RECURRENT THEMES in WILLIAM STEIG's PICTUREBOOKS By

RECURRENT THEMES IN WILLIAM STEIG’S PICTUREBOOKS

JOANN E. IHAS

A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA

2005

Joann E. Ihas

To Nicholas Stephen Posey, 1964-1992

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many thanks go to my supervisory committee chair, Eric Segal, for his astute guidance, steadfast respect, and kindness throughout this project. Also, thanks go to my husband, Gary Ihas, for his constant and varied support; Alexis and Ben for their enthusiasm; Melissa Hyde for her crucial encouragement; Brenna Braley for her generosity; and to my mother, Ella Marquardt Waldeck, and my father, Robert Bruce

Waldeck, for all their efforts.

Images credited as follows: Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig,

Straus and Giroux, LLC Permission from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC is granted for the University of Florida, upon request only, to print and distribute a limited number of copies of the thesis.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

page

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...... iv

LIST OF FIGURES ...... vii

ABSTRACT...... ix

CHAPTER

1 INTRODUCTION ...... 1

2 ELEMENTS OF STEIG’S PICTUREBOOKS ...... 4

3 TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL...... 10

4 VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF TRANSFORMATION: PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL...... 14

Adult Transformation ...... 19 Identity and Sudden Transformation ...... 22

5 ARMORING AND ORGONE THEORY...... 34

6 ISOLATION AND ENTRAPMENT ...... 38

7 NATURE: CHANGING WEATHER AND SEASONS...... 42

8 RESTORATION AND THE NATURE OF LIFE ...... 46

9 PARENTS AND THE HOME ...... 50

10 FAMILIAL LOVE...... 58

11 APPARENT BIOGRAPHICAL INFLUENCES ...... 60

12 CONCLUSION...... 65

APPENDIX ILLUSTRATIONS...... 66

v LIST OF REFERENCES...... 80

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...... 82

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure page

1 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, p. 6 ...... 66

2 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, p. 7 ...... 66

3 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, p. 27 ...... 67

4 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, p. 28 ...... 67

5 Solomon the Rusty Nail, p. 3 ...... 68

6 Solomon the Rusty Nail, p. 4 ...... 68

7 The Amazing Bone, pp. 4-5 ...... 69

8 The Amazing Bone, p. 7...... 69

9 The Amazing Bone, p. 12...... 70

10 The Amazing Bone, p. 13...... 70

11 The Amazing Bone, p. 15...... 71

12 The Amazing Bone, p. 19...... 71

13 Gorky Rises, p. 2 ...... 72

14 Gorky Rises, p. 5 ...... 72

15 Gorky Rises, p. 18 ...... 72

16 The Amazing Bone, pp. 8-9 ...... 73

17 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, p. 30 ...... 73

18 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, p. 1 ...... 74

19 Solomon the Rusty Nail, p. 11 ...... 74

20 The Amazing Bone, p. 20...... 75

vii 21 Gorky Rises, pp. 6-7 ...... 75

22 Gorky Rises, pp. 8-9 ...... 76

23 Gorky Rises, p. 15 ...... 76

24 Gorky Rises, p. 19 ...... 77

25 Gorky Rises, pp. 20-21...... 77

26 Gorky Rises, p. 28 ...... 78

27 Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, pp. 8-9...... 78

28 The Amazing Bone, p. 28...... 79

29 Solomon the Rusty Nail, p. 17 ...... 79

30 The Amazing Bone, p. 26...... 79

viii

Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

RECURRENT THEMES IN WILLIAM STEIG’S PICTUREBOOKS

Joann E. Ihas

August 2005

Chair: Eric J. Segal Major Department: Art and Art History

I focused on the visual imagery in four picturebooks by William Steig to reveal ways in which the illustrations function as signifiers of philosophical and psychological issues of interest to Steig (and at play in the broader culture). Steig creates worlds of meaning in the way visual and textual aspects signify in particular ways. His illustrations signify meanings that may be absent in the textual narrative, such as notions of pastness and stability. Unique meanings tend to emerge from images of binary oppositions (such as male/female, young/old, physical sensation/mental insight, and the value/non-value of person versus inanimate object). Although Steig uses such common terms, he tries to overcome them in light of his position on Reichian orgone--an energy that suffuses matter and spirit. These stories challenge Western understanding of the absolute alterity of the inanimate yet vital, the nonliving but self-aware protagonist, thereby eroding certain other distinctions. My study attends more closely to Steig’s illustrations than to his text, to show how he both enacts and dissolves oppositions that would disrupt his thinking about human psychology.

ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

William Steig’s humor and his skillful and subtle combinations of language, line,

and color serve to amuse, entertain, and educate in the numerous picturebooks he created

for children (beginning in 1968, at 60 years of age). By then, he had established a solid

reputation as one of the original, and still-active cartoonists for The New Yorker, for

which he produced over 1,600 cartoons. He had also published many volumes of

humorous cartoons for adults, including The Lonely Ones (1942), and had illustrated such

volumes as Wilhelm Reich’s Listen, Little Man! (1948), Will Cuppy’s The Decline and

Fall of Practically Everybody (1950), his brother Irwin Steig’s Poker for Fun and Profit

(1959), and children’s stories written by his wife, Jeanne Steig, and published in the

1990s.1

Steig’s children’s work has been widely acclaimed for its verbal and visual eloquence. Yet little attention has been given to the visual images alone and ways in which they communicate specific information and suggestions beyond the text, such as the nature and function of family and gendered parental roles. By focusing primarily on the visual imagery, I have sought to reveal ways in which the illustrations function as signifiers of philosophical and psychological issues of interest to Steig and at play in the broader culture.

1 Three of the books William illustrated for his wife, Jeanne, were published by Farrar Straus: Consider the Lemming (poetry), 1988; The Old Testament Made Easy, 1990; and Alpha Beta Chowder, 1992. The fourth, A Handful of Beans: Six Fairy Tales, was published by HarperCollins, 1998.

1 2

The illustrations not only amplify the emotional content of his stories, as Perry

Nodelman argues that pictures generally do; they also function like theatrical elements, signifying meanings that may be absent in the textual narrative.2 His picturebooks create

worlds of meaning by the way visual and textual aspects signify in particular ways. For

example, he represents a home not only as a place of eating, shelter and domestic activity,

but as tied to pastness and stability. The visual images remake verbal inflection by

insisting on pastness. In this way, they expand certain imaginative possibilities, which in

turn limit others. Unique meanings tend to emerge from images of binary oppositions

such as male/female, young/old, physical sensation/mental insight, and the value/non- value of person versus rock. Although Steig uses such terms, he tries to overcome them in light of his position on Reichian orgone – an energy that suffuses matter and spirit.

Indeed, his fanciful tales challenge Western understanding of the absolute alterity of the

inanimate yet vital (the nonliving but self-aware rock/donkey-boy, for example), thereby

eroding certain other distinctions.

While D. Lewis argues that text/image interplay is essential to the story’s

meaning in picturebooks, few writers on children’s literature have attended thoughtfully to that dynamic.3 My investigation has attended more closely to Steig’s illustrations than

2 Perry Nodelman. Words About Pictures: The Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books (Athens, Ga: The University of Georgia Press, 1988).

3 For an in-depth analysis of the picturebook, see David Lewis’ Reading Contemporary Picturebooks (London; New York: Routledge Falmer, 2001). Lewis distinguishes the illustrated book from the picturebook, arguing that the latter is a literary (rather than a visual art) form and should be analyzed as such. He credits Perry’s Nodelman’s Words About Pictures The Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Book (Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1988) as one of the first such serious analyses.

3 to his text to show how he both enacts and dissolves oppositions that would disrupt his thinking about human psychology.

CHAPTER 2 ELEMENTS OF STEIG’S PICTUREBOOKS

Steig’s stories, with their mundane, humorous, and outrageous situations, have

been characterized as bridges between the worlds of children and adults.1 While he shuns lacing his picturebooks with obvious political and social dogma, his unique view of life emerges in various combinations of text and illustration.2 Barbara Bader, in a seminal

study of American picturebooks, names Steig as one of five “fabulists,” or subjective

storytellers, whose style reveals their philosophy. She argues that Steig introduces

nothing new or brilliant to the picturebook medium itself, yet describes his Sylvester and

the Magic Pebble as an “inherently visual idea,” attributing to Steig’s artistic execution

some extraordinary “visual moments,” such as the double-spread image of Sylvester as a

rock on a hill with the magic pebble beside him, and the single image of his instantaneous

transformation from rock to donkey in the company of his delighted parents.3

Additionally, Bader places Steig among the numerous other New Yorker artists (such as

E. B. White) who introduced an unsophisticated, down-to-earth “sidewalk humor” to picturebooks treating the fanciful event as natural.4 While Bader seems to overlook the

1 For this observation and an expanded statement by Jeannette Larson, see School Library Journal 49 (11 November 2003): 21.

