble in
one way or another.

People seem to find fault with me more
than I deserve.

I have had more accidents in which I was
injured than most peOple my age.

I don't see anything especially wrong
about a fight between two gangs of teen-
agers; it's their business and adults
should keep out of it.

Every boy and girl should know how to
dance before high school age.

Strongly Agree

F—T
A:

[J

[J

[J

Agree

L_J

[J

[J

[J

Not Sure

[—1
_J

[J

[J

[J

Disagree

f—fi
L_J

Strongly Disagree

l'_l
L_J

[J

[J

[J

244

When some adult criticizes or scolds me,
I get all tied up inside and cannot
answer back.

Sometimes when I have been out alone at
night, I have had the feeling that some-
body was following me, even though I
could never prove it.

There is too much fighting and arguing
shown on TV.

My friends get mad at me more often than
I get mad at them.

APPENDIX B

SPECIMEN CONTENT ANALYSIS OF ONE OF THE
MOST VIOLENT BOOKS:

Horses of Anger by James Forman

 

(Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 1967)

245

Forman, James. Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1967.

 

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit: pp. 1-8

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object
Wrestling 1 1
Boxing
Shooting
Stabbing l l
Wounding 3
Killing 4 l 3
Other 1
INTENSITY SCALE
Violent Acts Treatment of Violence
(Verbal)
Physical blows +3 +4 +5 +7 +8
Weapons +1 +2 +3 +7 +9 +5
Blood
3
Wounds +
Pain +5 +6
Death

 

246

247

As he spoke, the barracks bell rang, that first warn-
ing from fighter command which regularly on dark
nights sent Hans fumbling into his uniform to wait

on his cot, staring into the blackness. Somewhere

in the north a stream of bombs was flowing.

Somewhere soon the pathfinders would drop their flares;
then the big bombs would rip off the roofs to make way
for the suffocating incendiaries. Across the frosted
radar panels in the battle opera house the phantom
flood would creep, south or east. The haggard men of
fighter command must be already watching, thought Hans.
Soon the warning would be sent. Should it arrive at
Han's barracks, it would mean the planes were moving
against the cities of the south. They might fall short,
hovering over Ingolstadt, or Regensburg or Munich, in
which case Hans would not be needed. On the other hand,
they might pass over to his home town--fifteen minutes'
flight for a bomber, two hours by Autobahn, an inter-
minable time by rail, the way a soldier traveled. If
the bombers came that far, forty-eight schoolboys,

Hans among them, would clatter up twelve wooden towers
where heavy machine guns waited like strange telescopes
to track the moving stars.

He had once seen Heime drive his fist against the wall
so hard it had remained black and blue for weeks.

And he had heard the village rumor that Heime, in a
fit of passion, had driven an ice pick clean through
his father's hand.

"Let me have your hand . . . Heime let me have it.
This is not meant to be cruel, Heime." And he forced
Heime's hand over the candle flame. Heime screeched.
"You did that for fun!" Ernst fell back in his chair,
shouting with laughter. Hans did absolutely nothing.
He was too horrified.

Hans knew he must be in severe pain. He knew also
that he would rather die than give the slightest sign.

The tableau held until Heime dug his Youth dagger into
the table. The dagger often spoke for him.

Hans watched him now, gouging at the tabletop, and
wondered about them all.

Heime had managed to form a particularly small H with
his dagger when the siren in the Polish work camp
began to howl.

248

Forman, James. Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1967.

 

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit: pp. 19-22.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

Actor Involved Relationship

Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object

 

Wrestling

Boxing

Shooting

Stabbing

Wounding 2 l 1
Killing

Other

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts Treatment of Violence
(Verbal)

 

 

l
+
+

Physical blows
Weapons + +
Blood

Wounds

Pain

Death -

 

l.

249

. . . considered a lucky event that a British-flung
grenade at Ypres had dispatched the town butcher's
only son, Lore's brother, giving Klaus an opportunity
to take over the business through marriage.

One didn't say that sort of thing to Herr Hellpack.
Siefried had received a savage hiding, which ended
the argument.

His foot fell heavily on the old Jew's foot. Moving
swiftly, Konrad confronted him. He spoke very softly.
Hans heard only the trooper's reply: "I don't go
around molesting old creatures, human or otherwise!"

250

Forman, James. Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1967.

 

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit: pp. 26-38.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

 

 

 

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object
Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting
Stabbing
Wounding
Killing
Other 1 l
INTENSITY SCALE

Violent Acts Treatment of Violence

 

 

(Verbal)

I
I
+
I
I

Physical blows
Weapons +
Blood

Wounds

Pain

Death

 

251

He didn't feel comfortable among the peasants since
they'd beaten up a troop of SS men for trying to
chop down a Maypole.

The Poles had launched a cowardly attack on the
German station at Gleiwitz the night before . . .

. . . and the Schleswigstein, fortuitously anchored
in the Danzig harbor had answered back with her
ll-inch guns.

Panzer units on their exercises in East Prussia had
turned the back of the Polish assault.

"The British government, in a note to the Reich
government, has made the demand that the German troops
which have advanced into Polish territory be withdrawn
to their original positions. At nine o'clock in the
morning," the radio explained, "the British ambassador
in Berlin informed the Reich government in a provoca-
tive note that if a satisfactory answer was not
received by eleven o'clock, England would consider
herself in a state of war with Germany."

252

Forman, James. Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1967.

 

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit: pp. 39-47.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object

 

 

Wrestling

Boxing

Shooting 1 l 2

Stabbing

Wounding

Killing

Other 1 l 2

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts Treatment of Violence
(Verbal)

Physical blows +2 +3 + 9 +10 +11 +12 +13 +14 +15 _16

 

 

Weapons + + + + + + + + + +
Blood

Wounds

10

Pain +

Death

 

10.

253

English Lancasters, in force, were heading toward
Munich.

Lieutenant Rabbe gave the command to load. Ernst
cracked home the first magazine and Siegfried jolted
the gun around as though he wanted to tip it from
its mount. Hans glanced at him. He was grinning
wildly, joyously. Frail as his body was, it seemed
about to burst from the furious passion within it.

Still far to the north, over Munich's marshaling
yards, the first marker shell burst, its contents
sparkling down like the candles of an immense
Christmas tree hung in the sky.

They were as large as shovels and as hard. Hands
to keep away from, Hans thought, even when they were
administering a comradely pat.

As though God had suddenly struck a match in heaven,
the sky above them brightened. The stars vanished
in the light of a marker shell.

The lieutenant had the gun elevated until its twin
muzzles pointed straight up. When the signal came,
Hans would simply push his foot down on the firing
pedal and the bullets would soar up, as high as they
could. That was some 12,000 feet, according to the
manual. The raiders flew at twice that height, so
no matter how many little lead kernels were sent
spouting heavenward they would never reach their
objective. The young gunners might kill themselves
a thousand times over with their own gravity-driven
shells before a single bomber would even hear the
chattering protest of their guns.

The tower trembled. Down below, the ground must be
moving, and Hans held tight to his gun. His uniform
had grown too small for his heart and lungs. His
saliva tasted rancid. He tried to spit, but his
mouth was dry.

He raised the boy by a twisted left arm, and Heime
gave a squeal of pain. As though the cry had brought
him, a figure pushed up through the trap door. His
hands a little out from his sides as if ready for
fight, the lieutenant turned on the intruder.

ll.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

254

In the north, the sky over Munich had gone mad, and
now the "Raiders overhead" signal came to them over
the earphones. "Fire!" The lieutenant's command
was shrill. Hans pressed down on the pedal and the
gun jarred against him. Up rose the tracers, an
endless lashing necklace of fiery diamonds. The
other guns opened fire, their projectiles forming

a theoretical cage about the factory below. Again
and again the searchlights converged, divided,
crossed, until Hans could see pinpointed a dozen or
more metallic moths moving langourously overhead.

A torrent of bombs now rained upon the worker's
compound and the factory. The separate sounds merged
into a single roar, so uniform and constand that it
became a kind of silence. It pressed against the
sides of Hans's head with giant hands. He could feel
the air shaking in strokes, the tower reeling and
staggering like a drunken man, his seat vibrating
with the spastic lurchings of the gun. Spent shells
spilled almost continuously from the breech.

Suddenly a procession soared over the trees and into
the rays of the searchlights, unbelievably low,
flying straight for the factory. Hans sat bold
upright. The lieutenant sprang about the tower on
the balls of his feet, shouting, "Give 'em hell!
Give 'em hell!" and striking the rail with a closed
fist. Hans felt the world exploding around him.

The planes were gone as abruptly as they had appeared,
except that one of them turned into a white streaking
star that curved downward and vanished. Below the
place where Hans had seen it, an incandescent flame
shot up into the sky.

When the laughter went on, he slapped Heime ringingly
across the mouth.

Still Heime laughed, and Siegfried hit him again.

Forman, James.

Giroux,

Total Pages in Book:

Context Unit:

PP-

255

Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and

1967.

 

244

48-61.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object
Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting 1 1
Stabbing
Wounding
Killing
Other

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts

 

Physical blows
Weapons

Blood

Wounds

Pain

Death

Treatment of Violence
(Verbal)

 

+6 +3 +2
+4 _

+3 +1

+3 _5 _6

 

256

The campaign in Poland had branded him with a flesh
wound across his left wrist . .

. . so Hans kept the gun. He broke it open once
to make sure. Both barrels were loaded.

With wings purring, a partridge hurtled off in erratic
flight. "Take it," said his uncle, and more on com-
mand than through his own volition, Hans fired the
first barrel and missed. The second barrel seemed

to fire itself. The bird pinwheeled in flight and
settled gracefully, like a dropped handkerchief.

Hans ran to retrieve the prey. It lay on the ground,
wings spread, without any sign of a wound. Hans

bent to stroke its feathers. The bird floundered
forward.

Hans closed his eyes before the gun went off, and
when he opened them, the bird wasn't beautiful any
more. The feathers were mud-splattered, and the head
was no longer attached to the body. Hans felt ashamed
and a little sick. He knew Konrad felt the same,
though he didn't show it.

. . . still warm and dripping, when he put it into
the game bag.

"They've gone with the Jews," he explained, grinning
through a set of ill-fitting dentures. "It doesn't
have a thing to do with seasons, believe me. This
place depended on Jewish trade. It's lucky it wasn't
closed down. Now the Jews are on permanent holiday,
so to speak, and the gypsies have been sent right
along with them. You can't say Hitler isn't con—

siderate.

"It belonged to an officer in the Pomorska cavalry.
He gave me quite a whack with that thing, but now
he doesn't need it any more."

Did they know about this morning Denmark had been
taken without a shot, that Norway had been invaded
and would fall within hours?

. . . and the victory in the west had been more of a
shopping tour than a war.

 

257

Forman, James. Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1967.

 

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit: pp. 62-66.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object

 

 

Wrestling

Boxing

Shooting

Stabbing

Wounding

Killing

Other 1 l

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts Treatment of Violence
(Verbal)

 

 

I
+

Physical blows
Weapons +
Blood

Wounds

Pain

Death

 

258

Since this was the worst raid they had so far
endured .

"Be glad you're not one of those poor devils."
Through the trees Hans could see the factory

town. In the distance, the flames seemed motion-
less. "All the windows are lit up like a Fasching
party. Fires are really beautiful."

Forman, James.

Giroux,

259

Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and

 

1967.

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit:

pp. 73—74.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

Action Hero

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object

 

Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting
Stabbing
Wounding
Killing
Other

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts

 

Physical blows
Weapons

Blood

Wounds

Pain

Death

Treatment of Violence
(Verbai)

 

 

260

German dive bombers in advance of German motorized
columns had ended the life of a young woman who had
been driving a herd of riding-academy horses to
safety.
"Barbarossa," the surprise attack on the Soviet Union,
had taken place, and Konrad had been part of it. The
summer brought stunning victories: 600,000 Russian
prisoners at Kiev alone. There were fictories in the
autumn, too, at Vyazma and Bryansk, but the winter
was cold. There were no victories in the snow, and
there had been no skiing. Now Konrad, with his stiff
leg, would never ski again.

Forman, James.

Giroux,

Total Pages in Book:

Context Unit:

Horses of Anger.

261

Farrar, Straus and

 

PP-

1967.

