Kindergarten: Analysis of Major Characters
The analysis of major characters in a kindergarten setting often reveals the complexities of childhood experiences, particularly in the face of adversity. One notable character is Corrie Meeuwissen, a talented sixteen-year-old boy who grapples with the recent loss of his mother to a terrorist attack while supporting his younger brothers through their grief. His introspective nature leads him to explore deep themes of childhood innocence and the impact of external violence on familial bonds. Corrie's younger brother, Jo, aged eleven, embodies the mix of typical childhood interests and the profound effects of trauma, as he struggles with nightmares and a longing for his deceased mother. The youngest brother, three-year-old Matthias, represents pure innocence, unaware of the harsh realities of life and death, embodying the carefree spirit of early childhood. Their grandmother, Lilli, serves as a nurturing figure, dedicated to preserving family traditions and the joys of childhood during difficult times. She creates special moments for the boys, highlighting the importance of love and resilience in the face of loss. Together, these characters illustrate the themes of childhood, grief, and the preservation of familial ties amid challenging circumstances.
Kindergarten: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Peter Rushforth
First published: 1979; revised 1980
Genre: Novel
Locale: Southwold, a small English town
Plot: Impressionistic realism
Time: December 24–28, 1978
Corrie Meeuwissen (MOY-vihs-sehn), an introspective, analytical, and extremely talented sixteen-year-old. He has written music for a Shakespeare production and is currently working on an opera. He is known to people as a polite, quiet boy who is helping his younger brothers cope with the death of their mother in a terrorist attack and the absence of their father (who is in America helping to raise money for the families of the other victims in the attack). Corrie is intensely conscious of the pressures of the outer world that destroy childhood and threaten the existence of family ties and affection. Discovering a cache of letters and photographs from Jewish parents in Nazi Germany to the headmaster of an English boarding school, Corrie reads with horrified fascination the pleas of parents desperate for a safe place to which to send their children. To him, the letters merge inextricably with his favorite fairy tales, in which children are menaced by certain evil adults, and with news reports of children held hostage by terrorists. He finishes reading the letters on his sixteenth birthday, the day on which his artist grandmother gives him a new painting and shows him for the first time a photograph of her family, whom she lost in the Holocaust. On the same day, the hostage children are released. On that day, Corrie comes to terms with his approaching maturity.
Jo Meeuwissen, Corrie's eleven-year-old brother. In one sense, Jo is like most eleven-year-olds: He litters his room with Charlie Brown cartoons, books, clothes, posters, and toys. In another sense, he is unusual: He quotes William Shakespeare, uses words from a thesaurus, and sings in German. He is also somewhat immature for his age: He frequently wets his bed. It is Jo who is most profoundly affected by his mother's death. He has nightmares about it, and on Christmas Eve he insists on going to her grave to sing. Jo is very much a child who has been prematurely robbed of childhood and innocence, a boy forced violently to confront the precariousness of life.
Matthias Meeuwissen (mah-TI-as), who is three years old and the youngest of the Meeuwissen brothers. Too young to realize the meaning of death, Matthias is the quintessential innocent child who plays football, romps with the dog, eats with gusto, and paints pictures of mythical creatures. He is unaware that life eventually will bring him painful experiences.
Lilli, the grandmother of the three boys. Once an acclaimed illustrator of children's books in prewar Germany, Lilli was one of the fortunate Jews who escaped to England, where she married a Gentile. Like her grandson Corrie, she is preoccupied with preserving the wonder of childhood and family traditions. She orchestrates an elaborately special Christmas celebration for the motherless boys, who are in her care during the holidays. During the celebration, she unveils for the boys her new collection of paintings. No longer evocations of fairy tales, these paintings are records of the Meeuwissen family in happier times.