2 “William (H.) Steig,” Contemporary Authors, 2004. Thomson Gale, University of Florida Lib., Gainesville, FL., 04 Jan. 2005 .

3 Barbara Bader. American Picturebooks from Noah’s Ark to the Beast Within (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1976), pp. 563-64; William Steig, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1969), pp. 8-9; p. 28.

4 Bader, pp. 563-64.

4 5

fact that Steig also brings to his children’s characters an extraordinary level of emotional

expressiveness, she does conclude (and I agree) that his philosophy is unique. Such

details as facial expression and gesture along with setting, spatial relationships, costume,

architecture, and interior décor, for example, provide a cultural context, albeit fictional,

for the universal human struggles that his characters face. It is only in the combination of

text and image that Steig’s works begin to reveal more significant insights into the artist

and his relation to his cultural context.

Thus, while Steig may not have altered the picturebook medium itself, his original

contributions include a philosophy in which curiosity and risk-taking are essential. He

conveys this through inventive, poetic language, expressive faces (that had already

become his signature in The New Yorker cartoons), and vibrant, sensitive, watercolor

illustrations crafted concisely with a deft--if wavering and sometimes broken--line that

enhances the vulnerability and vitality of human characters thinly disguised by their

animal forms. His decision to abandon the practice of preliminary sketching for

improvisational drawing—as suggested by his jazz-flutist son Jeremy in the 1960s—can

be seen as the indirect influence on his picturebook drawing style of that specifically

indigenous American art form, jazz. His brother, Henry, introduced William to jazz and

the blues early in life, and he collected both.5 Without the benefit of study and careful

planning, Steig admits chance, even risk to his creative process, drawing quickly without

thinking, then looking to see what he has done.6 Thus, his picturebooks deal with risk-

5 Jonathan Cott, Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: The Wisdom of Children’s Literature ( New York: Random House, 1983), p. 113; Roger Angell, “Postscript William Steig,” in The New Yorker (20 October 2003): 69-72.

6Cott, pp. 132-33.

taking protagonists, and also display the results of his own creative risk-taking and

careful choices.

When I draw, I always start with the face. . . . a lot of the meaning of my stuff is there only because I have to sell it. Otherwise, I’d just draw. I don’t have the natural impulse to put meaning into it.7

Jeremy adds, “My father only uses what he needs. . . . he’s like Charlie Parker, and the

rest of the music out there is just disco.”8

Steig’s worldview, and to a lesser degree his style, motivated the following

examination of the visual imagery in four of his children’s books--Sylvester and the

Magic Pebble, The Amazing Bone, Solomon the Rusty Nail, and Gorky Rises—in an effort

to explore how certain recurrent visual motifs might function as signifiers of some of his

major concerns (such as human nature, solitude, freedom and responsibility, beneficence

in the world, and home and parental love).9 In light of Steig’s friendship with Austrian-

born psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich and his conviction that Reich was one of the most

important, if misunderstood, figures of the twentieth century, this discussion examines

Steig’s four stories in relation to Reichian theories of orgone, or universal energy, and

“armoring,” or human defense mechanisms.10 Reich and Steig became acquainted in

1946, when Steig sought analysis for a debilitating depression. Reich already owned a

copy of Steig’s The Lonely Ones, a small illustrated volume characterizing neurotic

7 Ibid, p. 115.

8 Ibid.

9 William Steig, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble (New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1969); The Amazing Bone (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1976); Gorky Rises (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1980); Solomon the Rusty Nail (New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1985).

10 Leonard S. Marcus, Ways of Telling: Conversations on the Art of the Picture Book (New York: Dutton Children’s Books, c 2002), p. 194.

behaviors, which he displayed in his office during their first encounter.11 The fast

friendship that developed between the two men endured until Reich’s unfortunate death

in prison in 1957, and Reichian theory seems to have provided a formal basis for Steig’s

intuitive understanding of human behavior.

The protagonists of these four magical tales are all represented visually as personified animals. They live human lives in human houses and dress as humans, except for Sylvester (a donkey who wears no clothes, although his parents do). In this use of anthropomorphized animals, Steig borrows a centuries-old storytelling technique, arguing that, “Kids get the idea right away that this is not just a story, but that it’s saying something about life on earth.”12 This claim is clarified by child educator and psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, who contends that a child begins pondering such questions as identity, the origin of the world, the purpose of life, and whether there are

benevolent powers besides his parents—all in terms of himself—as soon as he begins to

move about and explore his world.13 He argues further that fairy tales broaden a child’s awareness of the world by offering answers that can be discovered as the stories unfold, and that a childhood belief in magic is a safe means of introducing a child to the “rigors of adult life.”14 On the other hand, since a child experiences world order in terms of what transpires within the family and security affords the development of a rational world view, the more secure a child feels, the less he needs to rely on fairy tale solutions to

11Ibid.

12 James E. Higgins, “William Steig: Champion for Romance,” in Children’s Literature in Education 9.1 (1978):6.

13 Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales (New York: Vintage Books, 1989, c 1979), p. 47.

14 Ibid, pp. 47 and 51.

problems. While insecurity leads to drawing into oneself, security frees curiosity,

allowing for exploration.15 According to Bettelheim, even partly imagined security helps

a child develop the necessary confidence for problem solving16. Steig’s work, as discussed below, embodies as a core idea this perspective on security and exploration. It goes further, suggesting that exploration (even creativity) leads to growth and healthy independence that better equips the individual child to live in a family.

While the fairy tale tradition informs Steig’s illustrated stories, he departs from it somewhat with humorous, open-ended conclusions that offer the possibility for future disruptions and episodes of growth. Characteristically, he omits significant information from both text and illustrations in order for readers to be able to bring their own experiences to bear.17 Additionally, although his characters are often represented as

animals, the accompanying text may or may not corroborate this representation at all, or

may delay doing so until well into the story. For instance, while Pearl is represented

visually as a pig in The Amazing Bone, the only verbal reference to her pig-ness is her fox

captor’s oblique remark that she is “young, plump and tender.”18 By the same token, in

Gorky Rises, the single textual reference to Gorky’s being a frog recounts that when he came face to face with two enormous kites, he “almost croaked from fear.”19

The potential for astonishment and renewal in everyday life is a familiar Steigian

theme that permeates his central visual and textual motifs, some of which are magic and

15 Ibid, p. 51.

16 Ibid, pp. 50, 51.

17 From a review of When Everybody Wore a Hat, in Publishers Weekly, February 10 (2003): 184.

18 Steig, The Amazing Bone, p. 15.

19 _____. Gorky, pp 10-11.

transformation; home and family; and nature, with its changing weather and seasons. A close study of the stories and illustrations reveals that these and other related ideas such as separation and isolation are central to Steig, not only as he explores them in his illustrated works, but as the foundation of his understanding of human psychological development. Beyond his own explicit or conscious interest, these same themes— particularly those of home and family—will help to situate Steig’s work in the broader cultural context emergent during and after the cultural upheavals of the late 1960s. While he was not a politically conservative figure, a careful analysis of his stories shows how they embody certain culturally conservative ideals—of gender and family, especially—to which he resorted repeatedly in his illustrated works, regardless of his own personal circumstance of four marriages or of developments in American culture.

CHAPTER 3 TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL

Magic and transformation are intertwined variously in these four stories of protagonists who encounter magic at home or close to home. Two of them—Sylvester the donkey and Pearl the pig—find an apparently ordinary, inanimate object that is imbued with magical power—a pebble and a bone, respectively. Sylvester discovers his while at home with his parents and Pearl, on her way home from school. Sylvester’s pebble, a part of his collection, grants his every wish as long as he touches it. Solomon the rabbit also discovers one day while sitting outside his house, that by scratching his nose and wiggling his toes simultaneously, he can turn himself into (yet another) ordinary, inanimate object: a rusty nail. At will, he can go back and forth between his rabbit and rusty nail forms. Sylvester, wishing himself a rock, inadvertently loses touch with the (pebble, without which he cannot return to his donkey self. Gorky, seeking to create his own magic, concocts in his kitchen a potion from ordinary household ingredients, made magic by the addition of his mother’s “attar of roses,”—a clear fairy tale reference.1 In three of the stories, magic implicates and then extricates the protagonist from situations that could be life threatening. Pearl, the youngest of all, is the only one who gets into trouble without magic, but relies on it for her escape. Each of these children delights in the newfound magic until he or she gets into trouble.

Ultimately, each escapes and reaches the goal of home and parental love in the end.

1 Lane, Marcia, Picturing the Rose: A Way of Looking at Fairy Tales (New York : H.W. Wilson Co., 1994), pp. 81-82.

10 11

Notably, they do not relinquish magic as a dangerous abnormality, but either safely

integrate it to lives with wisdom of experience, or keep it for future need.