244

95-104.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

 

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object
Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting 1 l
Stabbing
Wounding 3 3
Killing 4 4
Other

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts

 

Physical blows
Weapons

Blood

Wounds

Pain

Death

Treatment of Violence

 

(Verbal)
+1 +4 _5 _6 +8 +10 +11 _9
+2 +10 +11 +1 +4 +7
+3 _12

 

262

They call it Golgotha, Place of the Skull. Judging
from what archaeologists have pieced together from
bones and beads and metal, the Roman legions cruci-
fied some German chiefs up there in the woods
somewhere . . . "How do they expect to get .88's
into those things?" he growled.

At best, they would hold the Swiss machine guns,
which lacked the range to reach a modern bomber.

The Russians gave my body just enough lead to lend
it weight.

A month ago, a thousand planes had bombed Cologne in
a single field.

"The first raids were just entertaining, like
distant fireworks. When they got worse, I slept on
a cot in the cellar. My parents' bed was too big to
move downstairs, they said, so I would lie there at
night alone." Her voice was hypnotic. Tone and
cadence were more essential than the words, and Hans
was with her in the cellar waiting for the bomb he
knew must come. "They'd been bombing the docks as
usual that night. The raid was really over, but a
plane must have been lightening its load to fly home.
Anyway, without the slightest warning the ceiling
fell on top of me. I was buried for three days. If
it hadn't been for my teddy bear, I'd have been
asphyxiated. It was pressed against my face. They
wouldn't let me see my parents. I wouldn't have
recognized them, anyway.

. . . the armies were victorious. In Russia, the
Caucasus and Stalingrad were about to fall. In
Africa, Rommel had taken Tobruk and had pushed the
English back to El Alamein. Final victory could
not be far off.

"I remember last year our tanks had 'On to Moscow'
painted all over them," said Konrad. "But we'll
never see Moscow, you know. There are too many
Russians."

It got so that the peasants we rolled over in the
afternoon looked like the ghosts of those we'd
slaughtered in the morning . . .

"It was snowing right into our faces, and they came
out of the snow all in white like phantoms. We
would have run, I think, only there was nothing
behind us but a frozen cemetery a thousand miles
long and just as wide. So we stayed and fought,
and most of us died there."

10.

11.

12.

263

The Siberian cavalry with their tough little jogging
horses had come incredibly at night, stitching the
surprised tank crews with tommy—gun fire.

Konrad had been rallying his men in the flame of a
dying tank when he saw a horse rise over him, a
frozen scream full of flying hoofs. He'd spun away
too late, and the hoofs had caught him along with
the bullets.

Still, Konrad had been lucky. His comrades had
envied him the trip home. For a time the war was
over for him, except at night, when he dreamed of
a great rushing stream of equine fury.

264

Forman, James. Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1967.

 

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit: pp. 109-110.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object

 

 

Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting
Stabbing
Wounding
Killing l 1
Other

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts Treatment of Violence
(VerbaI)

 

 

Physical blows -
Weapons

Blood

Wounds

Pain

Death -

 

265

It had been less than three months since Paulus's
great army had vanished, and the radio had played
Wagnerian funeral marches for three days on end,
three days of deep mourning for Germany's loss.

Forman, James.

Giroux,

Total Pages in Book:

Context Unit:

PP-

266

Horses of Anger. Straus and

1967.

Farrar,

 

244

112-114.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

 

 

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object
Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting 2 2
Stabbing
Wounding l 1
Killing
Other
INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts

 

Physical blows
Weapons

Blood

Wounds

Pain

Death

Treatment of Violence
(Verbal)

 

 

267

The boys craned their necks to see what had happened.
"Bombs must have hit the road," said Siegfried, but
as it turned out, a plane had crashed there, burying
itself in the asphalt. Its tail protruded, but the
rest had vanished into the earth.

"That's our plane! That's the one we got last
night!" shouted one of the boys from another tower.

"Probably hit by a night fighter," said Siegfried
realistically.

A yellow, sulfurous fog enveloped them. A church
tower emerged briefly like a faded print and was
swallowed up.

The trucks plowed forward toward the heart of
the target. A few buildings stood intact, their
walls coated over with the pulverized dust of those
that had been demolished. Others had been split
open, their insides vomited out into the streets,
where an army of soldiers and works police was
sifting the debris for signs of life. Corpses lay
about with their limbs contorted in futile self-
defense. Hans felt his own body stiffen with the
rigidity of the dead. He tried to hold his breath
against the smell.

Forman, James.

Giroux,

Total Pages in Book:

Context Unit:

268

Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and

 

PP-

1967.
244

114-120.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object
Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting 2 2
Stabbing
Wounding
Killing l 1
Other
INTENSITY SCALE
Violent Acts Treatment of Violence
(Verbal)

Physical blows +1 +4 —5 -6 -7
Weapons +l
Blood +3

4
Wounds +
Pain
Death +3

 

269

Its feet were bound, and it was bleating through
its black mouth, turning its head from side to
side in jerks of terror.

Klaus took down a knife from a rack, its blade
ground thin from years of use, and as dispassion-
ately as a greengrocer slicing a melon, pressed
the blade to the sheep's throat. Hans turned
away.

The blood flowed from the sheep's body and its
limbs trembled and relaxed. Klaus held it still
while he searched for words, and the sheep, con-
temptuous now of all living, bared its teeth in a
terrible grin.

As he talked, Klaus hung the lamb from a hook, its
head down. Saliva dripped slowly from its mouth.
He began the process of evisceration. Warm and
glossy, the organs slid out over his wrists. "This
is what I'm getting at, Hans . . . I want you to be
a professor, like your grandfather.

The English were already beginning to bomb Munich
at night.

Then in mid-August the first American shuttle
raid passed over Munich on its way to Africa from
Regensburg. Every day after that they expected
attack, but in October the raids diminished.

. . . first haphazard radar bombing. Real satura—
tion raids began with the clear spring skies of
1944.

270

Forman, James. Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1967.

 

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit: pp. 120-127.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object

 

 

Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting
Stabbing
Wounding
Killing 2 2
Other 2 2

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts Treatment of Violence
(VerbalY

 

Physical blows +
Weapons +
Blood

Wounds + + + + +
Pain

Death + - - + - -

 

10.

271

One of these shelters had been hit. All that
remained was a thirty-foot crater. Strewn about
its rim like the petals of some monstrous flower
lay the bodies of workers. A sweet vomitous odor
pervaded the lemdn—colored air.

. . . dashed here and there among the dead . . .
The afternoon was an eternity of flies and smells
and nausea which . . .

With so many dead, it seems almost indecent to be
alive." . . . and from it the works police drove a
crowd of workers . . .

Works police and a crowd of workers were already
there, and lines had been thrown about the larger
fragments of wreckage. With the help of Hans and
his comrades, the plane, or what was left of it,
was to be drawn off into the field.

In the field other wreckage had fallen, including
an aviator who had jumped with a defective chute.
Siegfried had gone to look at the body, and back
at the truck, he depicted the scene vividly.
"His guts were strewn all over. All over."

Only his eyes seemed to shout. Abruptly Heime
showed him, by being sick.

. . . there he clung, head down, his body jerking
almost mechanically.

He began to polish the grip of his dagger with a
greasy rag, a procedure so common that the knife
had entirely lost its inscription.

"Are you aware that he has since been executed for
high treason?"

"They were also executed in 1943 for leading the
so-called students' revolt. Surely you came across
their pamphlet, The White Rose.

 

Forman, James.

Giroux,

272

 

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit:

Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and
1967.
pp. 128—130; 131-142.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

 

 

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object
Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting 2 2 4
Stabbing
Wounding
Killing 2 2
Other 1 3 4

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts

 

Physical blows

Weapons

Blood
Wounds
Pain

Death

Treatment of Violence

 

(Verbal)
+J.+2 +3 _4 _5 ,_6 +7 _9 +10 +11 +12 _13
+15 +16 +17 +18 +19 +20 +21 +24

+12 +11 _10 +14 +15 +7 5 4 3 17
18 _+19 +20 +21 +24 +2 +12

 

273

the flak battery responded to one alert. From
the towers they could see flashes in the north;
Nuremberg this time.

Those who shirked Rabbe's fitness drills, or were
caught visiting the girls at the searchlight bat-
teries, were publicly thrashed with a strap.

There were the Americans, the "Amis" as Ernst called
them, who raided by day. Clouds of Liberators bombed
the nearby towns and factories, but seldom came within
firing range. There were no close calls at the
battery, only the constant alerts and the cleaning

up of the towns. Even that didn't matter much any
more. The "Stiffs" had become so much cordwood, and
they were buried by tractor.

. . . beginning to stir in its sleep. We wear smiles,
but carry pistols, and now and then one of us dies
behind a hedge.

The Maquis let fly carrier pigeons and we have squab
for supper now and then, but on the whole our shotgun
patrols are bad marksmen and the birds get through

to gossip about us in England.

But they were not, and as the days went by, Siegfried
rationalized that Hitler had decided to let the beach-
head enlarge. When the bag was full, an army of Tiger
Royals would pull the string. "Biff, bank! Total

victory.

An English broadcast reported that Hitler had been
killed, that a bomb planted by fanatics had gone off
in his East Prussian Wolfschanze. All the pots of
geraniums along the window sills had been shattered
in the blast of a 150 millimeter shell. Finally, the
unmistakable voice of Goebbels, "Little Cloven Hoof"
as some called him, announced over the radio that
their Fuhrer had been spared to continue his onerous
duties.

"Hitler has been spared by divine providence," he
said. The rotten core of army generals responsible
for past failures had been purged.

The English and the Americans are still pressing
forward, but they are paying a terrible price. And
the Russians . . . Let me tell you, I have fought
in Russia, and I know their savagery.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

274

In midsummer the air war, which had retired beyond
the horizon, suddenly returned. The aircraft—
engine plants and the Munich marshaling yards were
attacked. Five times in one week the Munich area
was bombed.

The Americans came by day in their B-l7's, the
British by night in their cigar-shaped Lancasters.

The jet airfields were carpet-bombed and the flak
towers trembled.

But the jets were up. They should have swept the
skies clean, but the bombers only returned in greater
numbers. Hans began to carry his pay book in his hip
pocket, on Captain Rabbe's advice. He had told them
that a body, no matter how dismembered seldom lost
its pants.

. . . by the occasional silver wing of an American
bomber, like sunlight on water. Too high . . . they
were always too high . . .

. . . but on the signal he pressed down on the
jarring pedal, and tiny streaks marked the upward
passage of the bullets.

All day the Amis were overhead, bombing Munich into
a smoky fog, plowing up the airfield. Down below
the tower, Captain Rabbe yelled at them: "We'll

show 'em. Give 'em hell, boys.

But five thousand shells were not enough to bring
down one bomber. Heime could cart shells all day
until his back broke, until the barrel wilted with
the heat, and Hans couldn't fire that many.

Searchlights began their explorations, followed by
star shells which turned the deepening cloud cover
into a pane of frosted glass. Against it, the
raiders would be silhouettes for the German night
fighters.

Moths fluttered around the flashing barrels of his
gun. Hans tried to concentrate on the thunder of
their wings . . .

. . . instead of on the rushing, jarring night and
the subtle, deadly plunk of shrapnel falling back
around him. Before the fight ended, they had blown
the clouds away. There remained only the star-
stabbed sky.

21.

22.

23.

24.

275

They were firing straight up into an empty sky
because the raid was traveling through a barrage
zone the corner of which was occupied by their
towers. The shells went up and fell back, raining
through the forest, banging through a helmet in
an adjacent tower.

He joined it, and saw a boy he scarcely knew lying
on the ground, his eyes wide and unseeing, their
gaze turned inward. His mouth, too, was open,
yawning, but the corners of the lips were torn as
if burst by the abrupt expulsion of life.

Hans heard Siegfried insisting: "Get a doctor!
Somebody get a doctor!" as if it were possible to
talk a corpse back to life. Captain Rabbe ordered

them to carry the body inside.

The dead boy had been a stranger in life and in
death. In a few days he would be forgotten.

Yet the bombers came through the worst weather,
bombing by radar. No longer could the warning
system be relied upon.’ Sometimes the raiders
arrived with the firstvwailing of the sirens.

