Betsy Peterson

11/28/07

ENGL 112B

Warner

Wishes, Dreams, and Desires: A Unit on Fantasy Literature

“When all of your wishes are granted, many of your dreams will be destroyed.”

-- Marilyn Manson

What do you wish for? What do you dream? The world sends many messages telling us, the viewers and readers and consumers, what we truly desire. Finding what one truly desires is a common theme in fantasy literature. This unit explores the power, danger, and value of wishes in literary works of fantasy. At the center of this unit is The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, a novel that deals with both the creative and destructive power of wishes. The theme and content of this unit are highly versatile, appropriate for sixth grade through high school. The wonderful thing about fantasy is that it is, to a certain extent, timeless and ageless. Fantasy and science fiction author Ursula K. LeGuin calls fantasy “the great age equalizer; if it’s good when you’re twelve it’s quite likely to be just as good, or better, when you’re thirty-six” (55). Figuring out: “What do I want? What is really important to me?” is a lifelong process, so the theme will be relevant no matter what the students’ age group.

Launching the Unit

There is a song called “Wishes” by the musical group Minstrels of Mayhem that complements this unit quite well.

I wish I was so smart, said the fool to the wise man.

I’d read the ancient books, and count the apples in a pie.

I wish I was so smart, said the fool to the wise man

Sometimes I wish I wasn’t, the wise man replied.

I wish that I could see, said the blind man to the wise man.

I’d see a thousand sunsets, through new and different eyes.

I wish that I could see, said the blind man to the wise man

I wish I didn’t have to, said the wise man, looking wise

I wish that I could hear, signed the deaf man to the wise man,

I’d listen to the rainfall and hear a baby cry.

I wish that I could hear, signed the deaf man to the wise man

Sometimes I wish I couldn’t, said the wise man with a sigh.

I wish that I could fly, said the young boy to the wise man

I’d dip my toes in rainbows and sail across the sky

I wish that I could fly, said the young boy to the wise man

The wise man sat and smiled and said . . . so do I.

This song introduces the theme of wishes. Often, we wish for the one thing we don’t have, and think: “If only I had that one thing, then life would magically fall into place.” Here, even the wise man wishes he could be like the people who wish to be like him. The end of the song makes a point that wishes do not have to be complaints: they can be imaginative dreams. Such dreams can be the inspiration for a story or a song.

Assignment: Re-write “Wishes” using your own characters and desires. (For example: “I wish I was so rich, said the poor man to the sultan”) Make a “wish list” on the board in class to brainstorm for this assignment.

“He Wishes for The Cloths of Heaven”

William Butler Yeats

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and the half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet:

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams under your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

This poet expresses a yearning after perfect, extravagant things, but admits that in reality, “I, being poor, have only my dreams.” Yeats portrays dreams as important, fragile things, to be nurtured and looked after, and admonishes others to treat his dreams with respect and care. He depicts wishes not as flighty, superficial things, but as the wealth and pride of someone who has little material possessions to give. Have students compare Yeats’ depiction of wishes to the Disney-like depictions often seen in movies and heard in songs such as “When You Wish Upon A Star.”

Questions/Responses:

Have you ever felt someone “tread” on your dreams? Ever given up on a dream or goal based on someone’s reaction to it? (For instance, did you give up ballet lessons because someone said: “You’d look terrible in tights”?) How can we avoid treading on other people’s dreams?

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (Translated from German by Ralph Manheim)

In this novel the main character, Bastian Balthazar Bux, journeys to the world of Fantasica through a book. Bastian is given the ultimate power by the Childlike Empress: he may re-create the world of Fantasica through the power of AURYN, a gem that grants wishes. (Engraved on the back of the gem is the phrase “Do What You Wish.”) First Bastian wishes to be physically strong, brave and a hero. He achieves this and goes on to wish for kindness, wisdom, and absolute power. However, wishes never come without a cost, and with every wish he makes, he looses a memory of his former life in the real world. Bastian ends up wandering Fantasica alone, having lost his friends, Falkor and Atreyu, and his memory. His wishes become more modest: to be useful, to be loved, and to be able to love. The Neverending Story is the perfect book for this unit because Bastian travels the entire spectrum of human desire.

Assignment: While reading The Neverending Story, keep a “Wish Journal.” This journal will be a collection of creative and analytical responses to the text.

Respond to these questions in your journal:

• How does Bastian change from the beginning of the book to when he uses AURYN to make his wishes come true? What changes about him physically? How does his personality change?
• If you were wearing AURYN around your neck and were ordered to “Do What You Wish,” what wishes would you make? Write six wishes, three personal wishes and three wishes for others or the world. Think about what might change as a result of the wish being granted.
• Atreyu tells Bastian that “The amulet gives you great power, it makes all your wishes come true, but at the same time it takes something away: your memory of your world” (259). Do you think that this is a fair trade? Would you trade in your memories for wishes?
• Describe how Bastian’s friendship with Atreyu and Falkor the Luckdragon changes from the chapter “The Silver City of Amarganth” to “The Battle for the Ivory Tower.” How does the sorceress Xayide use Bastian to get what she wants?

Young Adult Literature Selections

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

This is the story of two young boys, Jim Nightshade and Will Holloway, set in Green Town, Illinois. A mysterious carnival floats into town one night. Mr. Cooger and Mr. Dark run the carnival, and tempt Jim and Will with free carousel rides. Every turn of the carousel will put a year on your life or take one away. Both boys must decide what is more important to them: the dark powers of the carnival or friends, family, and happiness. Characters in the book illustrate the consequences of giving in to dark temptations: the town barber is transformed into a hideous dwarf, and the boys’ schoolteacher becomes a little girl forever lost in a maze of mirrors. Chilling and entrancing, Something Wicked This Way Comes illustrates the importance of choosing what to wish for and standing up for what you believe in.