Sylvester is the only one of these protagonists whose own parents help liberate him,

albeit inadvertently. His instantaneous return to his natural state occurs in bright

sunshine with both parents present and it sets his father to dancing with glee. Solomon’s

release from captivity is more complicated. Having been pounded as a rusty nail into the

siding of his captor’s house, he falls free during a house fire started accidentally by the

captor. He then transforms back into his rabbit self and returns home to delighted parents

and siblings. Pearl’s newfound bone friend, a highly articulate mimic, casts a magic

spell to free her from her fox captor, whereupon she returns home with bone in hand,

shows it to her parents, and then takes to bed with her. By contrast, Gorky, having

launched himself miles high with the bottle of his magic potion, figures out how to

regulate its release drop by drop to return safely to earth and his parents.

Steig borrows the notion of a simple, naïve protagonist from the folk-fairy

tradition, offering youthful protagonists of different ages and genders—although most of

them are boys.2 His treatment of magic suggests that, while the desires and curiosity of children may lead them into situations beyond their control, they can and do survive, even if they need help from unexpected sources to do so. Bettelheim explains that the concept of being sent out or cast out reflects a child’s anxiety about independence.3 And, while Steig’s protagonists are not exactly cast out at the urging of an evil stepmother, as

2 For a brief discussion of the naïve protagonist and the folk-fairy tale tradition, see Jack Zipes, When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition ( New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 145-146.

3 Bettelheim, p. 98.

are Hansel and Gretel, but find themselves isolated in one way or another from their nice,

“normal” parents and family. They must then grapple more or less with separation from

the parents, fearful circumstances that test their readiness to be independent, and the

concern that their parents may not accept their new independence. According to

Bettelheim, a child needs to believe in magic such as that of a fairy godmother’s superior

protective powers until he or she is certain of protection within his human environment.4

Steig’s choice of such mundane objects as a pebble and a discarded small bone--as the embodiment of such powers--exemplifies some of the “sidewalk humor” that Bader noted in his work.5

Clarifying the inherent value of fairy tales, Bettelheim explains that, unlike myths and fables that give the answers, the fairy tale only suggests or implies solutions, but never spells them out. It addresses such timeless questions as “What is the world really like? How am I to live...in it? How can I truly be myself?”6 They allow the child to fantasize and decide whether and how to apply the story to him or herself or to human

nature.7 Childhood is the appropriate time for particular growth experiences, he argues, and such fantasies help integrate one’s inner experiences with the “real world.”8

Additionally, the fairy tale’s worth lies in its ability to reveal truths about humanity and the self to both child and adult.9 About the value of personified animals such as Steig’s

4 Ibid, p. 52.

5 Bader, American Picturebooks, pp. 563-64.

6 Bettelheim, p. 45.

7 Ibid.

8 Ibid, p. 66.

9 Ibid.

13 protagonists, Bettelheim reasons that children often have a more natural affinity to animals than to adults, partly because a child may feel that he is not as human as he should be. From a child’s viewpoint, animals may seem to enjoy an easier, more instinctual life.10

These insights may elucidate to some degree the power of Steig’s chosen story form and content. Working within the fairy tale tradition, he invites the reader to step into his own idiosyncratic way of seeing the world. His magical themes and animal characters give rise to one of the major motifs: transformation.

10 Ibid, p. 290.

CHAPTER 4 VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS OF TRANSFORMATION: PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL

Again and again, Steig conveys instantaneous magical transformation in typical

fairy-tale fashion. For example, Sylvester appears as a lone donkey in five consecutive

images.1 Then, when a lion confronts him, the following two illustrations show the

puzzled beast staring at and walking away from the rock that Sylvester has suddenly

become (Fig.1, 2). Later, in three consecutive illustrations, Sylvester’s sad parents by

chance choose this same rock for a table and proceed sadly with their picnic.2 First, his

mother sits on the rock while his father plants a large yellow umbrella in the ground

beside it.3 Next, while Sylvester’s mother arranges the picnic dishes and food on the rock’s surface, his father bends over to pick up the little red pebble.4 Finally, the parents sit at the rock, facing each other with the magic pebble resting alongside their food (Fig.

3). Not only does the pebble bring about magic, but in this instance, it serves as a visual signifier of it, for upon turning the page, the reader, along with the joyful parents, confronts Sylvester’s instantaneous transformation (Fig. 4). No longer a rock, he is once

again a donkey, standing on all four legs, while the magic pebble, food and dishes slide

1 Steig, Sylvester,pp. 2-6.

2 Ibid, pp. 25-27.

3 Ibid, p. 25.

4 Ibid, p. 26.

14 15

and tumble from his back. Both child and parents smile in wide-eyed wonder at

Sylvester’s sudden reappearance.

Throughout the visual narrative, the small red magic pebble signifies emotional and

physical changes to come both for Sylvester and for his parents, since his wishes are

always granted sooner or later after its appearance. Physical proximity plays an

important role, as well, since Sylvester in touch with the pebble signifies immediate wish

fulfillment; while the pebble alone signifies delayed wish fulfillment. However, both

configurations imply transformation in one form or another, be it physical or

psychological. An example of the pebble’s psychological signification is apparent in its

alignment with the picnic food arranged on Sylvester-the-rock.5 Here, the pebble not only signifies transformation, since Sylvester emerges on the very next page to the delight of all concerned, but the potential of something to both disrupt and restore the familial structure. Clearly, its role as signifier varies according to context for at the beginning of the story, when Sylvester holds it in his hand, the pebble signifies the changes that separate him from his parents, thereby causing all to suffer.

While the example of the pebble applies only to the Sylvester story, Steig also conveys transformation or the possession of transformative power—both physical and emotional—through gesture and facial expression. For instance, Solomon’s wide-eyed stare and erect posture as he sits against the side of his house following his initial transformation into nail and back register the shock of this experience (Fig. 5). And soon afterward at the family dinner table, smug pleasure in his secret power is evident in his satisfied smile and sideways glance toward his mother (Fig. 6). Another such example is

5 See Fig. 4; Sylvester, p. 27. Note that both pebble and food become features of a displaced domestic scene in which husband and wife dine without their son in an open field (where donkeys do usually eat).

provided by two consecutive illustrations of Pearl. Her closed eyes, peaceful smile and

relaxed posture communicate the bliss of immersion in a perfectly lovely spring day,

followed immediately by her startled, wide eyes, pursed mouth and straightened back

when she hears—but does not see—the bone’s repetoire of musical sounds, foreign

speech, wind and sneezing (Fig. 7, 8). Then, when encountered by three masked

“robbers” her huddled posture and eyes reflect surprise followed by fear as they become more menacing and close in on her (Fig. 9). Immediately, when the bone’s noises scare them away, Pearl smiles broadly and stands tall, apparently larger than she was while threatened (Fig. 10). Then, in the next five illustrations of Pearl and the fox (who suddenly appears and captures her), her face, posture, and size register her feelings of fear and inability to resist his dominance (Fig. 11).6 And when she finds herself imprisoned in his house, she appears smaller than ever with droopy ears and wide, bewildered eyes (Fig. 12). With respect to Gorky, his feelings are often communicated through his eyes and mouth, both of which are wide open to register delight when he succeeds in making a magic formula (Fig. 13). More often, however, they are communicated through a combination of facial expression, posture and position in his surroundings, such as when he is blissfully lying on the grass with closed eyes, holding his bottle of potion; and later, upside down in space, with wide eyes that register the alarm of his free fall near bolts of lightning more than twice his size (Fig. 14, 15).

Steig also relies on hierarchy of size to indicate his protagonists’ sense of place in the world. Gorky’s changing size, for example, signifies not only his ascent and descent in space, but his changing awareness of his place in the world. And Pearl’s youth,

6 Steig, The Amazing Bone, pp. 14-16.

innocence and vulnerability are evident not only in Steig’s comparing her to a flower in a

“light dress” that “felt like petals,” but in the fact that she appears smaller than nearly every other creature she encounters excepting some ducks on a pond, a couple butterflies nearly as big as she, and her new friend the bone (Fig. 16).7 Her posture, gesture and facial expressions accurately convey the small child’s feelings of stupidity and inadequacy that Bettelheim discusses in his defense of the psychological truth of fairy tales. A blissful state preceding misfortune never occurs with a competent child, he argues, asserting that fairy tales in which the child is youngest and most inept offer consolation and necessary hope for the future.8 Pearl experiences bliss, joy, then terror.