276

Forman, James. Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1967.

 

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit: pp. 143-144.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

Actor Involved Relationship

Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates

Object

 

 

Wrestling

Boxing

Shooting

Stabbing

Wounding

Killing

Other 4 2

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts Treatment of Violence

 

 

(Verbal)
Physical blows - - - -
Weapons + + —
Blood
Wounds
Pain

Death

 

277

"It's started! New weapons . . . the great offen-
sive!" He threw his arms around Hans, almost
toppling the sturdier boy to the ground in his
ecstasy. From scattered bits, his news began to
take shape. In the Ardennes Forest a great offen-
sive to preserve the Fatherland had begun.

Eight thousand planes of an entirely new and fearful
design had swept the Allies from the skies.

The Fuhrer had launched new battalions of tanks
. . . he had sprung his trap . . . at last there
would be victory in the west.

Major Wirth, is fortunate enough to spearhead this
glorious victory. May we wish every triumph to our
old comrade and the Panzer Lehr division. May the
snow run red with American blood! May the Channel
overflow with the blood of the English! Some of
you may ask, what about the Russians?

Forman, James.

Horses of Anger.

278

Farrar, Straus and

 

Giroux,

Total Pages in Book:

Context Unit: pp.

1967.

244

167-171.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

 

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object
Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting
Stabbing
Wounding
Killing
Other 2 1 l
INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts

 

Physical blows -l+2
Weapons -1
Blood

8
Wounds +
Pain

Death

Treatment of Violence
(Verbal)

 

 

279

. . . when the bombers arrived and ended the painful
conversation.

Hans was aware of them before he heard the guns, as
though a slow breath wafted over the town.

There were the guns, thank God.

The far-off bombs sounded like someone knocking on
the outside of a tub. But the tub was the whole
universe.

Hans heard the drum of the bomb sticks hitting one
after another.

Convulsively he flung his arms around Gretchen.

She was crying. "You'll be all right. You're safe
with me," he shouted, but he knew she could not hear
a word. With a sort of anguish they embraced, not
kissing, simply pressing close, while a milky dust
filled the air in the shelter and shrapnel tinkled
and hissed in the street above.

The tumult diminished periodically, but there was
no "all clear." The raiders came again and again.
During the lulls, the people talked. A few ate
sandwiches. The nun pumped the old organ pedal
furiously and screeched out a hymn. Amid all the
bedlam and discomfort, what Hans minded most was
the heat--the heat and the smoke that came with it.
Klaus had taken off his jacket.

. . . the people climbed up into the roaring inferno
that had been their town. Tiny thermite bombs,
weighing two pounds apiece, had been sown by the
raiders as thickly as seed. The fire engines and
the rescue squads were helpless amid the fiery
harvest.

. . . every direction under a blizzard of sparks.
Hans and Gretchen ran through the burning streets
wildly, turned this way and that by demolition and
by fire. "There's something in the air," sang Hans
giddily. This couldn't be his town. No town could
change so vastly in a few hours.

280

10. They took the mill path, avoiding the smoldering
fires.

281

Forman, James. Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1967.

 

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit: pp. 172-182.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor

Action Hero Villian Char. Strangers Intimates Object
Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting . l l
Stabbing
Wounding l 1
Killing l 1
Other 5 5

INTENSITY SCALE
Violent Acts Treatment of Violence

(Verbal)
13
Physical blows -1 -2 +3 +6 -8 +9 +10 +11 +12 +
+24 +26
Weapons +4 +7 +6 +10 +9
Blood +l7
Wounds _1 +5 +13 +12 +14 +15 +16 +17 +21
+22 _27 +28

Pain +23 +27 +29 +30 +31

Death — +

 

10.

11.

282

Except for one boy who had been wounded in a raid at
home, all the members . . .

Until the middle of winter the great Fatherland offen-
sive which should have swept the Allies into the sea
absorbed all bomber attacks. Then, less suddenly than
it had begun, the offensive was over, dead.

As a grim signpost of things to come, Dresden was
bombed for three successive days until it was no longer
an inhabited city. The Fuhrer threatened a "death
mist" in reprisal. As soon as the jets were ready in
force, the death mist would end the war in one terrible
hour.

There were only enough bullets left to keep two towers
busy, not eight, he explained.

Konrad had been released from the army as a conva-
lescent, but not a whole one. He'd left a hand
behind. Even so, Hans could not think of Konrad as
unlucky.

As the raiders moved into their sector, Captain Rabbe
gave the order to fire. Like luminous oranges, the
tracers went up to meet the ruin which poured from
the skies. Hans had once imagined glory in it. Now
a thousand million bare-armed housewives seemed to

be beating their rugs against his eardrums. He felt
the impact of every stroke, and was afraid.

Their ammunition was entirely spent on the first wave
of raiders.

The two boys waited with the helpless terror of the
condemned as the raiders passed over again, bombing
the jet airfield.

Flak Opened up around them like pure white cascading
flowers, and they had to cling to the jostling gun
to keep from falling.

The raiders burst out of the stabbing midnight.
Their bombs fell. Hans felt as if the first one,
which hit along the line of towers, had gone off
between his teeth.

He saw a jagged cloud, the star of an explosion, then
a pandemonium of explosions and flames.

12.

13.

14.

15.

l6.

17.

18.

19.

20.

283

"We're falling. screamed Ernst. Like a great tree
cut through at its base, the eighty-two-foot tower
fell, slowly at first. For a moment Hans was aware
of Ernst's face embalmed by the fiery glare. Then
his own bones and sinews were wrenched and unsocketed
by the concussions. The ground hurtled up, faster
and faster.

A tree parly broke his fall. It spun him like a rag
doll to the ground, where he landed with dirt forced
between his teeth. Hans tried to crawl away from the
tower, which glowed white hot as it disintegrated.

He thought he heard Ernst's voice, thought he saw
him beating at his trousers and jacket, from which
flames burst like red blossoms. Then there was
nothing but darkness and a pulse that kept beating
slowly. When he awoke, everything around him was
quiet and gray, and he could feel each deliberate
breath. There was smoke in the air, and the honest
smell of heartwood laid open from the felled trees.

Even more slowly he realized that he was badly hurt.
He felt no pain, but he knew about the swift anesthe-
sia of shock which followed a severe wound. When he
had the strength.

"You . . . water . . . help me . . ." came an injured
voice. It sounded small and plaintive, pleading for
dignity amid the solitude of pain. The boy crawled
slowly toward Hans, his features rigid and his upper
lip distorted.

"Water . . . water . . ." said the boy again. With
his mouth still open, he made a gurgling noise. Then
great ropes and clots of blood poured from his mouth.
He collapsed to the ground and Hans watched him as

in a dream. He had no water and he said so, but the
stranger didn't answer.

He rocked to and fro, saying his name repeatedly:
"My name is Fritz Dressler, my name is Fritz Dress-
ler, my name . . ." as though trying to prove to
himself that he was still alive. The words became
halting, indistinct. Then he was still.

It was Siegfried, smeared with soot. Words tumbled
out of him. Not a tower was left standing. He'd
sent Heime for help, and he'd searched through the
ruins.

Everyone else was dead except for Ernst.

21.

22.

23.

24.

26.

27.

28.

29.

284

Ernst had been burned and was barely breathing.
"Where are you hit?" he asked.

Hans didn't know. His head felt full of chipped
rock. His left arm had no feeling at all.

The pain was coming. Hans felt it in waves, but
now and then he slept, and tossed in an ancestral
nightmare.

"See where my hand is? That's where to strike."
Where his hand was, Hans saw the head of a lamb,
and he struck with all his might, uttering a loud
grunt like a woodcutter, and feeling the pain of
the felled lamb in his body, feeling the bubbles
around its lips around his own.

He was the lamb, and his father stood by, telling
him never to give a name to the animal one has to
butcher, never even flick a fly from its back. Then
the lamb grinned at him, a lipless breathless grin.
All the lambs grinned. ,He was on the top of a vast
pile of lambs stacked up in neat rows like firewood.
He began to worry about those underneath, those at
the bottom, but when he looked they were flattened.

The raiders came instead. Fighters this time, but
there was nothing left of the flak battery for them
to attack, so they flew away.

Ernst was still alive, the voice said, but Hans was
too full of pain and exhaustion to care. He did
not even open his eyes.

His red-veined eyes gazed about vacuously while his
mouth gnawed hideously on nothing. Even Hans could
tell that Captain Rabbe was mad. Siegfried offered
him a can of soup salvaged from the barracks but
Captain Rabbe did not seem to hear. He fumbled
through the ruins until he had reached a spot where
the burned tower supports formed a loose cage about
him. Here a single, inexpressive shriek tore from
his throat. As if in obedience to this signal, the
captain immediately sat down, drew up his knees,
rested his head upon them, and did not move as long
as there was light to see him.

Hans could not sleep at all the second night. He
had one thought, one sensation: pain. It filled
his world.

30.

31.

285

His body cried and groaned in pain, yet he seemed
able to View his own suffering from a dispassionate
distance as though he had not one body but two.

The hurt body was delirious, calling for water,
calling for Gretchen, while the other observed it
idly and longed for sleep.

He thought he heard Siegfried crying, but he
couldn't tell for sure. He tried to tell Siegfried
everything was all right. He couldn't because
they'd shoved a needle into his arm before lifting
him onto a stretcher. "Siegfried . . . " Then the
pain of motion closed over him.

Forman, James.

Giroux,

Total Pages in Book:

Context Unit:

PP-

286

Horses of Anger. Straus and

1967.

Farrar,

 

244

186-196.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object
Wrestling
Boxing -
Shooting 1 1
Stabbing
Wounding
Killing l 1
Other

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts

 

Physical blows
Weapons

Blood

Wounds

Pain

Death

Treatment of Violence
(Verbal)

 

 

287

Emaciated, with a bandage for a left hand . . .

The army's crumbling at the edges like stale cake.
We've nothing left but Cossack deserters and horse
artillery. Instead of Panzers we're sending out
bicycle boys to face tanks. This is sunset and I
say amen."

"Yes, but you don't know why. You probably didn't
like Rabbe. He wasn't very likeable, I know. But
once he made a confession to me, and afterwards I
think he hated me for knowing his secret. He was in
the SS . . . Action Squad C, in Russia, near Kiev.
He told me that he sat on the edge of the Babi Yar
ravine there and for two days did nothing but
machine gun women and children. It took thirty
thousand bodies to fill that ravine. You may have
thought of Rabbe as some sort of iron puppet, but
he wasn't devoid of feelings. He broke down, and
they drummed him out of the SS. Now all that
Germany has left on the field is the Waffen SS.
They can't win the war . . . they can only create
ruins. There won't be any men left in Germany
except on crutches."

Do you know that more and more soldiers are taking
independent action?

"Desertion?"

"Hardly that. They're thinking of the welfare
of Germany. There comes a time to stand fast, even
at the risk of being dead heroes. Perhaps that time
is already past. But there is a group in the Munich
area called the Anti-Fascist Committee. Most
regular army, a few civilians."

288

Forman, James. Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1967.

 

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit: pp. 204-210.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object

 

 

 

Wrestling

Boxing

Shooting 1 l
Stabbing

Wounding

Killing l 1
Other

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts Treatment of Violence
(Verbal)

 

 

Physical blows + + + + +
Weapons + + + + + +
Blood

Wounds

Pain

Death + + + —

 

10.

11.

289

"Halt!" cried a bewhiskered old man wearing an arm
band instead of a uniform. "Traffic prohibited."
He waved an antique gun.

The truck driver shouted back. "Grandfather, get
the broomstick out of the way or I'll run you

down." The truck lunged forward, pushing aside

all of the barrier which the Volkssturm men had
failed to remove. In what remained of Hindenburg
Square the truck halted again so that the funeral
procession might proceed on foot to the cemetery.

A few villagers were waiting. The body of a

soldier was hung there as well, a gruesome but some-
how fitting sentiment. A placard was attached to
the rope around his neck: "Lieutenant Schmiedemann,
226 Res. Inf. Regt., was a defeatist." With such
encouragement the Volkssturm were kept at their
posts.

