Browsing by Subject "Kuolema"

My research deals with the theme of death in children's books. My interest was primarily aimed at how the child’s experience of grief is described and how the child survives loss in the books. The primary texts researched consisted of ten children’s books originally written in Finnish between 1985 and 2010. This study was a qualitative research. It was based on a detailed and complex analysis of the material and the research method used material-based content analysis of the subject matter to find themes and commonalities in the books. The children's books deal with the theme of death by using various types of characters and stories that are close to a child's everyday life. Death is presented mainly through a secular view although religion is seen in funeral rituals and in references to heaven, God and soul. Death is described in a direct and concrete way but also in abstract terms. Children’s reactions to death in the stories are typical for their age; they do not always understand the finality of death and the fact that each of us will one day die. The children give death a strongly circular meaning and they think that the deceased person is going to live again soon. In the books children react to death with anxiety, sorrow, by crying and by fearing their own death or the death of their parents. In addition, the children experience guilt, physical pain, rage and anger and they avoid discussing death. Playing in an imaginary world, holding on to daily routines, talking to an adult as well as remembering the deceased person with affection help children recover from their loss. The stories end with an emphasis on the fact that life continues and that the grief eases over time. In my view these books can support a child’s grief work and can help answer their questions about death. These books can be read alone or with an adult, and they are both entertaining and didactic. Follow-up research material could be extended to translated children’s books and also to the analysis of the illustrations in the books.