With the bone’s help, she gains confidence by the end of the story. All such changes

come across strongly in her facial expressions.9

With respect to the Sylvester story, especially in scenes of Sylvester as a rock, hierarchy of size, bright or subdued colors, and spatial relationships such as that of the rock to its surroundings communicate Sylvester’s changing state of mind. Considering the consequences of the magic that the pebble grants, its appearance symbolizes the entire family’s changing psychological condition: from the shock of separation, to the anguish of deprivation, to an ultimate sense of well-being, when Sylvester’s parents establish their picnic on the rock that is Sylvester, and their son suddenly reappears to the delight of all.10)

7 Steig, The Amazing bone, p. 5; see also pp. 1-3; 10-11; and illustrations on Title pages.

8 Bettelheim, p. 103.

9 Steig, The Amazing Bone, pp. 4-5; 10-12; 14-23. See Fig. 7, 10, 12, 16.

10 Steig, Sylvester, pp. 10-13’; 16-17; 24-27; 28-30. See also Fig.7-10.

The story’s final image features the family of three seated altogether on a bright

red-orange sofa in a contented embrace. In typical Steig fashion, elements of the image

are rather spare: the family, the sofa, a patch of patterned pastel wall behind it and a

small fringed rug in front of it, the fringe of which calls attention—humorously and

touchingly—to the fringed tails of father and son that are now resting on it together, at

last. Curiously, the sofa’s red-orange hue is notably similar to that of the magic pebble:

purveyor of all of Sylvester’s wishes. The pebble is out of sight in this image and the

accompanying text tells us that Sylvester’s father has stashed it in an iron safe for

potential use “some day,” because the family has all it wants “for now.” The sofa’s

warm, bright colors help convey the emotion of the embracing family, a decided contrast

with the softer pastels in the initial scene of the story, when the characters are busy at

their individual tasks. (Fig. 17, 18). In this way, facial expression, posture, and color all

serve to signal change.

Bettelheim explains that, from a child’s viewpoint, life is a succession of

uneventful stages during which he is abruptly and inexplicably thrust into great danger.

The greatest threat of all is that of being left all alone in the world, so that the ultimate

consolation is that such a thing will never happen.11 By using magical transformations,

Steig represents change as a process of positive and negative episodes and experiences— of adventure, imagination, danger, hope, and terror, for example—all of which lead to growth and resolution within the original context of family and adults.

11 Ibid, p. 145

Adult Transformation

Another visual indicator of transformation, specifically in the Sylvester story, is the

change in costume of the parents, which is more formal at the beginning than at end of

the story. Significantly, changes of this young protagonist character with which children presumably identify is accompanied by changes of the parental figures, suggesting that the changing child has an effect upon the parents, rather than that parents remain the same, no matter what. Initially, Sylvester’s parents are dressed as role models. The father wears a suit, smokes a pipe and reads a newspaper, while the mother, with an apron over her dress, sweeps the floor. Sylvester is simply a boy with a hobby and, as has been noted, he wears no clothes, a fact that suggests his state of innocence, lack of defenses, or absence of armoring--a concept that Steig adopted from Wilhelm Reich of bodily and psychological closure in response to social conditions. As the story progresses, the parents become more vulnerable, showing their feelings. They are, in effect, less and less armored, while trying to carry on as responsible adults. Spring arrives, as shown in a double-spread image, and despite their grief, Mr. Duncan proposes that they try to enjoy life again with a picnic.12

Mrs. Duncan carries the picnic basket, and Mr. Duncan, a large umbrella. Even

without the text, which informs us that this is the father’s idea, all visual signals indicate

that he is in charge of this venture: his body position is shoulder, while her eyes are sad,

suggesting her preoccupation with Sylvester’s long absence and her sense of loss.13 Now, the parents’ dress is decidedly different from that at the story’s outset. For example, from

12 Steig, Sylvester, pp. 22-23; p. 24.

13 Ibid, p. 24.

pages 24 through the last one, page 30, their clothing is brightly colored and casual,

compared with that of the opening scene of the story.14 While Mrs. Duncan, wears another of her usual shapeless, flowered, matronly dresses here, a casual blue and white polka dot kerchief, tied alternately around her head and neck, replaces her usual white lace collar. In this vein, the father’s brightly striped yellow sport coat, complemented by

the equally bright yellow umbrella and open-collared, red and white polka-dot shirt,

provides a marked contrast to his earlier, more formal attire of suit or sport coat, dress

shirt and necktie.15 These costume changes, coupled with the father’s affectionately

protective hoof on his wife’s shoulder, suggest both his leadership and that such

determined effort may play a part in a positive change.16 Four consecutive images of the parents just before Sylvester reappears confirm for the reader the stability, harmony, and hopefulness in their relationship, even in the absence of their child. In this way, Steig offers visual reassurance to the reader that with affection and mutual cooperation, adults can cope with their child’s disappearance, even as they continue to grieve.

Simultaneously, he provides a specific, cultural role model of a parental relationship as a male-female partnership—a consistent representation in all four stories.

After Sylvester’s father comforts and leads the mother en route to the picnic, they

work together as equals to create the picnic before sitting down face to face at the rock

table. Nuclear family stability is a thread that runs fairly consistently through these four

stories. The mothers and fathers are of similar size as well, which seems to signify their

14 Compare fig. 16, 17.

15 Ibid.

16 Ibid, p. 24.

21 equal importance. Since they are shown together as a couple in all the stories, two of which show the father with his arm around the mother, the underlying message is one of parental fortitude, stability, harmony, and affection during both good and bad times.17

The Sylvester story is unique among the four in that it deals with the parents’ changing emotional states, as reflected by both facial expressions and clothing changes from the beginning to the end of the story. However, even while at leisure, near the story’s end, the father wears a sport coat, although it is now a striped one, with an informal polka-dot shirt, and the mother wears a dress. In this way, the parents’ clothing signals both change and consistency. In keeping with Steig’s insistence on representing an earlier era, the parents’ clothing in all the stories suggests a time reminiscent of his own childhood, as depicted in When Everybody Wore A Hat, an illustrated memoir of his childhood during the early twentieth century.18 “I enjoyed my childhood,” he states, which may shed some light on why his stories share common threads with those from his own childhood.19 Sylvester’s parents’ behavior and clothing show the reader that, adults have feelings just like everyone else, but they do not let their feelings incapacitate them.

They can dress appropriately for a picnic, for instance, even when they don’t feel like it.

In this way, they model correct behavior and are rewarded for it with their son’s return.

In the end, they are enlightened and whole again: ensconced in a warm, bright sofa against a soft, delicately hued background.20 For parents, the stories may raise real

17 Ibid; see also p. 10.

18 William Steig, When Everybody Wore A Hat (New York: Joanna Cotler Books, c2003)

19 See Roger Angell, “The Minstrel Steig,” in The New Yorker (20 February 1995): 252-61.[excerpted in, Something About the Author 111:176.]; _____. “William Steig: Champion for Romance,” in Children’s Literature in Education 9.1(1978): 5)

20 Steig, Sylvester, p. 30; see also Fig. 17.

anxieties and offer a model for facing them, while for children, the books offer

consolation by showing parents embracing, not punishing imaginative exploits.

Identity and Sudden Transformation

As does Sylvester, Solomon undergoes a sudden transformation early in the story,

beginning on page two. Yet because he has the ability to go in and out of his nail state,

his changes continue throughout the story, with one major interruption. First, we see him

as a rabbit, and next as a nail that his mother is tossing into a garbage can.21 After several transformations from rabbit to nail and back, Solomon runs from a one-eyed, knife- bearing cat in three consecutive illustrations until abruptly, he is pictured as a small nail lying in the grass at the base of a tree (Fig. 19). The cat’s expression of angry bewilderment as he stands with one paw touching the tree registers this sudden change.22

On the other hand, Pearl, who does not change form, is confronted and captured in a series of seven increasingly frightening illustrations by a humorously dandified fox who imprisons her in his house, dons an apron, and prepares to cook her for his dinner (Fig.

11, 20).23. Immediately after the fox loads wood into a stove, two illustrations show him

reduced (through a magic spell cast by the bone) to the size of a rabbit much smaller than

Pearl, and then, to that of an even smaller mouse.24 Not only does Steig express

suddenness in these particular images, but the changing relationship of Pearl to her fox

captor signals her approaching liberation.

21 _____, Solomon, pp.1,2

22Ibid, pp. 9-11

23 Steig, The Amazing Bone, pp. 14-22.

24 Ibid, p. 23.

Finally, early in Gorky Rises, three separate illustrations show him clutching his

new magic potion as he walks with eyes closed through white clover; then with eyes wide

open, steps on stones in a stream.25 Next, he lies on his back on a stretch of grass, his

eyes closed again in apparent reverie.26 The next image, a double spread, shows him with the same posture and expression to convey his sudden liftoff, for now he is floating above a broad expanse of landscape of scattered trees and domiciles in the somewhat distant background beneath him.27 This whole episode looks much like a representation of imagination, as if signaling that Gorky is only dreaming. In the very next image--another double spread--he continues to float (Fig. 22). Now, however, the landscape beneath him is much broader, indicating his increasing elevation. His horizontal body is face down and he continues to hold the potion in his right hand, a reminder of its role in his changing experience aloft28. Gorky’s wide eyes and partially agape mouth indicate his

reaction to this transcendence. And, while he appears to be larger than the trees and

buildings below, he is actually quite small relative to the sky all around and above him.

In this way, Steig indicates Gorky’s changing relationship to his surroundings.

