Thursday, September 29, 2011

Pure Heart

In my opinion, The Rough Faced Girl was a very good children’s book with a great main point to the story. It is beautifully illustrated and very revealing in the pictures. We discussed this book in class and determined it is folklore with a simple plot, happy ending, and quickly set scenes. The class also mentioned that the theme of the book was supposed to be that beauty is on the inside, but unintended was the message that beauty is still important. The author had the rough faced girl transformed into a beautiful woman before she was married off. Because of this unintentional theme, some people may think this book is a bad lesson for children, but I sort of disagree.

I think the moral of this story is so important because beauty is a big issue in the real world, especially for girls. The need and desire to be beautiful is thrown at us from every aspect of the world, with the biggest culprit being the media. Girls have so much pressure on them to be as beautiful as possible, and some are going as far as plastic surgery and starving themselves. This book, I believe, teaches girls early on in life that beauty is not the most important thing whatsoever. Girls need to be preached to at a younger age about beauty and this book is perfect for completing that task. It sends the message that you do not need to be beautiful on the outside in order to fulfill your dreams; personality and a pure heart are ultimately important. The rough faced girls beat every other girl in her village in the task of marrying the man. Internal beauty beats all.

3 comments:

  1. I would have to say that I absolutely agree with your post Tori! The rough faced girl was a wonderful book with a very powerful message as well as beautiful illustrations. I really feel that our society places too much importance on the outer beauty. Everywhere you look there is some add or broadcast or some type of announcement telling women that they need to fix and lose this. This book is a great way to show our society especially the little girls that what’s important is what’s on the inside of you and not outside. We should have more books that exhibit to our future generations that you don’t have to be a “princess” to get a husband and live “ happily ever after”.
    This book shows that being you and having a pure nice genuine heart outweighs just outer beauty at the end of the day and this is a message that needs to be spread. This book can help to regain self-esteem that numerous girls in our society lose everyday. This is a book that I will purchase for my classroom because I feel the overall message was very important and I want to share this message with young girls.

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  2. I agree Tori. I think the Rough Face Girl was a great book. I also think it is important for young girls to understand that beauty is not important. I have a younger sister and I want her to understand that beauty does not define her. I think it would be a great idea to read this book to her when she gets older so that she can understand internal beauty beats all.

    I also think there should be more books with this same message. I think it's important for all little girls to know that it doesn't matter what shape or size your are or how long your hair is, etc. I also think it's important for boys to receive the same message because it's not just girls who think they have to look a certain way to be accepted. This book gives a great message and I strongly believe everyone needs to hear it.

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  3. I agree that the intended message of the book is a great one. Girls should all know beauty is not all that matters. Unfortunately, I think the ending of this story somewhat ruined what the author was wanting to convey to the readers. This "rough faced girl" got her idea of a prince in the end, who changed her into a beautiful girl. Could he not marry an ugly woman? If her true beauty really came from the inside, he would have kept her exactly the way she was. In the end, her inner beauty was not enough, she was changed into a beautiful person which was something she was not in the beginning of the story.

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