Hans saw Gretchen. He would have liked to walk with
her, but he was obliged to follow Ernst. Eight boys
carried the coffin, and the others drew up behing in
solemn procession. Hans managed to achieve a pace
of slow piety, head inclined, counting the fresh
imprints that the weighted feet had left in the warm
tar of the road.

Hans felt strangely disembodied, neither dead nor
alive. Nothing could truly surprise him, not even
the figures up ahead banging a gong. It seemed to
have frightened the others. The coffin swayed, then
ran for the side of the road on sixteen legs, its
skirt of a fag flapping. Then the legs became
individual boys, and the coffin fell with a hideous
splinter of wood. Only the high incisive note of a
fighter plane coming with the unnatural speed of its
kind brought Hans to his senses. The sirens had
been destroyed. The gong was the only warning

left.

He fell flat as the plane went over, saw the saber
flash of its twin propellers, saw Siegfried planted
in the middle of the street hurling stones.

A moment later he heard the raider's guns go off
as it reached the main road and the military convoy.

The coffin lay in the street. No one stirred. When
Hans started to get up, a voice warned him there was
another plane coming. Hans rolled over on his back.
There it was, a bomber this time, a Liberator.

12.

290

As he watched, it dropped a bomb, one solitary bomb
which fell slowly toward them in endless, dreamlike
flight. Someone screamed. Hans curled himself up,
arms over his head, awaiting death. There was only
a popping sound high in the air and then a volley
of laughter.

Forman, James.

Giroux,

Total Pages in Book:

Context Unit:

PP-

291

Horses of Anger. Straus and

1967.

Farrar,

 

244

221-230.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object
Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting 5 5
Stabbing
Wounding
Killing 3 3
Other

 

INTENSITY SCALE

 

Violent Acts

 

Physical blows

Weapons

Blood
Wounds
Pain

Death

Treatment of Violence

 

(Verbal)
_1. _2 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +12 +13 ‘+20
+21 22
+4 +7 +8 +10 +11 12 13 +15 +16
+17 +19 +21 +22 +23 +20
+3

 

292

It was a time when German fought against German
through a fog of rumor and false report. Munich
had fallen to the Wehrmacht and the radio called
on Bavarians to rise against the SS. Some did,
and many died.

The SS, the Hitler Youth, a few isolated detachments
fought back, while the great army of Field Marshal
Kesselring dissolved on the alpine roads.

An endless procession of soldiers and refugees
moved through the exquisite springtime, a living
artery of suffering, despair, and defeat.

Behind them were left the relics of Nazi rout: burst
haversacks and cartridge boxes, baby carriages
loaded with kindling wood, scattered letters and
lockets, burned-out tanks, and horses dead in their
traces.

Only here and there armies, reduced to company size
and company command, remained to fight. These were
brief, spasmodic struggles, followed on no battle
maps, recorded in no histories, written only on
grave markers and in women's hearts.

This also made him laugh dangerously, as did Sieg-
fried's proclamation that a dead and bloating horse
was just as good protection as several bags of sand.
It must have been one of the airfield horses,

Hans thought. A few had been kept to help pull the
planes off under the trees as they landed. If they
didn't pull fast enough, they were strafed. That
was how the horse had died.

. . a cannon had begun to fire. Its voice was
singularly unterrifying. It hung lazily in the air,
which seemed worn out from carrying loud sounds for
so long.

A gun sounded closer now, and a plane came over.

There was only the pilot. Siegfried tried to question
him, but the man impatiently began to pour gasoline
over the plane. Siegfried then tried to interrogate
him at gunpoint, while Hans and Heime stood by. The
pilot failed to recognize the passion of the small
person who was annoying him. He pushed Siegfried
down, touched a match to the plane, and carelessly
walked away. Siegfried struggled to his feet and
fired just as Hans gave a shout of warning. The
pilot sank to his knees, then to hands and knees.
Finally he rolled over on his side, his movements
slow and ponderous.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

19.

20.

293

Siegfried ran back to the .88 millimeter gun while
the other boys watched his every move. Hans went
to examine the pilot, but he could see that there
was no use feeling for a pulse, so he followed
Siegfried. steadily the noises in the valley were
growing.

The cannon were accompanied by the familiar rumble
and clank of tanks moving through forests and gardens
like a gazing herd of monsters. Morning became
afternoon, and still no enemy showed himself.

There were occasional planes, of course: an Ameri-
can reconnaisance plane, at which Siegfried dis-
charged an errant shell from the .88, and later a
plane that looked like a single-engine trainer
trailing smoke. The trainer swung in toward their
field.

The .88 fired a shell, and the plane, skating from
its course, nosed over into the forest. Hans had
barely time to recognize the German cross on the
plane's wing before the forest absorbed it.

Smoke rose in the dark column, to be skimmed away
gradually by the wind. Siegfried was jubilant.
He either did not know or did not care that the
plane was German.

Tanks had now reached the village road. Hans could
hear them just beyond the trees.

Toward the far end of the airfield moved the striped
figures of prisoners. Siegfried racked down the
long barrel of the .88 until it squinted out across
the field almost level with the grass.

From the trees across the field emerged an American
tank. It was ponderous and slow, the barrel moving
in its turret like the clumsy feeler of a terrible
insect. Either it did not see the entrenched .88
or it relied upon the paralyzing effect of its own
presence. In any event, it did not fire. With
seagull cries of joy, the prisoners ran toward it,
waving.

Then the concealed .88 went off. Its shell racketed
across the field and into the woods, exploding there.
The clang of the tank's hatch closing was followed
by a much louder clang, . . .

21.

22.

23.

294

. . . like the sound of a church bell cracking. It
was the second shell from the .88. At first Hans
thought it had glanced off the tank, but the long
cannon swung abruptly downward in its turret, and
there was a rumble of explosions, deep and muffled.
Smoke wisped from the hatch and from the driver's
slit. The tank looked as deadly as ever, but it
was finished. The harlequin crowd of prisoners
rushed to and fro, then crouched behind the huge
iron skeleton.

From their salvaged weapons, irresolute bursts of
fire began to spray the woods opposite, plucking
down leaves and tearing up plumes of dust.

A lash of tracers hummed overhead. They opened
tree trunks, left them smoking, and came down on
the other side of the field where the .88 was
concealed.

295

Forman, James. Horses of Anger. Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 1967.

 

Total Pages in Book: 244

Context Unit: pp. 234—237.

ACTOR-ACTION SCALE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actor Involved Relationship
Minor
Action Hero Villain Char. Strangers Intimates Object
Wrestling
Boxing
Shooting 1 l
Stabbing
Wounding 2 2.
Killing
Other
INTENSITY SCALE
Violent Acts Treatment of Violence
(Verbal)
Physical blows +3 -8 +9 +lO -11
Weapons +l +10 +ll +3 +4 +5 +9
Blood +10
Wounds +2
Pain

Death + + + + - -

 

10.

11.

296

"I saw Siegfried. Hans, he was dead. There was a
knife in his back. So many boys were dead, and so
many prisoners

A few dead lay in the streets, already swollen,
their faces tinted yellow, green, black. Paper
moved in the streets. There were pictures of
Hitler, and a pile of Mein Kampf hastily set afire
and only partly burned.

 

A shot, followed by a series of shots and the crash
of a tank butting through a half-demolished building,
indicated the presence of snipers. So there would
be a little more killing after all.

There was a dented helmet, the flattened tire from
a Volkswagon, and a trail of horse manure ending
in a dead horse. Hans's father knelt beside the
body with a bucket and a butcher's knife.

Hans asked if he had come with the demolished Ameri-
can tank. He said he had. In fact, he'd rallied
the prisoners against the .88 and the rifles that
had supported it from the forest. The carcass of

a dead horse has saved him from a shellburst.
There'd been no shelter after that.

He'd limped the last hundred yards armed only with
rocks, relying on the hope that the boys had all
run away. Only one was still there, Siegfried
crouched behind the muzzle of a cocked carbine.

"Don't shoot! It's all over!" Konrad had
shouted, but the boy had taken aim, and as a last
insult had stuck out his tongue.

Instead, Siegfried's open mouth had seemed to widen,
and the pink protruding tongue had disappeared in

a rush of blood. Siegfried had swayed forward, and
the gun had discharged into the ground.

"It was Heime. It must have been Heime,‘ said
Konrad. "He stabbed Siegfried in the back and ran.
He disappeared into the forest before I could get
a good look at him, but it was his knife all right.
Well, Siegfried was born for trouble. It's just as
well."

Siegfried was gone, demobilized for eternity. And
Heime . . . Had his knife made his final statement?
Hans would not forget the speech he had made. Only
time would tell about Heime.

APPENDIX C

THE CONTENT ANALYSIS: A GUIDE

TO THE TABLES

297

THE CONTENT ANALYSIS: A GUIDE TO THE TABLES

The complete content analysis is contained in the
following tables. For each year the first page gives the
book listing, with numbers which serve to identify the
books in the table on the next page. Each table has a
total of 14 columns, labeled A through N.

Column A: This column gives the identifying number of
the book.

Column B: This column indicates the kind of book in
question. H stands for historical fiction;
M stands for modern realistic fiction.

Column C: This column shows the country of origin if
other than U.S. A denotes Australia, B denotes
Britain, C denotes Canada, F denotes a foreign
country other than one of the British Common-
wealth.

Column D: The total number of pages of the book that
are devoted to violent episodes are given.

Column E: This column lists the total number of book
pages.

Column F: This column gives the percentage of space
devoted to violence. The entry in F is equal

to the entry in D divided by that in E multi-
plied by 100.

Column G: Here are listed the raw scores for the positive
intensity value. See Chapter III.

Column H: This column lists the raw scores for the
negative intensity value; see Chapter III.

Columns I through N refer to the actor-action

scale. The entries give the following information.

298

299
Column I: In this column are listed the number of times
the hero or heroine commit aggressive acts.

Column J: Here are listed the number of times the villain
(or villains) commits the aggressive acts.

Column K: Here are listed the number of times the
aggressive acts are committed by minor characters.

Column L: This column lists the number of times violence
occurs between strangers.

Column M: This column lists the number of times intimates
are involved in the violent acts.

Column N: This column lists the number of times violent
acts are directed against inanimate objects.

Following the tabulation for the individual books
totals and averages are presented. For both totals and
averages there are four separate entries. The first is
the total for all books of that year. The next line,
Tot.(H) gives the totals for historical fiction books,
and the following line the totals for modern realistic
books. Finally, the totals for all books originally
published in Commonwealth countries is given.

The last four lines give the corresponding aver-
ages, in per cent. Under column D appear the "page
averages" for that year. The entry here is equal to the
total under column D divided by the total under column E,
multiplied by 100. The averages appearing under column
F are the "book averages." These are simply the total of
the percentages under column F for the individual books,
divided by the number of books in the sample. The per-
centages in the last four lines under columns G and H are

with respect to the number of total book pages, not number

300

of books. Thus, for 1960, the entry of 15.2 in column G
in the line Avg.(H) is equal to 224 divided by 1474 and
multiplied by 100. The percentages under columns I, J,

K give the percentage of the time the hero, villain, or
minor characters commit violent acts. Similarly, under
columns L, M. N are the percentages for the times the
violent acts involve strangers, intimates or are directed

at inanimate objects.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18.