Throughout the story, his varying size and facial expressions signal his growing awareness of his place in the world beyond cousin, parents and home. Such changing relationships, as well as those portrayed in the story of Pearl, and the actual physical transformations of Sylvester and Solomon all symbolize the characters’ developing sense

25 _____, Gorky Rises,p. 4.

26 Ibid, p. 5; see also Fig. 14.

27 Ibid, pp. 6-7; see also Fig. 21.

28 Ibid, pp. 8-9.

of identity. The suddenness of many of the transformations suggests the nature of this

process.

By contrast, because the parents in the other three stories appear very little if at all

until the end of the stories, their emotional changes are not apparent to the reader, since

they are shown only before and/or after their child’s absence.29 Even though Steig portrays the parents of Solomon before the end of the story, he does not give the readers a glimpse of what they might have been thinking or feeling during their child’s exploits, or indicate if they were even aware of them. Neither Pearl’s parents nor Gorky’s are introduced until the end of the story. Then, although Gorky’s parents search the woods for him, their facial expressions do not seem to reflect sadness or distress. Gorky is the oldest of the four protagonists and has been absent only overnight. Thus, his parents do not have nearly as much reason as Sylvester’s for being deeply distressed. They do, however, seem somewhat puzzled when Gorky demonstrates some of the magic of his recent experience.

In the other three stories, parent, child and sometimes siblings are all together in the end and noticeably happy. Sylvester’s family reflects the greatest change. In the end, they are enlightened and whole again: ensconced in a warm, bright sofa against a soft, delicately hued background.30 For parents, these stories may raise real anxieties and offer a model for facing them, while for children they offer consolation by showing parents embracing, not punishing imaginative exploits.

29 Steig, the Amazing Bone, pp. 26-27; Gorky, pp. 26-18 (see also Title page); Solomon, pp. 2, 4-7; 27-28.

30 Steig, Sylvester, p. 30; see also Fig. 17.

For nine pages, Gorky seems to be floating in a relaxed posture about as high as a single-engine airplane.31 The text corroborates his apparent pleasure, telling us that he

knew he wouldn’t fall because he feels the magic potion’s “brilliant bubbles flow into his

arm.”32 Such a notion reflects Steig’s acceptance and promotion of Reich’s concept of orgone, the universal energy found throughout the universe, which can pass from non-

living to living things. Steig explains that even a stone is filled with living energy.33 The

following double spread illustration shows Gorky tiny against a pale blue background,

suddenly confronted with two enormous kites, one, a monstrous-mask-like face and the

other, a yellow, green and rose-colored butterfly, which recalls the colors of his kitchen

laboratory.34 His wide-eyed and closed-mouth expression seems to register only curiosity, although the text tells us that he “almost croaked from fear,” a subtle allusion to the fact that he is a frog.35 In four following illustrations, Gorky floats on his back again, but high enough that his face is barely visible to the farmers and haystacks below, to a pig fishing from a boat, a dog artist in a smock, with palette and easel, painting a cow in plein

air; a girl bunny on a swing, a fox distracted from catching a goose, and a crowd of townspeople, stopping on sidewalks, staring from upstairs windows and perched upon a roof to watch him (Fig. 23).36 Later, Gorky is low enough in the sky to be just above his

31 Steig, Gorky, pp. 8-16.

32 Ibid, pp. 8-9.

33 Leonard S.Marcus, Ways of Telling: Conversations on the Art of the Picture Book (New York: Dutton Children’s Books, c 2002), p. 194.

34 Steig, Gorky, pp. 10-11; see also Fig. 13.

35Ibid, p. 10.

36 Ibid, pp. 12-15.

cousin, Gogol, for whom he shows off by turning a backward somersault.37 Thus, in this pictorial sequence, his transformation is not just from earthbound to sky bound, but from ordinary boy with feet on the ground, to a small object of wonder to others.

In this way, as readers turn the pages, they share Gorky’s experience of his changing relationship to the world. For example, he floats as high as air balloon, then tumbles backwards toward earth, and not far above Gogol.38 Next, he is suddenly upside down in a stormy sky of mottled gray, and as high as the branched bolts of lightning on either side of him. His yellow shirt and brown pants are disheveled; his body is arched in a taut C shape.39 Amidst a shower of rain and white pellets, he directs a wide-eyed glance toward a close, enormous bolt of lightning.40 Immediately, on the facing page, he is significantly smaller. Still aloft, yet suddenly tiny, he has “been lifted high above the storm,” the text states, and he appears limp and tiny, “suspended in the heavens like a coat on a hanger” as day is changing to night (Fig. 24).41 Here, the background is a quiet, clear sky, consisting of three layers: mottled gray on the lower half, a coral-pink streak

behind Gorky’s feet and trousers, and a pale blue section of clear sky behind his head at

the top of the page. Immediately following this is a double-spread night sky of mottled

blue wash dotted with small irregular white “stars” (Fig. 25). Gorky, occupying the right

side of this illustration, is floating prone, with feet higher than his head. He appears

significantly larger now, suggesting his descent in the broad expanse of sky, and he looks

37 Ibid, p. 17.

38 Ibid, pp. 16-17.

39 See Fig. 15.

40 See Fig. 27.

41 Steig, Gorky, p. 19.

dazed—his mouth a straight line and his eyes wide—as he clutches before him the potion

bottle. In the text, he wonders if his parents or God know where he is and how he can

return to “where he belongs” without crashing.42 Immediately, in the next scene, he is falling down backwards in the same night sky.43 Now, the bottle he holds has no stopper.

He has learned, according to the text, to release the potion drop by drop for a slow

descent. His mouth is open slightly and his wide eyes register surprise and possibly

fear.44 These nighttime images, even without the text, reveal his relationship to the universe: he is small and alone in the vast space surrounding him, where he must rely on his own resources for escape, while the only thing he can hang onto is a small bottle.

Clearly, the higher Gorky goes, the less control he has, yet his experience is exhilarating. The fact that he continues to test his abilities despite his fear and that he manages a safe return home suggests that, although curiosity may lead to some hazards, the thrill of discovery and the resulting self confidence are worth the risks. Possibly because Gorky seems to be older than the other protagonists, he is the only one of the four who relies on himself for his safe return home. In the end, his parents seem rather bewildered, confronted with his newfound powers and confidence (Fig. 26).

In both Gorky Rises and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Steig employs a double

spread night sky to convey his protagonists’ sense of aloneness in the universe (Fig.

27).45 Each protagonist experiences some changing awareness amidst new surroundings.

For example, Sylvester’s thoughts “race like mad” when, suddenly a rock, and alone on a

42 Ibid, pp. 20-21.

43 Ibid.

44 Ibid, p. 22.

45 See also Fig. 25.

hill at night, he realizes he cannot touch the pebble and therefore, cannot change back

into his donkey self. “He was scared and worried. Being helpless, he felt hopeless. He

imagined all the possibilities.”46 By contrast, Gorky’s thoughts turn from “questions he could not answer,”to practical concerns about how he can get back home.47 Both illustrations represent night as still and beautiful, contrasting nature’s calm with the emotional turmoil of the two protagonists. Steig describes “the secret silent night, the sea of blinking stars” that encompasses Gorky.48 For the sky surrounding Sylvester, he provides a shooting star among densely arranged larger and smaller ones. Sylvester’s solitude lasts much longer than either Gorky’s or Solomon’s, as evidenced by illustrations of the seasons changing, from summer to fall, then to a blustery winter, and back to spring.49 By comparison, Solomon is held captive from summer to fall until, as a

nail imbedded in the side of a house, a fire frees him.50 These representations show that

nature carries on despite human troubles and that human concerns are small, if not

insignificant, compared with the universe and its rhythms.

Immediately following Gorky’s backward descent in the night sky, the facing

illustration shows him at sunrise, suspended at a distance of about his own height above

“Elephant Rock.”51 The text, stating that the last drop of the potion “let itself fall on

Elephant Rock,” attributes the potion with intention, thereby suggesting Steig’s

46Steig, Sylvester, pp. 8-9.

47_____, Gorky Rises, pp. 20-21.

48 Ibid, p. 20.

49 Steig, Sylvester, pp. 18-23

50 _____, Solomon the Rusty Nail, pp. 17-26.

