This study was conducted in order to examine the bear character's type and image represented in picturebooks published in Korea.
The Study Questions were divided into five areas: picturebooks' basic information, bear's character type, the places that ...
This study was conducted in order to examine the bear character's type and image represented in picturebooks published in Korea.
The Study Questions were divided into five areas: picturebooks' basic information, bear's character type, the places that the bear appears, bear's images as individual population and bear's images in the relationship between people and bear. Study questions and their subcategories were as follows:
1. What about the bear's character type?
1-1. What about the animal/object type of the bear?
1-2. What about the sex type of the bear?
1-3. What about the ages of the bear?
1-4. What about the personification of the bear?
2. Where does the bear appears mainly?
2-1. Where does a bear mainly stay?
2-2. How does the bear's place change?
3. What about the bear's images as individual population?
3-1. What about the bear's personality?
3-2. What about the bear's goal?
4. What about the bear's images in the relationship between people and bear?
The results of the study one were as follows:
1-1. 47% of the bear were the animal type and 53% of the bear were the object type. The gap between the animal type percentages and the object type is not big but the object type, that is bear doll is mainly type of the bear in picturebooks.
1-2, 50% of the bear were appears that they have the female-male type but 50% of the bear were appears that they haven't the female-male type. 6% of the bear were female and 44% of the bear were male.
1-3. 28% of the bear appears their ages but 72% of the bear don't appears their ages. When the bear appear their ages, childhood's ratio is less than manhood's.
1-4. 81% of the bear appears in personification and only 19% of the bear appears don't personified. So almost of all the bear in picturebooks being personification. 'Talking about' is mainly used as personification method and personification's grade was low.
The study results for the study question two were as follows:
2-1. the bear in picturebooks mainly stay people society as 58% while a bear's original habitat were presented as 29%. When the bear stay people society, definite place were snug home with people.
2-2. when the bear's place change, conclusion place were snug home with people.
The study results for the study question three were as follows:
3-1. 53% of the bears in picturebooks were active disposition and 42% of the bears in picturebooks were independent disposition.
3-2. 69% of the bears in picturebooks have their goal and in the case of bear have a goal, 86% of the bear achieve their goal. Also, in the case of bear achieve their goal, 46% of the bear achieves by oneself.
The study results for the study question four were as follows:
The highest ratio of bear's image in the relationship between people and bear in picturebooks were image that give comfort to people like friend as 40%. Second image that aggressive and threatened to people as 12% and third image that give help to people or take care of people as 11% and be abandoned or ignored by people as 11%.
Based on the result of this study, the general discussion on this study is as follows.
First, in the picturebook, the bear appeared on the scene as a thing rather than as its real figure, and the place where the bear stays mainly was a human society, especially the cozy corner staying together with the human. And it appeared as a teddy bear in its childhood and as an animal in its frown-up. It was shown that the human feels nostalgia from animals for the pure original nature and close relationship of the former times.
Second, the bear was said to have appeared as the following special types; that is, it appeared more often as a thing rather than an animal, as a male rather than a female and as a child rather a grown-up, personified in most cases. The way of personification was mostly ‘it speaks’ and the contents of personification were shown mainly to be ‘it talks with the human’, ‘it holds a small thing with it’ and ‘it expresses a human-like gesture or behavior’, and when personified, it was shown weakly. And it appeared to be active rather than to be passive and to be independent rather than to be dependent, and when shown a target, it acquired it by itself.
Third, among the 9 kinds of its image related to the human, it was shown mostly to be a comfort like a friend with the human at 40%, as against 12% for an aggressor or a threat, 11% for a being to help and protect the human, and 11% for a being needed for help from the human.
Fourth, the gender of the bear was clearly shown at 50% as the same proportion 50% for not showing it, and the age of the animal was not identified as of 72%. Therefore, it was shown to be in accordance with the previous study(Nikolajeva, 2002) to some extent that the animal characters can avoid the social issue such as gender and age.