301

Book List--l960

O'Dell, Island of the Blue Dolphin

 

Spykeman, Terrible, Horrible Edie

 

Grice, Out of the Mines, the Story of a Pit Boy

 

Fritz, Brady

Johnson and Johnson, Torrie

Burnford, The Incredible Journey

 

L'Engle, Meet the Austins

 

Nordstrom, The Secret Language

 

Kim, The Happy Days

 

Weaver, A Poppy in the Corn

 

Stucley, Family Walkup, A Story of the Berners
Family

Sutcliff, Knight's Fee

 

 

Johnson and Johnson, The Bearcat

 

Yashima, The Golden Footprint

 

Stolz, The Dog on Barkham Street

 

Chauncey, Devil's Hill

 

Schaefer, Old Ramon

 

Mayne, The Blue Boat

 

302

'14.'l!. II... I. 01.:

 

 

 

 

 

O N4 Om Om NH OO O O N.O 0.0 H.O Hoov.O><
O NO NO HO OH ON O O 0.0 0.0 0.0 AzO.O><
H H4 Om NO ON ON m H N.OH O.OH 0.0H HOV.O>a
H Om OO Om OH ON O O O.OH O.HH O.OH .O><
O ON 4m 4m N OH OH OOH NNmH HHH Hooc.noe
O OH mm NO O OH OH OOH NOOH NNH Azc.noe
H 4m O4 O4 HN OH OH 4NN 4N4H 4NN Amv.noe
H mm HO ON ON 4m ON 4mm OOmm NON .Hoe
O H m N H O O HH O.4 ONH N m 2 OH
O O 4 O O H H 4N O.NN NOH 4N 2 NH
O O N N O O O N.O OOH H a 2 OH
O N O N m H H OH O.O 4OH NH 2 OH
O O O O O O N OH N.Om mm HN 2 4H
O O m 4 N O O O4 N.ON HON O4 O NH
O O 4 O m 4 O ON 0.0H NmN mm m O NH
O O O 4 H 4 O HH O.HH HOH ON m 2 HH
O N H O O O 4 O.N NHO O m s OH
O H O H O O O O.N 4HN O a O O

O O O O O O O O HOH O 2 O

O O O O O O O O HOH O z N

O O NH O O O N 4O N.mH O4H NN o s O

O N HH 4H N N N Om H.4N OHN NO m m

H H 4 N N H H NH N.OH HNN 44 m 4

O m N O N H N 4N N.O HNH 4H m m O

O O H H O O O H.m 4NN N z N

O 4 OH N m HH 4 4O 4.NH 4OH NO m H

z 2 H s O .H e O H O o a

OOOH

 

303

Book List-~196l

 

McGraw, The Golden Goblet

 

Lauritzen, The Legend of Billy Bluesage

 

Polland, Beorn the Proud

 

Enright, Return to Gone Away

 

De Jong, The Last Little Cat

 

Wibberley, Sea Captain from Salem

 

Kaufmann, Adventure in the Desert

 

Williamson, The Glorious Conspiracy

 

304

 

 

O N OO OO H4 4 H H O.NH O.N O.O AzO.O>O

H ON 4N OO 4O HH O 4 O.HN N.OH O.OH AOO.O>O

H ON ON OO OO O O O 4.ON O.OH 0.0H .O><
QCOQ AOUV 3.409.

O N NN OH NH H O OO ON4 N4 sz.uoe

H OH 4O O4 ON O H4 ONN OOOH OOH Hmv.uoa

H ON HO OO NO O O4 OOO 4HOH N4N .poe

O O OH OH O N O. 44 O.HH HHN ON O O

O H NH OH O O O 44 H.OH OHN OO O N

O O NH O N 4 OH ON N.NO OOH OO O O

O O H H O O O O.O OO N 2 O

O O O O O O O O HOH O 2 4

H H 4H 4 OH N HH NO O.ON ONH N4 O O

O N ON OH NH H O 4O O.ON OHN O4 2 N

O HH H 4 O O H OO N.O O4N 4N m H

z 2 H. O O H O m O O O

HmmH

 

10.

ll.

12.

l3.

14.

15.

l6.

l7.

l8.

19.

20.

21.

22.

305

Book List--l962

 

McLean, Ribbon of Fire

 

Wrightson, The Feather Star

 

Wibberley, Treegate's Raiders

 

Keats, The Snowy Day

 

Sutcliff, Dawn Wind

 

Seuberlich, Annuzza, A Girl of Rumania

 

Baumann, I Marched with Hannibal

 

Phipson, The Family Conspiracy

 

Van Stockum, The Winged Watchman

 

Pearce, A Dog So Small

 

Carlson, Carnival in Paris

 

Ball, Bristle Face

 

Southall, Hill's End

 

Little, Mine for Keeps

 

Godden, Little Plum

 

Bonzon, The Orphans of Simitra

 

De Jong, Nobodnylays with Cabbage

 

De Jong, The Singing Hill

 

Constant, Willie and the Wildcat Well

 

Paradis, Mr. de Luca's Horse

 

Mayne, A Grass Rope

 

Hightower, Dark Horse of Woodfield

 

306

 

O O 4O HN HH OH N.O O.OH N.O N O HOOO.O>O
N NN HN ON HH OH N.O O.O H.O N O AzO.O>O
H OO OO HN 4H OH 0.0 4.OO O.OH O OH AOO.O>O
H ON ON HN 4H OH O.N O.4H 0.0 O O .O>O
O NO OO O4 N HH O OOH OOOH NNH Hoov.poe
H NH HO NO O N NH HOH OO4N O4H sz.uoe
H NO OO NO OH OH NO OH4 OOOH NNN Amc.uoe
N O4 NHH OHH ON ON OO ONO OOOO ONO .Hoe
O H H N O O H N N.H OOO 4 m NN
O O N N O O O 4 4.N NOH 4 O z HN
O O H H O O O O O.H NOH O 2 ON
O O H O O H H HN 0.0 O4N ON O OH
O O H H O O O OH H.O OOH HH 2 OH
O O N N O O O N 0.0 NO N 2 NH
O N O H O H N N 4.4 OOH N O 2 OH
O O H O O H H O H.O OO O 2 OH
O O O O O O O O O OOH O 2 4H
O O O N O H O OH 0.0 4NH OH O 2 OH
O O 4 4 O O O ON O.OH OON NO 2 NH
O N O O O N H O O.N NOH 4 2 HH
O O O O O O O O O O4H O O 2 OH
O O HH O O O O NH N.4H 4ON OO O O O

O N O H O H O 4 O.4 4NN O O 2 O

H 4 OH OH N O 4O NOH N.ON ONN O4 O O N

H H O O N O 4 N H.O OOH OH O 2 O

O OH NH ON 4 O N OO O.4N H4N OO O O O

O O O O O O O O O ON O z 4

O O H4 OO 4 OH H4 O4H H.NO OHO ON O O

O N 4 O O O O OH 0.0 OOH O O z N

O O OH NH O H N OO 0.0H HOH OO O 2 H

z 2 H O O H O o O O O o O

Nmma

 

10.

ll.

l2.

l3.

14.

15.

l6.

17.

307

Book List—~1963

 

Wier, The Loner

 

Ammerman, Guns in the Heather

 

Bloch, Aunt America

 

Stolz, Who Wants Music on Monday?

 

Willard, Storm from the West

 

Day, Landslide!

 

Peyton, Sea Fever

 

Haugaard, Hakon of Rogen's Saga

 

Shotwell, Roosevelt Grady

 

Steele, The Year of the Bloody Sevens

 

Behn, The Faraway Lurs

 

Fritz, I, Adam

Ness, Josefina February

 

Dillon, The Coriander

 

Bartos-Hoppner, The Cossacks

 

Lee, The Rock and the Willow

 

Johnson and Johnson, A Golden Touch

 

308

 

 

 

O OO NO OO HH OO O .N O.N O N HooO.O>O
O OO OO 44 NO 4N H O .N N.O N O AOO.O>O
H ON HN 44 ON HO N N H ON H.OH O OH HOV.O>O
N ON OO 44 ON OO O H O OH O.HH O HH .O>O
O O O O H O O OO HO4 OH Houv.poe
H O OH HH O O H OHH OO4H OO sz.poO
N O4 OHH NN H4 OO O4 OO4 NONH HON AOO.OOO
O 4O HOH OO O4 OO O4 OHO OONO NNO .HOO
O H O N O N O NH 4.N OON NH O NH
O O O O N O O O O.4 ONN O O OH
H O ON OO HN ON ON NOH H.ON OON NN O OH
O H N N O H O O 4.N HHN O 2 4H
O O O O O O O O O ON O 2 OH
O N O O N N O O 0.0 OON OH O NH
O N O O 4 N N OO H.NN OOH N4 O HH
H O OH OH N O O HN H.O4 NOH ON O OH
H N O H N O O NH O.HH HOH OH O O

O NH 4 O O O NH OO O.OO NOH N4 O O

O N 4 O H N O OO O.O O4N O O N

O O O O O O O O O OOH O 2 O

O H O H O O H O N.O OOH O 2 O

O O O O O O O O O NON O z 4

O O O O O O O O O O4H O 2 O

O 4 O N O N O 44 N.4H HOH ON 2 N

O H N O O O O O4 O.OH OOH ON 2 H

z O H O O H O O O O O O

mwma

 

10.

ll.

12.

309

Book List-—l964

 

Keats, Whistle for Willie

 

Sommerfelt, The White Bungalow

 

Petry, Tituba of Salem Village

 

Hunt, Across Five Aprils

 

Hodges, The Namesake

 

Wilson, Big Blue Island

 

Carlson, The Orphelines in the Enchanted Castle

 

De Jong, Far Out on the Long Canal

 

Yates, Carolina's Courage

 

Caudill, A Pocketful of Cricket

 

George, Gull Number 737

 

Kroeber, Ishi, Last of his Tribe

 

310

 

 

O O NO N4 OO O O.O O.OO O.4H O.4H HouO.O>O
O H4 OO ON NN O 0.0 N.OH 4.O H.NH AOO.O>O
O OH HO HO NN NH O.H N.OH O.OH O.OH AOO.O>O
O 4N ON OO ON HH O.H O.NH O.NH O.OH .O>O
O H ON NH OH H OH OO OON O4 Houv.poe
O HH OH OH O N O OO OOO ON AOO.H0H
O OH ON OO ON NH ON OON ONNH OHN AOO.HOO
O OO OO ON OO 4H ON HNO 4OOH OON .Hoe
O O HN O N O O HO N.OH OON HN O NH
O N O HH O O H HO H.NH OOH 4N 2 HH
O O O O O O O O O N4 O 2 OH
O O N N O O H O H.N OO N O O

O O 4 O O H O O H.O HON 4H O O

O O H O O H O 4N 0.0H OO OH O N

O O H O O H O H N.H ONH N 2 O

O H ON NH OH H OH OO O.4H OON O4 O O

O OH NH NN O O N HO O.4O ONN NN O 4

O O N HH O H H NO O.4N 4ON HO O O

O O O O O O 4 NN 4.ON 4NH ON 2 N

O O O O O O O O O ON O 2 H

z 2 A M b H m w m m O HO

vmma

 

10.

ll.

12.

l3.

14.

15.

l6.

l7.

l8.

19.

20.

21.

22.

311

Book List--l965

 

Jarrell, The Animal Family

 

Bonham, Durango Street

 

Bradbury, Two on an Island

 

Stevenson, The Bushbabies

 

Morey, Gentle Ben

 

Hentoff, Jazz Country

 

Stolz, The Noonday Friends

 

Wojciechowska, Shadow of a Bull

 

Constant, Those Miller Girls

 

Forman, Ringithe Judas Bell

 

Haugaard, A Slave's Tale

 

Holm, North to Freedom

 

Neville, It's Like This, Cat

 

Neville, Berries Goodman

 

Phipson, Birkin

MacPherson, The Rough Road

 

Ottley, Boy_Alone

 

Sutcliff, The Mark of the Horse Lord

 

Peyton, The Maplin Bird

 

Carlson, The Empty Schoolhouse

 

Tresselt, Hide and Seek Fog

 

Ets, Just Me

312

 

 

 

N OO OO O) HH ON H H 0.0N O.4H O.4H HOOO.O>O
O N4 OO OO 4H ON O H 0.0H N.OH O.NH HOO.O>O
O OO OO OO OH ON H N N.ON N.OH O.OH HOO.O>O
O H4 OO OO OH ON O H 4.HN N.NH 4.OH .O>O
N NN OO N4 O OH OH OHO NNHH ONH Hoov.poe
O OO OO HO OH OO O4 NO4 OOON HHO HOO.OOO
O OO OO OO OH ON HO OOO OOOH OON OOO.H0O
O OO ONH OOH 4O OO NN OOO HOH4 OOO .Ooe
O O O O O O O O O NO O z NN
O O O O O O O O O ON O O HN
O O N N N H O OH O.OH OHH ON 2 ON
O N 4 O H O O NH 4.HH NON NN O O OH
H O 4O ON H OH OH NOH O.ON OOO NN O O OH
O O O O O O O O4 4.OH OOH ON O O NH
H OH O 4 O 4 N OO 4.OH ONN 4O O O OH
O H O 4 O O H O O.4 4NN O O O OH
O O O 4 O N H‘ O O.N ONH 4H 2 4H
O O N N O O H OH H.OH OOH ON O OH
O H N O O O H OH O.OH OOH ON O O NH
O O O O O 4 OH OO 0.0N NHN 44 O HH
4 O HH NH O 4 O OO O.HN OHN N4 O OH
O N H H O N H 4 0.0 OOO OH O O

O O O O O O OH OO N.ON OOH O4 2 O

O N O N O O O O H.H OOH N O N

O H O O O O 4 OH N.O O4H NH O O

O N O O 4 4 O OO 4.O HOH OH 2 O

O O ON OH O OH O OHH O.OH ONN OO O 4

O O H H O O H N N.N OOH O O O

O ON OH 4H NH OH OH NOH O.ON NOH 4O 2 N

O O H H O O O N H.H OOH N O H

O O H O O H O O O O O o O

mmma

 

10.

ll.

