I went back and found one of my favorite Alphabet books as a kid; Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. It's a song, too, but mainly I remember my mother snapping into English Teacher mode and reading to me out of a very bright and colorful book. In the story, all the lowercase letters of the alphabet race to the top of a coconut tree, and then the uppercase letters have to come rescue them.
I consider the plot itself to have a subliminal message; don't do dangerous things, like climb trees, because then your parents will have to come rescue you. At one point in the text, the uppercase letters "hug their little dears, then dust their pants". This line sends the message that parents are loving and look out for their children, 'cleansing' them of whatever they fall into. Additionally, d leaves the tree with a skinned knee, e has a stubbed toe, and g is out of breath. From this, I construe that the writer wants us to believe that adventures like climbing a tree, and straying from our parents, will only hurt us.
What does the writer plan to accomplish with this? In my opinion, he wants to encourage children to be obedient and respect their parents.
I have some questions for you. Do your favorite childhood stories have subliminal messages like these? Where else do adults send subliminal messages to children? Do you approve of these subliminal messages or do you think they are misleading?
Did I think about these things when I first heard the book read aloud? No. My Mom was just reading me a bedtime story.
I completely agree with you about subliminal messaging, but keep in mind that for some reason I have become to completely paranoid about subliminal messaging. It's weird I know. But I find subliminal messages in everything from snuggies (even thought I absolutely love mine) and the show called "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" both I think are trying to convert me to Christianity, but that's just me, it's totally weird and I know it. But I think that there are subliminal messages everywhere and we just don't necessarily see them. I recently watched Disney's "Aladdin" after not having seen it for 7 or more years. There are a lot of lines that were more sexual than I thought as young, naive kid. I laughed at the same lines as I did as a kid, but for MUCH different reasons. Also there's that whole controversy about Disney movies having secret dirty messages in them, many in "Aladdin". I don't just some thoughts. I think this is a really interesting topic.
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