I wanted to make a sequel to my first project because I liked the world and characters I had made up for it. I know it’s not the most in-depth story background in the world, but I think that’s also what makes it more open to expand upon and flesh out more. But I mainly wanted to come back to this setting because I had a lot of fun with it the first time.
During the last few weeks in class, I noticed the recurring theme of gender discrimination and gender roles being talked about. I especially remembered how weird it was when the King stalked Shakuntala in Kalidasa’s play like a hunter would a deer (I even named the sister character Elaine as a slight hint towards this since the names translates to “deer”). A lot of people saw women as something they could take advantage of or discriminate against based on nonsensical perceptions they made up of them. That idea drove the creation of this story.
I’m not entirely sure why I wanted the story to be centered around an election. I think part of it has to do with me thinking about what young siblings would fight over when they are really little, and this popped in my head. I used to fight with my siblings all the time about who owned what and who deserves this and other dumb stuff like that. And also an election for the leader of the kennel I thought would be very childish. I wanted the whole tone of this story to feel very innocent like that, even if there are some serious undertones here.
I was also trying to make sure Elaine wasn’t a better leader purely because she’s a girl, but because she’s just a better leader. Even if it’s seen as a “compliment” by some, I wanted to make it clear that Collie was wrong to assume she had some kind of gift for simply being a certain gender, as well as being wrong to make up lies based on that gender. I also tried to add some more unique characteristics to Elaine, mainly when she blows up at the crowd. I think most stories would typically have the betrayed character sulk and sob after their betrayal. But I made her more angry at everyone instead not only because it’s different that what most of us have already seen, but also because I think it’s more realistic. Who wouldn’t be mad if they were treated like this?
Plus, I made it so Elaine actually won in the end. This may sound obvious, but I’ve also noticed stories like this where the protagonist is given way to much forgiveness for all the horrible things they’ve done. I didn’t want to completely punish Collie for what he did in the end, but I knew I couldn’t reward him for just apologizing. On top of that, Elaine is a better fit overall (even if the election doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of things).
To answer the question of “why does your response to this literature matter?”, I will say something similar to what I said last time. Gender discrimination is a very important topic we all need to consider thinking about, especially children. I believe the behavior shown here is somewhat realistic for both kids and adults today, at least in the way Collie thinks. Unfortunately, some people think gender is this rigid thing that give certain people different abilities or weaknesses. I think this way of thinking starts really early for many of these people, so it’s important to tell them why this is wrong early. Hopefully we can start some more dialogue with children using something like this ASAP.
Sprockets and Springes 