12.

l3.

14.

15.

l6.

17.

313

Book List--l966

 

McNiell, The Battle of St. George Without

 

O'Dell, The King's Fifth

 

Southall, Ash Road

Rodman, Lions in the Way

 

Burch, Queenie Peavy

 

Robinson, David in Silence

 

Wier, The Barrel

 

Miles, Fox and the Fire

 

Linde, The White Stone

 

Kingman, The Year of the Raccoon

 

Hunt, Up a Road Slowly

 

Fall, Canalboat to Freedom

 

Jackson, The Taste of Spruce Gum

 

Godden, The Kitchen Madonna

 

Ish-Kishor, A Boy of Old Prague

 

Caudill, Did You Carry the Flag Today, Charley?

 

Raskin, Nothinngver Happens on My Block

 

314

15-1! yl.l

 

 

 

OH HO ON O O OH O.H 0.0H N.HH 0.0H Hoov.O>O
OH OO HO ON NH OH O.O 4.O O.O O.O HOV.O>O
OH HO OO OO 4H ON O.H 0.0N O.4H 4.OH HOO.O>O
OH OO OO OO OH OH 0.0 0.0H N.OH 0.0H .O>O
O OH O 4N N O O 4N OO4 HO HooO.HoO
O ON OO O4 N O O ONH OHOH O4H HOV.OOO
N NN H4 O4 OH 4H OH 4ON O4O O4H HOO.OOH
OH O4 ON HO NH ON 4N 4N4 OONN OON .poe
O O N N O O H 4 4.OH ON 4 O NH

O O O O O O O O O 4O O O OH

N N O O N N O ON 0.0H OO OH O OH

O O O O O O N HN O.4 OO 4 O 4H

O N O N O H H O4 4.0 NHN ON O OH

O N O O 4 N O OO 0.0H HHN OO O NH

O N O H O H O O 0.0 NOH H O HH

H 4 O O O N H OO 4.O O4N ON O OH

O H O O O H H O 0.0 OON OH O O

O O H O O H O 4 0.0 O4 N O O

O H O O O H H 4H N.OH OOH HN O N

H O 4 O O H O NN 0.0H ONH ON O O

4 N H H O O O OH N.OH OOH HN O O

4 O NH O N O N OO O.OH OON NO O 4

O H N O O O O NH O.4 4OH N O O

H 4 ON HO 4 O O NN H.ON 4ON OO O N

O O O 4 O N H O N.HH OOH HN O H

O O H O O H O O O O O O

coma

 

10.

ll.

12.

l3.

14.

15.

l6.

l7.

l8.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

315

Book List-—l967

 

Clymer, My Brother Stevie

 

Fox, How Many Miles to Babylon?

 

Hamilton, Zeely

Arthur, Requiem for a Princess

 

Stolz, A Wonderful, Terrible Time

Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Hp Files of Mrs. Basil
E. Frankweiler

 

Lipsyte, The Contender

 

Hodges, The Marsh King

 

Peyton, Flambards

 

Shotwell, Adam Bookowl

 

Snyder, The Egypt Game

 

Townsend, Goodbye to the Jungle

 

Forman, Horses of Anger

 

Schaefer, Mavericks

 

Ellis, Roam the Wild Country

 

Garfield, Smith

Almedingen, Young Mark: The Story of a Venture

 

O'Dell, The Black Pearl

 

Scott, Sam

Weil, The Jazz Man

 

Ness, Sam, Bangs and Moonshine

 

Raskin, Spectacles

 

Hill, Evan's Corner

 

316

 

 

 

4 ON H OO NO O O N O.4N 0.0H 0.0H HOOO.O>O
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H O H N O O O O 0.0H 4OH OO O NH
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O O H H O O N O O.4 OON HH O OH
H O H O O O O NO N.HH OON ON O O

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H 4 O OH O N O4 4OH O.ON NOH O4 O N

O N O N O O H H O.O NOH H O O

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\oL'J

 

10.

ll.

12.

l3.

14.

15.

16.

317

Book List--1968

 

Townsend, Pirate's Island

 

Fox, The Stone Faced Boy

 

Potter, Antonio

De Jong, Journey from Peppermint Street

 

Sachs, Veronica Ganz

 

Zei, Wildcat under Glass

 

Wersba, The Dream Watcher

 

Wrightson, A Racecourse for Andy

 

Hunter, The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou

 

Clark, The Min-Min

 

Hamilton, The House of Dies Drear

 

Schonherr, The Barn

Konigsburg, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William
McKinley and Me, Elizabeth

 

 

Haugaard, The Little Fishes

 

Weyman, The Edge of Two Worlds

 

Neufield, Edgar Allan

 

318

 

 

 

NO ON OH OO O OO H H 4.N H.O O N HooO.O>O
OH 4O OO OO OH 4N N O O.N 0.0H O NH AOO.O>O
O ON NN HO O OH O H O.NH N.O O O HOV.O>O
N 44 O4 OO HH HO O O O.OH O.OH O NH .O>O
O N H 4 O 4 4 O NNO ON HooO.Ooe
O HO HN OO O 4H OH NOH NONH ONN OOO.OOO
O O ON ON H O OH OOH HNN ON HOO.HOO
O O4 44 HO OH OH ON ONN ONON NOO .uoe
O H H N O O O H H.N OO N O OH
O O O O O O O ON H.OH OOH 4H O OH
O O NH NH O O O OO N.OH 4HN H4 O 4H
O N O H O H H H H.O NHH O O OH
O O 4 O O H O NN O.NO H4 OO O NH
H O O H N H H O N.NH O4N OO O HH
O N O O O 4 O O O.HH OHN NN O OH
O 4 N OH O H O ON N.ON O4N OO O O

O O H H O O H O O.O OOH H O O

O H O H O O O N 0.0 HNH H O N

O N O O H H N 4H O.N NNH O O O

O O H .O O N N ON 4.4N OOH OO O O

O N N O O H O OH O.O N4N OH O 4

O O O O O O O O O H4 O O O

O O N N O O O O 0.0 OOH H O N

O NH N O N 4 N OO O.HH OOH OH O H

O O H O O H O O O O O O

mmma

 

10.

ll.

12.

13.

14.

15.

l6.

17.

319

Book List--l969

 

Armstrong, Sounder

Ish-Kishor, Our Eddie

 

Cleaver, Where the Lilies Bloom

 

Townsend, Trouble in the Jungle

 

Fox, Portrait of Ivan

 

Greene, A Girl Named Al

 

Taylor, The Cay

McNiell, Goodbye, Dove Square

 

Balderson When Jays Fly to Barbmo

 

Byars, Trouble River

 

Miles, Nobody's Cat

 

Keats, Goggles
Burton, In Spite of All Terror

 

Steptoe, Stevie

Turkle, Thy Friend, Obodiah

 

Shulevitz, Rain, Rain, Rivers

 

Richard, Pistol

320

 

 

 

O OH HO N OO OH O H O.OH O.OH O.OH HooO.O>O
O ON HN OO OH ON O H 0.0 O.O O.O OOO.O>O
H OH OO NN OO OH N H O.OH N.OH O.OH OOO.O>O
O OH HO OO O4 OH H H O.HH O.OH N.OH .O>O
N OH HO 4H OO HH OH 4OH ONO NOH Houv.uoe
N N NN OH O O O OO NHO ON AOO.OOH
H HH NN ON OO HH OH OON NHOH NHN HOO.OOO
O OH 4O H4 OO OH ON OON ONNN OON .Ooe
O O N O O H O OH O.4 O4N HH O NH
O O O O O O O O O NO O O OH
O O O O O O O O O NO O O OH
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O N NN N NN O H OO 4.HN HON O4 O OH
O O N O H H O 4 O.O NO N O NH
O O O N O H O OH O.O N4 4 O HH
H O O 4 O O N ON O.HO OOH OO O OH
O 4 N N O H O OH 4.OH OON OO O O

H O O O H O O O H.O OOH NH O O

O N O N O O O ON O.HN 44H HO O N

O O O O O O O O O NNH O O O

O O O O O O O O O HOH O O O

H 4 O O O O O NN 4.ON OOH NO O 4

O O O N O H O 4H N.OH 4NH ON O O

O O O H 4 O O O O.HH OOH HN O N

O O OH O O H H ON O.OH OHH NN O H

O O H O O H O O O O O O

mmma

 

APPENDIX D

EPISODES READ TO CHILDREN IN FIRST, THIRD

AND SEVENTH GRADE CLASSES

First Grade: Bang, Bang, You're Dead.
By Louise Fitzhugh and Sandra Scoppettone.
Illustrated by Louise Fitzhugh. Harper
and Row, New York, 1969.

 

Third Grade: Sounder. By William Armstrong.
Harper and Row, New York, 1969, pp. 21-34.

Seventh Grade: The Year of the Bloody Sevens.
By William 0. Steele. Illustrated by Charles
Beck. New York: Harcourt-Brace, 1963, pp.
91-103.

 

321

Bang, Bang, You're Dead

 

By Louise Fitzhugh
Harper and Row, New York, 1969

"Bang, bang, you're dead," Said James. "I'm a
big, brave, strong soldier and soldiers always win."

He marched out and met his friends Timothy,
Stanley, and Bert. "All right, men," said James. "Let's
play Bang, Bang, you're dead."

At the bottom of the hill James said, "Today
Stanley and me are the good guys, and Timothy and Bert
are the bad guys."

"That's not fair," said Timothy. "I was a bad
guy yesterday."

"Okay," said James. "You be a good guy today.

First army to take the hill wins,’ yelled James. They
all ran for cover.

Bert and Stanley looked out and couldn't see
anyone. They started up the hill.

Timothy and James looked out and couldn't see
anyone. They started up the hill.

Then, at the top of the hill - they all shot

at once.

322

323

"Bang, bang, you're dead.’ yelled Stanley.
"Ooph, arragh, omphph," said Timothy, dying,
as he shot Stanley.

"Bang, bang, you're - oomahrphm,’ said James,

"you got me."
"I got you dead," said Bert. "Bang!"
"I got you dead back," yelled James.
They all lay dead.
They all got up and marched down the hill -
and celebrated the end of the war.
One day . . . as James and Timothy and Stanley
and Bert were playing war, a strange thing happened.
"Who are you?" shouted James. "This is our
hill."

"I'm Big Mike and it's our hill now,‘ said
the tallest one.
"We had it first," said Bert.
"Tough," said the big one. "You'll have to
take it away from us."
"We will," said James.
"Okay," said Big Mike, "three o'clock tomorrow."
James and his army went to headquarters, the
tree house.
"This is a real war," said James. "I'll get that
Big Mike. Where does he get off saying it's his hill?"
"Yeah, we'll fix those skunks. Let's chop off

their heads.

324

"Let's get big rocks and smash them!"

"Let's make a pact. We'll fight to the end!“

It was three o'clock on the day of The Great
War. The two armies met at the bottom of the hill.

"Give up, puke-face. You don't have a chance,"
said Big Mike.

"Up your nose, you freak—out," yelled James.
"Okay, men, take cover."

The war began.

There were screams, yells, blood, and pain.

It was awful.

There was a terrible moaning and groaning.
James looked around. No one was fighting. They all
lay hurting.

"This isn't fun," said Timothy. "Why did we
do it?"

No one could answer.

"Nobody won,‘ said James.
"We all lost," said the smallest one to his
tooth. "Well, who gets the hill?"
James and Big Mike looked at each other.
"Why don't we just use it . . ." said James.
". . . together?" said Big Mike.
"Then there'd be more people to play with."