51 _____, Gorky, p. 23.

characteristically benevolent universe.52 For, although Gorky and Sylvester are subject in greater or lesser degrees to nature’s capriciousness, neither suffers any ill effects and both are ultimately restored to the safety of family.53 Even Solomon, who “had reveled in being red hot,” as a rusty nail caught in a house fire, but is suddenly freed by an accidentally set fire, and performs a “whooping” backward somersault,” before “tripping home.”54 Near the end of the Gorky story, “Elephant Rock” is now a walking elephant,

carrying Gorky on its back, much to the astonishment of Gogol, who was previously

running “goggle-eyed” and waving to an airborne, somersaulting Gorky.55 Now, with his

back erect and arms and legs crossed, Gorky’s posture recalls that of a fairy tale magic

carpet rider, conveying the confidence that has seen him through most of his adventure

While Steig’s stories end happily, with visual images of reunited families, the texts

generally suggest humorously that there is more to come. For example, in the final scene

of Solomon the Rusty Nail, his family watches as he becomes a rusty nail in the living

room. They beg him not to do it again, “Except, of course, if he absolutely had to.”56

Pearl’s magic bone “stayed on and became part of the family. . .Pearl always took it to

bed when she retired. . . .”57 The final illustration shows Pearl tucked into bed, with the bone on her pillow (Fig. 28). Through the text, we learn that the bone has brought into

52 Ibid.

53.Ibid, pp. 27-28; Solomon, pp. 27-28.

54 Solomon, p. 26.

55 _____, Gorky, pp.25, 17.

56 _____, Solomon, p. 28.

57 _____, The Amazing Bone, p. 28.

the family “music whenever they wanted it, and sometimes even when they didn’t.”58

Sylvester’s father locks the pebble away “in an iron safe” because “Someday they might want to use it….”59 And Gorky’s parents, confronted with a real elephant where a rock had rested, “for ten million years,” are at a loss for words.60 On the last page of the story, his father acknowledges that Gorky is telling the truth. Owning that his son must be tired

“after all that flying,” he suggests that they “go home and get some sleep.”61 In this way,

Steig invites the reader to consider other possibilities than the ones he has told and

shown.

Steig’s visual treatment of the motif of magic and transformation in these four

stories ending with the protagonist’s return to the love and safety of family, promotes the ideas that earnest curiosity is a necessary element of childhood, that benevolence exists in unlikely forms and places, and that parental and familial love is crucial to a child’s security and happiness. Additionally, he puts forth the Reichian notion that children have a lot to do with their own well-being, although they sometimes need help.62 Life is not static, Steig’s pictures tell us, and loving, harmonious parents are important. While people can and do get caught in dangerous situations, some combination of luck, unexpected help, and/or one’s own resourcefulness can lead to liberation. By taking risks

58 Ibid.

59 Steig, Sylvester, p. 30.

60 _____, Gorky, p. 24.

61 Ibid, p. 28.

62 Marcus, p. 194-195 Steig talks candidly about what Reich meant by the “self-regulating child,”a concept that he advanced and which A. S. Neill, Reich’s student, also discussed in his writing.

and even making mistakes, a child learns useful things about the world and gains self-

assurance.

This philosophy is consonant with and may draw upon Wilhelm Reich’s theory of armoring, which is concerned with anxiety and self-assurance. While Reich attributes self-assurance to fully realized sexual pleasure, Steig’s visual imagery in these four stories suggests that it results from trial and error explorations of the world and the safe harbor of a loving family. Freedom from frightening circumstances and a safe return home find a parallel with Reich’s definition of anxiety: inhibitions or neurotic behaviors imposed by family, society or both that impede one’s full enjoyment of life. While

Steig’s stories for children do not emphasize sexual pleasure, they do depict various attempts by their protagonists to explore and take pleasure in the world and, in so doing, gain a clearer sense of self: the self-assurance that Reich maintains is critical to good health.

In a conversation with Jonathan Cott, Steig acknowledges that the ecstasies of

Gorky’s flying evoke the fantasy of sexual potency.63 Regarding the image of Gorky

holding the magic potion bottle at his hip, Steig states, “It’s an erection…and it’s

interesting that I only noticed it after I drew it. It wasn’t’ consciously intended at all….”64

Steig’s representation of children in these four stories seems to support the Reichian notion that the core of humanity is simple, direct and loving.65 Cott points to a connection between drawing freely and flying, and Steig contends that because

63 Cott, Jonathan, Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: The Wisdom of Children’s Literature (New York: Random House, c1983), p. 132.

64 Ibid.

65 Conger, John P. Jung and Reich: the body as shadow (Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, c1988), p. 10.

illustrating lacks the spontaneity of drawing, it is difficult. “The only way I can draw is

by working so quickly that I don’t know what I’m doing. I draw what wants to come

out,” he states.66 According to his wife, Jeanne Steig, “Bill…doesn’t sit down with an idea. He sits down, his hand draws, and he looks and he laughs and he sees what’s happening.”67 Steig asserts that Gorky Rises was more spontaneously created because

“there was only one character and I didn’t have to repeat landscapes very much: If you

have just a blue sky, you don’t have to worry about where it is. So I felt freer and less

constrained.”68 Steig likens human artistic activity to “creative, form-making energy exercising its fullest powers, just as it does throughout the universe—without ‘practical’ intention.”69 He presented this idea formally, when he wrote the following for the

Orgone Energy Bulletin (1952)

Life is CREATION—the ceaseless movement of cosmic creative orgone energy weaving the universe. We, being nothing but vessels of cosmic orgone energy, continually, inevitably create—or we die. We create pies, gestures, chairs, houses, thoughts, songs, pictures, ourselves, our societies—and when we create without impediment, we feel the wonder that always accompanies flowing creation. 70

Steig later commented, “I remember how I felt when I wrote those ‘Notes’…Reich was very inspiring and I felt very good.”71

Reich describes orgone as follows: “Cosmic orgone energy functions in the living

organism as specific biological energy. As such, it governs the entire organism; it is

66 Cott, pp. 132-133.

67 Ibid, p. 133.

68 Ibid, p. 132.

69 Ibid, p. 133.

70 Ibid, p. 92.

71 Ibid.

expressed in the emotions as well as in the purely biophysical movements of the

organs.”72 He defines it as “a strictly physical form of energy,”which was discovered

with “good reasons” by a psychiatrist, rather than a physicist.73 Armoring and orgone are therefore interconnected according to Reich, and “the expression of the armored organism is one of ‘holding back’…Literally defined, the word ‘emotion’ means ‘moving outwards’ or ‘pushing out’.”74

It remains something of a conundrum whether Reich influenced Steig’s fundamental understanding of human nature or whether the two men simply shared from

the outset a similar view of the human condition. Steig noted that “I’m sure that the things I learned from Reich appear in what I do—I didn’t speak of ‘energy,’ for instance, before I knew him. But mostly I think these things happen because you observe what goes on around you. After I became acquainted with his work, I realized I had seen a few truths in my own work.”75 Given this statement, it seems likely that Steig

recognized that his stories pose a model for childhood development analogous to his

conception of creative activity.

72 Wilhelm Reich, Character Analysis (Trans. by Theodore P. Wolfe. New York, Orgone Institute Press, 1949), p. 356.

73 Ibid, p. 355.

74 Ibid, pp. 375, 359.

75 Cott, p. 94.

CHAPTER 5 ARMORING AND ORGONE THEORY

In light of Steig’s acceptance of the concept of orgone, it is not surprising that he

adopted Reich’s term, “armoring” as well, long before turning to children’s fiction. Yet,

it is significiant that even before meeting Reich, he had produced The Lonely Ones

(1942), a popular collection of adult caricatures of individuals displaying various

neuroses through gesture and expression.1. In effect, Reich helped explain Steig’s own observations by arguing that anxiety is contracted energy, which occurs when the individual’s natural impulses are frustrated by social conditioning.2 The body then protects or armors itself from the outer world with the “inorganic material” of contracted musculature, thereby blocking the body’s natural energy flow.3 Reich asserted that body

and psyche work together in character formation, and that blocked energy is the basis of

illness as well as evil, advocating therapy to transform a neurotic character into a

liberated, unarmored “genital character.”4 Further, he held that the energy of the universe constitutes an “orgone ocean,” so-called because the discovery of this energy grew out of his research on the orgasm, which indicated that orgone is absorbed by inorganic matter.5

Orgone, believed to fill all space, became another name for the so-called universal ether.

1 William Steig, “These ailments are purely psychic” and “People are no damn good,” in.The Lonely Ones (New York: Duell , Sloan and Pearce, c1942), pp. 52, 68.Note: Image copyright permission pending.

2 Reich, Character Analysis, pp. 380; 355-58.

3 Conger, p. 56.

4 Ibid., pp. 1; 53; 56-57.

5 Ibid, p. 157.

34 35

Reich developed an Orgone Accumulator, a box built of alternate layers of organic and

inorganic materials, to contain this energy. By sitting inside such a box, an individual

could ostensibly restore the body’s energy balance and flow, thereby ensuring good

health.6 Steig acquired an Orgone Accumulator for himself, which he sat in daily

throughout his life.