Fifth, when analyzing the types and images of bears in a picturebook, the way of composing characters both in the sentences and in the pictures should be considered, and especially in the analysis of the animals/things and of the gender, the information in the picture gave a great help. Accordingly, the analysis in the picturebook should be performed thru both sentences and pictures.
Based on such content, the meaning of this study can be shown as follows.
First, this study has a meaning that, unlike the fact that the study of picturebook so far was focused mainly on the educational effect of the picturebook or the response of children, it was analyzed, based on the literature factor of the picturebook and approached the picturebook as a study for the literature.
Second, this study has a meaning that by analyzing an image of the bear appeared on the scene in the picturebook, based on the fact that the picturebook reflects the author’s view, the author’s view of the animal and children was going to be found out.
Third, this study has a meaning that in the study so far on the analysis for the picturebook, unlike the fact that it was analyzed focused mainly on the sentences, the characters in the picturebook was analyzed thru reading the sentences and pictures.
Fourth, this study has a meaning that when analyzing the personification of bears in the picturebook, thru dividing the methods of personification, it was analyzed how often each method was used in the personification of the animal characters, and the study on the personification was fully performed in details by finding out the degree of personification for each stage.
Based on the limitations of this study, the follow-up study shall be suggested as follows.
First, since this study did not analyze each category by dividing the categories for bears into things and the human, it was not found out how the types and images were changed for the things and animals respectively. But when the bear appears as an animal and as the thing, the difference is thought to be shown very clearly not only for the types and images but also for the subjects and illustrations, and by finding out the difference, the author’s view of the animal or the public view of those times can be analyzed more in details. The difference shall be found out, therefore, after analyzing the types and images about each category by dividing the bears into two categories of things and animals.
Second, since this study did not analyze each relation with the bear by dividing people mutually interacting with the bear in the picturebook into the children and the grown-ups, it could not be found out how differently the relations was shown between the children or grown-ups and the bears. It is expected, however, that the relations between the characters and bears in the picturebook will show the significant difference depending on the ages, and it will reflect the adult’s view of the children and animals or the children’s view of the animals. Therefore, it is advisable to analyze the difference of each relation when the bear interacts with the children and with the grown-ups respectively by dividing the people interacting with the bear in the picturebook into the children and grown-ups.
Third, since this study did not perform the analysis on the contents of changing images of the bear, the situation of change could not be known when the bear changes its image. Therefore, it will be necessary to find out how different the image will be before and after the image of the bear changes.
Fourth, since this study analyzed only the picturebook in which the bears and persons appear together in the scene, interacting with each other, the much more detailed analysis could not be performed how the character of bear shows mainly in the picturebook. It is required, therefore, to analyze the general character of the bear in the picturebook, by finding out the other picturebooks where the bear only appears or bear appears with other animals, not with the human being.
Fifth, in order to analyze the image of bear, this study made the research device focused mainly on the types and composing methods of characters and performed analysis on them. But the rich and precise study on the characters will be made when analyzed by considering various other factors of literature, rather than when analyzed a literature factor independently. In the follow-up study, thus, other factors of literature, that is, plot and background are also considered to be fully found out even when studying the characters in the scene.
Sixth, this study aimed that the image of bear in the picturebook shall be analyzed by taking notice that the picturebook reflects the human point of view and is a medium influenced particularly on the children. But since this study was limited to the study of documentation which analyzed the image of the bear, it cannot be known by which method the children actually receive the image of the bear in the picturebook and reflect to such an image. Hence, it is advisable to perform the study on the children with a picturebook representing the image of each bear, and to find out by which method the image of bear in the picturebook is recognized to the children and how it has an effect on the children.
Seventh, due to the lack of picturebooks for the study, this study could not perform the comparison work for the image of the bear per nation and per year of the publication. But once the picturebooks published in various nations and years can be obtained, it is required to find out how the human point of view on the bear will be changed, by comparing the image of the bear per nation and per year of the publication.
Eighth, though this study selected the bear as an object of the analysis because the bear is generally considered to be closely related to human being and to be shown in various cultural areas and categories of literature, the follow-up study is advisable to analyze the images of the other favorite animals for Korean children.