"Let's all come back tomorrow."

"And play war?"

325

"Real war?"

"No, you know,‘ said James, "Bang, Bang, you'rO

dead."

Sounder

By William Armstrong
Harper and Row, New York, 1969

Just past the edge of the porch three white men
stood in the dim light. Their heavy boots rattled the
porch floor, and the boy backed quickly into the cabin as
they pushed their way in.

"There are two things I can smell a mile," the
first man said in a loud voice. "One's a ham cookin' and
the other's a thievin' nigger."

"Get up, the second man ordered. The warm, but
frozen circle of man, woman, and three small children
around the stove jumped to their feet. A stool on which
a child had been sitting fell backward and made a loud
noise. One of the men kicked it across the room. The
boy did not move from his place just inside the door.

"Here's the evidence,’ said the first man. He
jerked at the grease-spotted cloth on the tin-topped
table. The oak slab and the half-eaten ham fell to the
floor with a great thud and slid against the wall.

"You know who I am,’ said the first man as he

unbuttoned his heavy brown coat and pulled it back to

326

327

show a shiny metal star pinned to his vest. "These are
my deputies." The stranger nearest the door kicked it
shut and swore about the cold.

"Stick out your hands, boy,’ ordered the second
man. The boy started to raise his hands, but the man was
already reaching over the stove, snapping handcuffs on the
outstretched wrists of his father.

The click of the handcuffs was like the click of
a gate latch at the big house where the boy had once gone
with his father to work. He had swung on the gate and
played with the latch until someone had called out from
the house. "If you want to swing on a gate, boy, swing
on the one behind the house. Get away from the front."

The third stranger, who had not spoken, turned
toward the door. "I'll bring up the wagon." But he did
not open the door.

Suddenly the voice of the great dog shattered the
heavy, seemingly endless silence that came between the
gruff words of the sheriff and those of his men. Sounder
was racing toward the cabin from the fields. He had
grown restless from waiting to go hunting with his master
and had wandered away to hunt alone. That's why he hadn't
warned them. He always barked and sometimes, even in
daytime, he would start from under the porch, the hair on
his back straightening before anyone had sighted a moving
speck at the far end of the road. "Somebody's comin' or

a creature's movin the boy's mother would say.

328

Now he was growling and scratching at the door.
The noise seemed to undo the fearful shock that had held
the smaller children ashen and motionless. The youngest
child began to cry and hid behind his mother. He tugged
at her apron, but the woman did not move.

The men were speaking roughly to Sounder's master.
"That tear in your overalls where the striped ticking is-~
that's where you tore them on the door hook of the smoke-
house. We found threads of torn cloth in the hook. You
gonna wear nothing but stripes pretty soon. Big, wide
black and white stripes. Easy to hit with a shotgun."

The deputy who had started out to bring up the
wagon kicked the closed door and swore at the dog on the
other side.

"Go out and hold that mongrel if you don't want
him shot." He held the door ajar the width of the boy's
body and thrust him out. The boy fell on the back of the
dog, whose snarling jaws had pushed into the light between
the boy's legs. A heavy boot half pushed, half kicked the
entangled feet of the sprawled boy and the nose of the dog
and slammed the door. "Get that dog out of the way and
hold him if you don't want him dead."

The boy, regaining his balance, dragged Sounder
off the porch and to the corner of the cabin. Then the
deputy, hearing the barking move back from the door,

Opened it and came out. He walked out of the circle of

329

light but returned soon leading a horse hitched to a spring
wagon. A saddled horse followed behind the wagon.

The appearance of the horses and the added confusion
of people coming from the cabin roused Sounder to new fury.
The boy felt his knees give. His arms ached, and his grip
on the dog's collar was beginning to feel clammy and wet.
But he held on.

"Chain him up," said the sheriff.

The boy thought they were telling him to chain up
Sounder, but then he saw that one of the men had snapped
a long chain on the handcuffs on his father's wrists. As
the men pushed his father into the back of the wagon his
overalls caught on the end of the tail-gate bolt, and he
tore a long hole in his overalls. The bolt took one side
of the ticking patch with it. The man holding the chain
jerked it, and the boy's father fell backward into the
wagon. The man swung the loose end of the chain, and it
struck the boy's father across the face. One of the
deputies pulled the chain tight and tied it to the wagon
seat. The two deputies climbed on the wagon seat; the
sheriff mounted the saddled horse. The cabin door was
open; the boy's mother was standing in the doorway. He
did not see his brother and sisters.

Sounder was making an awful noise, a half-
strangled mixture of growl and bark. The boy spoke to
him, but the great paws only dug harder to grip the frozen

earth. Inch by inch the boy was losing his footing.

330

 

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331

Numbness was beginning to creep up his arms and legs, and
he was being dragged away from the corner of the house.

The wagon started, and the sheriff rode behind it
on his horse. Sounder made a great lunge forward, and the
boy fell against the corner of the porch. Sounder raced
after the Wagon. No one yelled after him. The mother
stood still in the doorway. The deputy who wasn't holding
the reins turned on the seat, aimed his shotgun at the dog
jumping at the side of the wagon, and fired. Sounder fell
in the road, and the sheriff rode around him. Sounder's
master was still on his back in the wagon, but he did not
raise his head to look back.

The boy struggled to his feet. His head hurt where
he had hit it against the corner of the porch. Now his
mother spoke for the first time since he had opened the
door to bring in wood. "Come in, child, and bring some
wood."

Sounder lay still in the road. The boy wanted to
cry; he wanted to run to Sounder. His stomach felt sick;
he didn't want to see Sounder. He sank to his knees at
the woodpile. His foot hurt where the door had been
slammed on it. He thought he would carry in two chunk-
sticks. Maybe his mother would drag Sounder out of the
road. Maybe she would drag him across the fields and bury
him. Maybe if she laid him on the porch and put some soft
rags under him tonight, he might rise from the dead, like

Lazarus did in a meetin'-house story. Maybe his father

332

didn't know Sounder was dead. Maybe his father was dead
in the back of the sheriff's wagon now. Maybe his father
had said it hurt to bounce over the rough road on his
back, and the deputy had turned around on the seat and
shot him.

The second chunk-stick was too big. It slipped
out of the boy's arms. Two of his fingers were bruised
under the falling wood.

Suddenly a sharp yelp came from the road. Just
like when a bee stung Sounder under the porch or a brier
caught his ear in the bramble, the boy thought. In an
instant the boy was on his feet. Bruised foot and fingers,
throbbing head were forgotten. He raced into the dark.
Sounder tried to rise but fell again. There was another
yelp, this one constrained and plaintive. The boy,
trained in night-sight when the lantern was dimmed so as
not to alert the wood's creatures, picked out a blurred
shape in the dark.

Sounder was running, falling, floundering, rising.
The hind part of his body stayed up and moved from side
to side, trying to lift the front part from the earth.

He twisted, fell, and heaved his great shoulders. His
hind paws dug into the earth. He pushed himself up. He
staggered forward, sideways, then fell again. One front
leg did not touch the ground. A trail of blood, smeared
and blotted, followed him. There was a large spot of

mingled blood, hair, and naked flesh on one shoulder. His

333

head swung from side to side. He fell again and pushed
his body along with his hind legs. One side of his head
was a mass of blood. The blast had torn off the whole
side of his head and shoulder.

The boy was crying and calling Sounder's name.

He ran backward in front of Sounder. He held out his
hand. Sounder did not make a sign or stop. The boy
followed the coon dog under the porch, but he went far
back under the cabin. The boy was on his knees, crying
and calling, "Sounder, Sounder, Sound . . ." His voice
trailed off into a pleading whisper.

The cabin door opened, and the boy's mother stood
in the door. The pale light of the lamp inside ran past
the woman, over the edge of the porch, and picked out the
figure of the boy on his hands and knees. "Come in,
child," the woman said. "He is only dying."

Inside the cabin the younger children sat huddled
together near the stove. The boy rubbed his hands
together near the stovepipe to warm them. His bruised
fingers began to throb again. His foot and his head hurt,
and he felt a lump rising on the side of his head. If
Sounder would whimper or yelp, I would know, the boy
thought. But there was no sound, no thump, thump, thump
of a paw scratching fleas and hitting the floor underneath.

"Creatures like to die alone," the mother said
after a long time. "They like to crawl away where nobody

can find them dead, especially dogs. He didn't want to

334

be shot down like a dog in the road. Some creatures are
like people."

The road, the boy thought. What would it be like?
Did the shotgun blast a hole in the road?

"I ain't got the wood," the boy said at last.
"I'll light the lantern and get it."

"You know where the wood is. You won't need the

lantern,‘ the woman said.

The boy paused in the doorway. Then he took the
lantern from the nail where it hung beside the possum
sack. He took the lantern to the stove, lit a splinter
of kindling through the open door-draft, and held it to
the lantern wick the way his father always did. His
mother said nothing to him. She spoke to the younger
children instead. "I ain't fed you yet."

When he got outside, the boy did not go to the
woodpile. He followed the trail of blood in its zig-zag
path along the road. At the end of it there was a great
wide spot, dark on the frozen ground. Little clumps of
Sounder's hair lay in the blood. There was no hole where
the shotgun had blasted. At the edge of the dark stain,
the boy touched his finger to something. It was more than
half of Sounder's long thin ear. The boy shivered and
moved his finger away. He had seen dead lizards and

possums and raccoons, but he'd never seen a human animal,

like Sounder, dead.

335

It wouldn't work, he thought. But people always
said to put things under your pillow when you go to bed,
and if you make a wish, it will come true. He touched
Sounder's ear again. It was cold. He picked it up. One
edge of it was bloody, and jagged like the edge of a
broken windowpane. He followed the zigzag trail back
along the road, but he could scarcely see it now. He
was crying again. At the corner of the porch he took
the possum sack from the nail where it hung and wiped
the ear. It gave him the shivers. He jumped down quickly,
and holding the lantern near the ground, tried to see
under the porch. He called Sounder. There was no sound.
He went back to wiping the ear. His throat hurt. He put
the ear in the pocket of his overall jacket. He was going
to put it under his pillow and wish that Sounder wasn't
dead.

The wind had stopped blowing. This would have
been a good hunting night, he thought. Far away, a single
lantern was moving into the foothills. The boy was still
crying. He had not forgotten the wood. Now he put out
the lantern and hung it against the wall. He went to the
woodpile, picked up two chunk-sticks, and went into the
cabin.

The loneliness that was always in the cabin, except
when his mother was singing or telling a story about the
Lord, was heavier than ever now. It made the boy's tongue

heavy. It pressed against his eyes, and they burned. It

336

rolled against his ears. His head seemed to be squeezed
inward, and it hurt. He noticed grease spots on the floor
where the oak slab and the ham had fallen. He knew his
mother had picked them up. His father would be cold, he
thought, with that great rip in his overalls.

His mother sat by the stove. "You must eat," the
woman said. The boy had been outside a long time. His
mother had fed the other children, and they were already
in bed. She did not take down her walnut basket to begin
the slow filling of her apron with fat kernals. She did
not sing or even hum. "Child . . . child" she would say
with long spaces between. Sometimes she would murmur to
herself with her eyes closed. His little brother would
murmur and be addled in his sleep tonight, the boy thought.
He would set as long as his mother would let him. Maybe
his mother would let him set and listen all night.

The boy listened for a yelp, a whine, a thump,
thump, thump under the floor. There was no sound. His
mother's rocker did not even move enough to squeak. One
chunk-stick burning atop another in the stove rolled
against the stove door with a slight thump. The boy
started toward the cabin door.

"You know it was the stove," the mother said as
she reached for the poker to push the wood back from the
door.

"It sounded outside," the boy said as he pulled

the door closed after him.

337

Soon he returned carrying the lantern. "I want

to look more,‘ he said. "I keep hearin' things." He lit
the lantern from the stove as he had done before. His
mother said nothing. He had thought she might say "Hang
it back, child" as she often did when he wanted to go
along the fencerows and hunt with Sounder after dark.