The fact that two of Steig’s protagonists actually become inanimate objects, and

that all four protagonists develop some sort of relationship with an inanimate object

strongly suggests the concept of orgone at work. For even as a stone or a nail, Sylvester

and Solomon contain energy. Steig’s statement to Marcus that even a stone is filled with

live energy reveals his interest in this concept, and helps explain his choosing it as

Sylvester’s alternate form.7 Additionally, Gorky’s alchemical experience recalls the

alchemical overtones of some of Reich’s research and findings.8 Thus, whether

intentional or not, the adventures of Steig’s protagonists seem to advance Reichian

concepts of armoring and orgone. For example, fear is the trigger for Sylvester’s

transformation to stone, and Solomon’s ultimate transformation and double entrapment as

a nail pounded into a board—a state that he cannot reverse without assistance. Both

stone and nail serve as metaphors for a defensive, or armored, state imposed by

threatening circumstances in the child’s world. On the other hand, Pearl’s innocent

vulnerability suggests a complete lack of armoring, since she offers no defenses of her

own against her abductor.

6 Ibid.

7 Marcus, p. 194.

8 See Conger, p. 157-58, for a comparison of orgone with ether and of Reich’s methods f discovery with those of the alchemists.

The presence of orgone is suggested by the bone’s apparent animation, shown on three different pages. 9 And, although Gorky’s magic potion can pass through the walls of its container directly into his arm, this information is conveyed textually, rather than visually: “He could feel the brilliant bubbles flow into his arm from the bottle he held in his hand.” . 10 Similarly, Steig informs us only by means of the text that both stone and nail harbor the mental and emotional activity of Sylvester and Solomon, respectively, again suggesting the notion of orgone.

In another light, Bettelheim argues that animism naturally comes to children, who believe that even stones are alive and that to be a stone simply means remaining silent and unmoving for a time. For the child, there is no sharp distinction between a living and dead thing, so it is easy to believe that a normally silent object can talk, give advice, join the wanderings of the story’s hero, or come to life as in the rock/elephant in the Gorky story.11 While Pearl exemplifies the Reichian concept of a child’s natural state of liberation, it remains unclear to what extent Reich’s theories may have influenced Steig’s choice and treatment of subject matter. The facts that Steig became first Reich’s patient and then an admiring, lifelong friend are significant. Yet, Reich’s influence on Steig’s artistic decisions is difficult to determine. Jeanne Steig explains that even after Steig’s father and Wilhelm Reich died, Steig talked about them “in the present tense: “they love, they say: they’re really important people to him and they’re really with him.”12 Thus, it

9 See Figs. 16, 19 & 21. In each instance, the bone emits sounds from Pearl’s purse, which manifest as images of animals (Figs. 19 & 21) or as a series of vertical lines (Fig. 16).

10 Gorky, p. 9.

11 Bettelheim, pp. 46-47.

12 Cott, 133. Jeanne Steig actually lists three men whom Steig spoke of this way. Picasso, the artist Steig most admired,is the third.

37 is not unlikely that Reich’s ideas worked their way, if indirectly, into Steig’s art, including his children’s books. Certainly, the notion of man’s natural goodness and directness informs Steig’s work. Although Reich supported this notion, it has roots in the philosophies of Confucius, Rousseau, and others. Another recurring motif of the four stories considered is that of isolation and entrapment, which are not specified by Reich, but seem to fall into his overall theory of armoring, and are discussed below.

CHAPTER 6 ISOLATION AND ENTRAPMENT

Reich defines “muscular armoring,” as “a chronic, frozen, muscular-like

bearing…on the basis of one principle only, namely of the armoring of the periphery of

the biopsychic system.”1 He contends, “sexual excitation and anxiety…are antithetical directions of current.”2 Cott maintains that Steig’s cartoons have always dealt with

various forms of “armored human life.”3 Thus, the motif of isolation and entrapment,

particularly as represented in the Solomon and Sylvester stories is hardly surprising.

Sylvester’s rock-ness ensures his long-term isolation, albeit it outdoors on a hill, while

Solomon in his nail state is first caged, then pounded into a board. Solomon bides his

time in good spirits, awaiting release, while Sylvester grows increasingly weary and

emotionally listless as an isolated rock. On the other hand, Gorky is merely isolated, and

Pearl is entrapped, but avoids complete isolation by retaining the company of her bone

friend.

In 1946, Steig’s own physical problems and deep depression led to his reading

Reich’s The Function of the Orgasm (1933) and to his seeking Reichian therapy, to

which he attributed a sudden recovery, or epiphany. Thus, it is not unlikely that this

personal experience is suggested by his treatment of the motif of isolation and

1 Reich, Character Analysis, pp. 337-38.

2 Ibid, p. 338.

3 Cott, p. 95. Cotts notes that Rousseau’s Emile presaged much of Reich’s thinking.

38 39

entrapment.4 In Sylvester’s case, the entrapment begins to feel like death and his parents

respond as if he may be dead, when they lose hope of seeing him again. Steig observes

that, “when the creative flow is blocked in an activity, the sense of wonder turns to

bewilderment and we feel an imminence of death.”5 However, he connects his conscious interest in Sylvester’s immobility “with the fact that I’d read Pinocchio in my youth, and that it’s a similar case of a real boy being locked up in a piece of wood, inside himself, misunderstood, and armored.”6. It seems probable that both Pinocchio and Steig’s own

transformative psychological experience influenced an ongoing interest in this story

theme. Steig considered Reich a genius and the most important person of the twentieth

century and attributed his own mother’s cure from cancer to her “treatment” in the

isolating Orgone Accumulator.7 In view of his practice of daily isolation within an

Accumulator, it is worth investigating this motif in three of the four stories. For it is possible that Reich, as a theorist and therapist, did not so much cure Steig as he encouraged him to follow through on his already evolved self-image as a sort of

Pinocchio—boy-locked-in-wood—to the resolution of boy-released. Considered this

way, Steig’s stories must be regarded not as mere diversions, but as critically important

for him as renditions of his own recovery.

While Pearl is captured and isolated along with the bone in her captor’s house for

only a short time before managing to escape with the bone’s magical assistance, both

Sylvester and Solomon are essentially locked within inanimate objects for quite some

4 Ibid, pp. 92-93.

5 Ibid, p. 112.

6 Ibid, p. 119.

7 Marcus, pp. 194-196.

time, and in this way, separated from their usual lives. The seasons change and the threat

of death hovers over both characters, but finally, each breaks free—through an unlikely

or magical occurrence—and euphoric, returns home to parental love and acceptance.

Such a sequence of events may relate to Steig’s experience of liberation through

psychoanalytic treatment after a long depression.

I first met Reich in 1946. I had been going to see various doctors…because I’d gotten very sick with meningitis…one day I ran into a woman…who looked marvelous…she told me she was in therapy with …a disciple of Dr. Reich…I saw [Reich] and he said I was too run down. So he got me an accumulator, and I sat in it over a period of a week before anything happened—I started tingling all over and became beet red—and then began therapy with him that lasted for about a year. He referred to me as a melancholic and said that if I didn’t go through with this I’d end up in the booby hatch…I was a real depressive…I didn’t even know where I was [sometimes], stumbling down the street. I was in my forties…and at one moment I was crying in the voice of an infant…it just happened…involuntarily. And that reliving of ancient experiences is strange:…a forty-year-old man…doing one-year- old things. It’s all locked in there.”8

Sylvester’s plight and his parents’ ensuing responses strongly suggest the more

universal concern with death, a concept that Steig conveys in typically indirect fashion,

with images of Sylvester as a solitary rock on a hill, exposed to the elements as the

seasons pass, while his parents, initially cheerful and industrious, become still, sad and

tearful.9 By contrast, Solomon is caged as a nail, then driven into house siding, where he remains from summer to fall (Fig. 29).10 Only at the beginning and end of this story are

his parents represented, so the focus is on Solomon’s reactions to his plight rather than on

theirs. The motif of possible death recurs in varying degrees in these stories and is

conveyed in Sylvester through such images as wilted flowers, a snow-covered rock and

8 Cott, pp. 92-93.

9 Steig, Sylvester, pp. 16-17.

10 _____, Solomon, pp. 17-26.

howling wolf; in The Amazing Bone, with gun-toting, masked characters and a knife- wielding captor feeding wood into a cooking stove; in Gorky; with jagged lightening surrounding him; and in Solomon, with a knife-wielding pursuer.

Although Pearl seems completely passive and depends entirely on the bone for her escape, isolation provides Sylvester, Solomon and Gorky the opportunity to consider

options for their release, as well as questions about the nature of death and what God might know.11 Sylvester’s isolation means that he loses a sense of himself. His identity is no longer certain, particularly evident in the image of the dogs sniffing, yet unable to detect his presence.12 Even Gorky’s isolation in space conveys potential danger and fear.

Isolation is loss, in effect, although it leads ultimately to an appreciation for restored life

and in this way, serves a positive purpose in the stories.

11 _____, Sylvester, pp. 8-9; Solomon, p. 18; Gorky, p. 20.

