Scandinavian Literature Isn’t Always so Dark!

I’d like to take this last blog post to talk about a Scandinavian Children’s book that changed my life: Pippi Longstocking. After reading four Scandinavian YA Novels, my appreciation for Pippi grew even more.

In our class discussions we focused on how dark and mature the themes and issues discussed in Scandinavian YA novels are. Nothing asks us to consider if there is meaning in anything. Boy on the Edge deals with the dark side of religion and being a physical outsider. Pippi also deals with being an outsider. However, unlike the outsiders in the Scan. YA novels, Pippi rejoices in the things that make her an outsider. She has no parents (her dad was King on an island far away) and we don’t know what’s become of her mother. While she misses her father, she knows she will prevail. “Don’t you worry about me; I’ll always come out on top” is Pippi’s response to her being alone, and I would argue, the overall theme of all Pippi Longstocking books.

Where other students attend classes, Pippi does not. She tries to go to school, feels too limited by its structure, and so returns home to learn in her own way. Where other kids are of normal strength, Pippi is the strongest girl there ever was (she can lift grown men and even horses with one arm)!

Overall, Pippi teaches us the beauty in difference and how to rejoice in our own differences. As we venture into finals, I’d like to take my last blog post to remind you all to rejoice in your difference like Pippi does, and to never forget that you, too, “will always come out on top.”