The Thief of Always by Clive Barker

“I don’t know what I want . . . I just know I’ll die if I don’t have some fun. I will! I’ll die!” (5) So says Harvey Swick, hero of The Thief of Always. Rictus, an odd character with an immense grin, leads Harvey to Mr. Hood’s Holiday House, where it is summer in the afternoon, Halloween at night, and Christmas in the morning. He spends days in the house, wishing for and getting his heart’s desires. But there is a strange, algae-covered lake in back of the house, where fish the size of people swim, and Harvey soon discovers that, unless he finds a way to escape the House, he will become one of them. This book shows not only the dangers of getting what you wish for, but also how wishes can be used as weapons, as Harvey drains Mr. Hood’s powers by wishing for more and more impossible things.

The Wish List by Eoin Colfer

Meg Finn has been thrown out of her home, turns to a life of crime, consorts with a thief named Belch, and to top it all off, she dies. She cannot enter heaven or hell, but must help a man she has wronged accomplish all the items on his wish list. Meanwhile, the forces of heaven and hell are vying for her soul. The New York Times Book Review describes the book as “a kind of goofy Paradise Lost for middle-schoolers,” Wishes, redemption, good and evil all tie together to make a volatile and lively story. This brand of speculative fiction is good for students who are not only trying to figure out what they want, but what they believe in and what an afterlife might be like.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Dorian Gray is a classic example of how one wish can get out of hand and corrupt a person over a lifetime. Dorian wishes to look beautiful forever, like his portrait, saying he would give his soul if the portrait would age while he remains young. This story is particularly relevant today, in a world where mass media portrays looking young and beautiful as the ultimate form of success. While Dorian Gray gets his wish, he pays a terrible price, and ends up abandoning all values for pleasure and even committing murder.

Assignment: Research different portraits in art history books and write a brief life story of the person in the portrait based on their facial expression, clothes, objects in the background, etc.

The Sandman: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman, Art by Kelly Jones, Charles Vess, Colleen Doran, Malcom Jones (Graphic Novel)

Isn’t it time graphic novels took their proper place beside books in the classroom? The Sandman is a series of graphic novels written by Neil Gaiman, about the archetypal Sandman character, Dream, and his encounters with the human race and the other archetypes in his family (Death, his sister, Delirium, and Despair, to name a few). This volume of The Sandman consists of four stories exploring the theme of dreams. The story “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” portrays how dreams can shape reality. Another story is a beautifully illustrated telling of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The short story “Facade” deals with the consequences of getting what you wish for. The appealing artwork and characters and the writing of Neil Gaiman will engage students with themes of dreams, wishes, and desires visually and through print.

Assignment: Form groups in class and create a storyboard for a comic. One person will be the artist, another person the writer of dialogue, another the writer of narration and description. Have one member research how comics are made. Each group will create a final project that will tell the story of someone who got what they wished for, or a dream that came true, and the consequences of the wish or dream.

Other Projects to Extend the Unit:

On-line “Make A Wish” Message Board

The teacher starts an on-line message board (on the school’s website if possible). One student is chosen to post something they wish for, and another student posts a reply in which they think of a way to “make” the wish come true. Everyone is required to post a wish and respond to another student’s wish. Students can chose to make the wish come true in a positive way, or to corrupt the wish, as long as the wish is drawn to a logical conclusion based on whatever kind of magic or speculation made the wish come true. This exercise is a practice in collaborative storytelling.

Essay Topic: Why Wish?

In your Wish Journal, keep track of how many times a day you say the phrase “I wish” or hear it in conversation. What kinds of situations do people use this phrase in? Write an essay based on your findings, addressing why people need to “wish” so much in daily conversation. Do you think it is a good thing to constantly wish for things, or does it just breed discontent in everyday life? Argue one point or the other.

After students have read and written extensively on the topic of wishes, they should come away with an understanding that wishes are more than frivolous wants or the stuff of commercials: they are an expression of human desires and needs. Often the phrase “I wish” opens up the mind to think of different possibilities, to stretch the imagination. After “I wish,” comes the question: “How?” Wishes can be deceptions in disguise: a person may acquire the object she desires and find it unfulfilling. Many of the novels and stories in this unit have a dark, twisted flavor to them; partly because they function as cautionary tales to consider carefully what one desires, partly because real human desire is often a dark and scary thing. Literature opens the door to secret areas of darkness and exposes hidden wells of strength, and it is important to consider both the positive and negative aspects before acting on a wish.

Works Cited

Barker, Clive. The Thief of Always. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1992.

Bradbury, Ray. Something Wicked This Way Comes. New York: Avon Books, 2006.

Colfer, Eoin. The Wish List. New York: Scholastic Inc., 2004.

Ende, Michael. The Neverending Story. Trans. Ralph Manheim. New York: Dutton Children’s Books, 1997.

Gaiman, Neil. The Sandman: Dream Country. New York: DC Comics (Vertigo), 1991.

Le Guin, Ursula K. “Dreams Must Explain Themselves.” The Language of the Night. New York: GP Putnam and Sons, 1979.

Minstrels of Mayhem, The. “Wishes.” Adventures in Storyville.

Wilde, Oscar. The Picture of Dorian Gray. London: Dover Publications Inc., 1993.

Yeats, William Butler. “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.” Tina George. The Wondering Minstrels. 2000. 11 Nov. 2007. <http://www.cs.rice.edu~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/597.html>