Outside, he murmured to himself, "That was the
stove, I reckon." He put the lantern on the ground and
tried to see under the cabin. Nothing moved in the dim
light. He wished the light would shine in Sounder's eyes
and he would see them in the dark, but it didn't. Back-
ing from under the porch on his hands and knees, he
touched the lantern and tipped it over. He grabbed it
by the wire rim that held the top of the globe and burned
his hand. "Don't let it fall over; it'll explode" his
father had said to him so many times when they hunted
together. He sucked his burned fingers to draw out the
fire. Sounder's pan was on the ground, and someone had
stepped on it. The mean man who had kicked him with his
big boot, the boy thought. He straightened it as best he
could with his hurt fingers and put it on the porch.

He blew out the lantern and hunt it by the possum
sack. He stood on the porch and listened to the faraway.
The lantern he had seen going into the foothills had dis-
appeared. There were gravestones behind the meetin'

house. Some were almost hidden in the brambles. If the

deputy sheriff had turned around on the seat of the wagon

338

and shot his father, the visiting preacher and somebody
would bring him back and bury him behind the meetin' house,
the boy thought. And if Sounder dies, I won't drag him
over the hard earth, I'll carry him. I know I can carry
him if I try hard enough, and I will bury him across the
field, near the fencerow, under the big jack-oak tree.

The boy picked up Sounder's bent tin pan and
carried it into the cabin. The woman pushed back in her
chair for a brief second in surprise and half opened her
mouth. But, seeing the boy's face in the lamplight, she
closed her mouth, and the rocker came slowly back to its
standing position-~her head tilted forward again, her
eyes fixed on the boy's uneaten supper, still warming on
the back of the stove.

In the corner of the room next to the dish cup-
board, the boy filled Sounder's tin with cold ham-boiling
from the possum kettle. "What's that for, child?" asked
the mother slowly, as though she were sorry she had asked
and would like to take it back.

"For if he comes out."

"You're hungry, child. Feed yourself."

The boy put Sounder's tin under the porch, closed
the door, pushed the night latch, sat down behind the

stove, and began to eat his supper.

The Year Of the Bloody Sevens

 

By William O. Steele
Harcourt-Brace, New York, 1963

Kel's heart was pounding, and his fingers strangled
his rifle. He had to go help. He knew it. He was needed.
Two men couldn't hope to hold out against a war party. But
three guns might.

He could hear the fight plain. The rifle shots
were faster. He could tell when the woodsies were firing;
they used a heavier charge of powder than the Indians,
likely a better grade too. Oh, those two could load and
fire fast. Their shots sounded through the forest like
peckerwoods rattling on a dead pine. They were going to
hold the redskins off till he got there. His rifle would
make the difference. With his shooting to help, the three
of them could kill every single solitary naked savage.

Only he couldn't get started. He didn't know why.
He wanted to go. His legs trembled and ached, and that
was all they did. They wouldn't bend. They wouldn't
carry him toward the fight, in and out of the bushes so
could come up unbeknownst on the Indians and shoot them

down.

339

340

Just then he heard the scream, a long, low, gargling
sound of terror and agony and despair. The Indians had got
one of the woodsies. Sweat sheeted down his ribs and back.
The day seemed to darken as though a cloud had passed over
the sun and made it hard for him to see.

But one of the woodsies must be left. Kel could
still help. There was still time. He could still shoot
and kill a heap of Injuns. He might save the one whose
rifle he could hear firing now.

He could do it; he kpew he could. He would make
himself run forward, firing as he ran, and scattering the
few braves who hadn't been already killed or wounded. He
and whichever of the white men was alive could hold out and
finally win the battle. He could make his feet move and
his trigger finger pull.

Only he couldn't. He was scared. He was too
scared to move. But he wasn't a coward, couldn't be,
never had been. Oh, maybe he wasn't as brave as his pa
or Sed Cosby back in Wolf Hills, who could pick up a
rattlesnake in his bare hands. But he wasn't a coward.

If he could only get his feet going, he'd prove he wasn't.

The shooting had stopped. It was too late. Only
the howling voices of the red men rang and echoes in the
woods. The white men were dead, he knew, or they would
still be fighting. Thgy weren't ones to give up. Not

like Kelsey Bond.

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He shook his head. He hadn't known he was a
coward. He hadn't ever thought about it. It was a thing
a body didn't much figure on. He's always done what had
to be done, and he had had it in mind that he always
would, no matter what.

Yet he hadn't been able to. He hadn't been able
to make himself help out two friends, two men who'd been
kind enough to him in their way. Suddenly he groaned and
put his hands to his face and reeled over into the bushes.
He lay that way for a spell, not caring that he'd drOpped
his rifle in the trail or that Ben Horne's bar of lead
was sticking into his side. The woods grew still once
more. The Indians were quiet. A bird sang close at hand,
a round soft whistle, "Ee-o—lay," and fluttered off when
Kel moved.

He ought to get up, he knew. Any moment the
Indians might be coming this way. He was a fool to lie
here with his feet sticking out in the trail, like a
turkey dead for two days. They's kill him without batting
an eye if they came up on him right now. Now that he
didn't deserve killing. By rights he should be dead like
Horne and Carr. He reckoned he deserved it more than
they did. They hadn't run off and left their friends to
die at the hands of the savages.

"oh, oh, oh" he moaned softly. How could he have
done such a thing? He pounded the soft earth with his

fist and kicked out at the bushes. Then he lay still.

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At last he got to his feet and looked grimly
around. He wiped his face with his sleeve. The Indians
must be gone, trotting on westward to raid and kill
around the Kentucky forts. It would be safe to go find
the two men and bury them. He owed them that much at
least, not to let them be gnawed by varmints. He only
had his knife to dig with, but he could dig a shallow
grave and pile rocks on it. Or he could find an over-
hanging bank and cave it in on the bodies, the way he'd
heard tell of a man doing once.

With his rifle in both hands he made his way
through the undergrowth. He was shaking from head to
foot, like that time he had the bad ague chills, but he
kept going. Reaching the spot where he'd left the
woodsies waiting for him, there was not a sign of them
or the Indians. He had to scout around a heap before he
found where the white men had made their stand.

He saw Mr. Horne first, leaning slaunchways
against a tree. Blood made a kind of shawl over his
head and shoulders, for he'd been scalped. His face was
all ricked up in a horrible kind of grin where a big piece
of his face had been cut off.

Kel gasped and looked away. His stomach heaved,
and the woods wavered before his eyes. If'n he'd been
here . . . if'n they'd counted on his rifle.

He slumped to the ground and let his head hang

between his knees till the dauncieness passed. The ground

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under his feet was dark and wet—looking. It was blood.
He moved away quick, scraping his moccasin along the
frost-roughened earth to clean off the stain.

Where was Mr. Carr? He'd have to find him and
then set to work. He looked around among the trampled
grass and broken bushes. He spied his own quilt ripped
to bits and Ben Horne's spider skillet he was so fond of
broken in three pieces. And beyond that there was some-
thing--something that might be what was left of a hand
and arm. Kel went slowly forward and forced himself to
look.

He remembered how Hoke Carr used to get mad and
slash around at the bushes with his ax. Well, it looked
as though the Indians had treated the woodsy the way he
used to treat the bushes. He was well nigh cut to
ribbons.

Kel stared dully. "I'll have to bury him right
here," he thought. "If'n I was to try to move him, he'd
come all apart." He shuddered.

Then he took out his knife and began to stab
aimlessly around in the ground. Yes, the dirt was loose
here. He could do it. It wouldn't be too hard. There
didn't seem to be any rocks about, however. Maybe he'd
have to get along just using branches.

He hunkered back on his heels and gazed around.
And all at once his eyes lit on something that scared him

worse than anything yet. There were Indians' bundles

345

piled there, all their loot and even a couple of rifles.
For a minute Kel couldn't do anything but stand dum-
founded.

Why hadn't he seen those things before? The
Indians had gone off, likely to bury a dead brave or
something. They were coming back, though. They were
bound to be coming back to pick up this truck. Right
this minute they might be heading this way, from any
direction. He didn't dare move. Any way he went,anything
he did might show the redskins where he was, and they'd be
on him like a hawk on a new-hatched biddy.

Nothing could save him. He was going to be killed,
sliced up like Mr. Horne and Mr. Carr, or, worse yet,
burned to death slowly over a long day or so. Even being
a coward hadn't saved him. He'd have done better to die
quick, along with the woodsies.

Then he heard them, talking in high harsh voices
off among the trees. They were coming! He turned his
head and listened. .They were coming along the trail, it
seemed. And that was all he needed to know.

He sprang up as though he'd been cocked like a
rifle and ready to go off. He ran through the trees,
blind and heedless, just going, just getting away. He
didn't bother even to hold his arms or his rifle out in
front of him. Vines thwacked him in the face; briars tore
at him. Once he even ran smack into a tree, looking right

at it, and still he couldn't miss it. He staggered back,

346

spinning dizzily, panting and gasping, and pitched into a
patch of blackberry runners. He pulled himself out and
plunged on, running, running, running.

Finally his legs gave out, and he had to stop.

He sagged down on the grass, drawing his breath into his
burning lungs in big, ragged swoons. He looked up and
around. He was out in the open! The trees had fallen
away, and he was here in a clearing with nothing to hide
behind but weeds and knee-high bushes!

There was a noise behind him, a soft hissing,
swishing noise. He turned his head quickly. It was cane.
It was cane rustling back and forth in the wind, a whole
great stand of it, stretching as far as he could see.

He looked up at the tOps of the stalks where the
narrow leaves whispered and tossed in the wind. It must
be thirty, forty feet tall, he figured. And some of the
stumps looked as big as his leg. Never in his life had
he seen such a brake.

Something moved at the edge of the woods, and he
ducked his head down among the weeds. He reckoned he had
made too much noise, left too clear a trail when he ran,
and the Indians had followed him. It was foolish of him
to try to hide, for anybody with half an eye could see
him. He couldn't possibly get away. And he was so tired
and sore, he couldn't run another lick. They'd find him

soon enough, lying here in the grass.

347

The cane! They couldn't see him in the brake.
He could hide in the cane!

He half fell, half crawled through the grass to the
canebrake. Without even looking back, he squeezed in
between the thick stalks. His rifle hindered him consider-
ably, and the straps of his powder horn and shot bag kept
catching on broken pieces. He pulled the straps loose with
a jerk and wiggled on, now sidewise, now backwards, as he
squirmed and struggled.

By and by he stopped. This was far enough. He
couldn't be seen here by any Indian passing along the edge
of the brake. He breathed a sign of relief and sat, facing
the way he had entered and holding the rifle in front of
him. If a redskin did find his trail and was chancy
enough to come in here after him, Kel aimed to get in the
first shot.

He sat wedged among the smooth columns for a long
time. It seemed like hours and hours. He couldn't hear
a thing but his own heart dinging away like a dinner bell
and, once, a killdeer flying over screaming. His legs
began to hurt where the cane pressed against them, and his
shoulders were tight and knotted.

Standing, he stretched. Surely it was safe for
him to leave now. He didn't want to be here when it got
dark. He began to push his way back through the stalks,
taking his time because he was tired. On and on he went

till at last he realized something was wrong. He hadn't

'J '_‘A.‘.'.'...-.r.' fl‘w

 

348

gone this far into the brake, he knew. There was no patch
of sky or glimpse of woods ahead. He must have turned
himself around when he got to his feet. Any which way

you looked was the same, just cane and more cane.

He swung around and went back. The cane opened
before him and closed behind him with a sign. The ground
underfoot was squelchy and wet. He was so weary, he
hardly had the strength to push the stiff stalks aside.
Finally he had to stop. This wasn't the way either. He
glanced around. There was nothing to see in the dim
light, no signs to go by, no blaze marks like the ones on
the Wilderness Trail, no nothing.

He was lost!

And then he remembered all the stories he'd heard
folks tell--how a man might as well cut his throat as get
lost in a canebrake, for death was certain sure. How many
a man had died of hunger or snakebite or just pure old
age trying to find his way out of a big stretch of cane.

He stood there in the green twilight, trying to
keep his head. There was a way out; there had to be.

But who could find it? Who could get past the tall stalks
out into the open?

Suddenly the stems seemed to move closer, to press
in on him from every side. He struck out with his arms
and tried to push them back, but he couldn't. The walls
of cane crowded nearer and nearer. He covered his eyes

with his hands and collapsed, gasping and choking.