12 Ibid, ppp. 14-15.

CHAPTER 7 NATURE: CHANGING WEATHER AND SEASONS

Isolation also implies the concept of armoring, expressed most clearly in the characters of Sylvester and Solomon, both of whom remain in their respective rock/rusty nail states for a long period of timebefore they are magically restored to their original forms of donkey and rabbit, respectively. However, in their inanimate states, each confronts the limitations of a new form and is unable to do most of the things to which he is accustomed. Neither can move freely, for example, and each is faced with the problem of being unable to change. They are both, in effect, inhibited or armored. Steig relies on the text to tell what he cannot show: that the characters’ senses are only partially intact.

For example, both can see, hear and think, but neither seems to feel any physical discomfort in their new incarnations, only the inconvenience of being unable to move, speak, or communicate in any way.

The reader sees Sylvester as a rock, alone on a hill, removed from his family and friends and unrecognizable to anyone. Apparently, although Sylvester’s thoughts and feelings are not changed by his rock state, he no longer seems to exist in the world, but only to his own knowledge. As a solitary rock on a hill, is entirely alone in a world in which, until recently, he had an active place. Now, he lies as a passive recipient of weather and temperature changes as the days and seasons pass. We become observers with him, seeing the world from his limited point of view. Steig uses this condition as an opportunity to focus on the power of nature and the vast, sometimes starry or snow-filled

42 43

sky.1 In this way, both the adult and child reader can see and experience winter’s

starkness and wind, followed by spring’s arrival. By relating to Sylvester’s condition as a

rock, we can share his feelings, his sense of awe, frustration and alienation. At the same

time, we can see some advantages to his altered state of rest, since it allows him to

become more aware of the scope and workings of the natural world around him.

When Sylvester realizes that he has become a rock for good, and unless someone

else finds the pebble and wishes that the rock next to it were a donkey he will remain so

forever, he is overcome with sleep. “What else could he do?” asks the narrator.2 A double-spread image shows the rock on a low hill covered with flowers, framed by two leafy trees, under a night sky filled with stars of varying sizes, including a shooting star.3

Sylvester is embedded in nature now and, as time passes and the autumn arrives, the leaves of these same trees are orange and gold and Sylvester wakes “less and less often.”

When he is awake, he is “only hopeless and unhappy.”4 The days grow colder and

Sylvester tries to get used to being a rock. In winter, the rock is now half hidden in snow

and the framing trees are bare. The wolf’s footprints lead through the snow and onto the

rock where he sits with his head and gaze turned upward, mouth open, while large snow

flakes swirl around him.5 Sylvester is aware of the wolf, the cold, the snow, but doesn’t

seem to experience the cold as much as his isolation from his normal life.

1 Steig, Sylvester, pp. 8-9; 18-21; see also Fig. 30.

2Ibid, p. 9.

3 Ibid, pp. 8-9; see also Fig. 27..

4 Ibid, p 18-19.

5 Ibid, pp. 20-21.

Sylvester survives the winter in a state of depressive sleep, gradually losing the

sense of himself as a social being, interconnected with others, particularly his parents.

Isolated this way, he is forced into the role of observer of the changing nature around

him. Circumstances are beyond his control and, despite his longing, he lacks the

necessary tools to help himself. Thus, he remains stuck, or armored. The image of the

snow-covered rock in the barren landscape conveys his feelings of isolation and

separation, his sense of alienation from his old self and the life he mourns. While Steig

captures the beauty of nature and the changing seasons, he includes the howling wolf

atop Sylvester as if to express the sorrow of the rock. Nature is beautiful, even

spectacular, as the starry night illustration shows, but it is indifferent to the void Sylvester

feels. It offers no real comfort. Beneath the night sky and alone in the snow, he is a

small part of the landscape and greater universe. He feels completely alone. The very

next scene offers the stark contrast of a colorful spring in full force, while the understated

text reads, “the earth warmed up…and things budded…”6

Encrypted in these images and observations is the suggestion that a period of

isolation can serve a positive purpose. For Sylvester’s altered state of physical and

mental functioning is a kind of hibernation: a retreat from life’s rigors from which he will emerge renewed. A similar thing happens to Solomon, who bounds home, filled with his usual energy, after his isolation. In the Sylvester story, spring signifies change for protagonist and parents. The parents will take a picnic. Sylvester will re-emerge.

The story will end happily. In this way, Sylvester’s rock-ness and, by the same token,

Solomon’s nail-ness seem to suggest the valuable function of the artist’s daily practice of

6 Ibid, pp. 22-23.

isolation in the Orgone Accumulator. The implication is that isolation can result in a greater appreciation of life. Ultimately, it ends for both Sylvester and Solomon. Even

Pearl, captive in different way, and Gorky, isolated without changing form, gain a greater appreciation of their lives after imprisonment. In effect, isolation leads to liberation and revitalization.

In Sylvester’s absence, his parents’slumped postures, facial expressions and tears register profound bereavement.7 Sylvester’s absence is palpable in these illustrations.

Even the flowers are dried and drooping, reflecting the atmosphere of his home since his disappearance. Steig show the reader that one’s absence is most evident in those closest to us, those who love us and have trouble carrying on when we are gone for a long time.

In this way, he reinforces the idea that sadness is a normal reaction to separation.

Readers of all ages can understand this concept visually. Through images of Sylvester’s parents’ inquiries of the neighbors and the dogs’ searching all over Strawberry hill, and with double-page illustrations of changing seasons and changing colors, Steig conveys the notion that life continues when someone disappears (or dies). People try to carry on

In a sense, Sylvester manifests every child’s sometime-fantasy of disappearing, making parents suffer for their absence, wondering what would happen if they did disappear, how the world would react. This notion is corroborated by Sylvester’s mother’s vow, shortly after his disappearance, that she will never scold him again, “no matter what he does.”8

7 Ibid, pp. 16-17.

8 Ibid, p. 10.

CHAPTER 8 RESTORATION AND THE NATURE OF LIFE

Ultimately, Sylvester, Solomon, Pearl, and Gorky all experience a joyful reunion

with their parents. Sylvester’s father sees the magic pebble by the rock, places it on the

rock, thereby enabling the granting of their mutual wish that Sylvester were there, too.

Thus, Sylvester emerges from a deathlike state; in essence, he is reborn as the donkey

that he is supposed to be. Curiously, in the story of Pinocchio, the protagonist actually

becomes a donkey as punishment for naughty behavior. Steig turns this idea around in

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, representing the Duncan family of donkeys to be

respectable, productive and dignified.1

In a similar vein, Solomon as a rusty nail is caged by the vigilant one-eyed cat, whose attention prevents him from transforming back into his own body, and who finally pounds him into the wall of the cat’s house in order to insure his entrapment. The cage is not a solid enclosure, but a box consisting of barred walls. Unlike Sylvester, who as a rock, contemplates his experience of solitude in the universe, Solomon as a caged nail plots his escape.2 After being hammered into wood, he hopes for release, rather than not resigning himself to his fate. He is not conserving energy, as Sylvester seems to be doing, but simply awaits the opportunity he is sure to have, of escaping the cat and changing himself back into what he is supposed to be, thereby restoring the natural order

1 James T. Teahan, translator, annotator, The Pinocchio of C. Collodi (New York : Schocken Books, 1985), pp. 140-145.

2 Steig, Solomon, p. 14.

46 47

of things. His crafty captor keeps watch, however, preventing any such occurrence, until

finally, he imbeds the nail in the siding of his house. Like Sylvester, Solomon is now

held tight by something solid, all encompassing, and immovable from which, the

narrative tells us, he feels powerless to free himself.3 Both animals as inanimate objects know that they are endangered. Again, these circumstances suggest the condition of anxiety or armoring.

As do Steig’s young protagonists, humans can get caught up unconsciously in self- destructive behaviors, which Reich attributes to armoring. While, as he argued, the core self may be simple, direct and loving, the armored individual may lack the tools— represented by Steig as magic—to free him or herself from neurosis and retrieve these basic qualities. In all four stories, Steig puts forth the notion of this basic goodness. His protagonists get stuck for a while, but eventually return to an essential loving environment.

In selecting such mundane objects as a rock and a rusty nail, he suggests that ordinary objects, whether natural or manmade, may very well be more complex than the observer assumes. Dogs sniff for Sylvester’s scent all over and around the rock that he has become. They are oblivious to its significance. They take it for granted and fail to notice what it really is. The wonder of the universe is always close at hand, Steig’s illustrations show. The one-eyed cat keeps watch over the nail while his wife quickly tires of it, revealing that neither considers it the least bit interesting beyond its potential to become dinner. As a mere nail, it is worthless. The nail has negative value for

Solomon’s mother, who tosses it into the trash. Even when touching it, she recognizes

3Ibid, pp. 17, 18, 19.

nothing of the mystery it contains. Steig implies that there is more to the world than

meets the eye, even to its smallest parts such as rocks, old bones, and rusty nails. Thus,

the semiotics of these images conveys that perception requires more than sight, more than

touch. Steig seems to be getting at something about how we relate to the world around

us: that we need to pay more attention.

These stories suggest that, contrary to our assumptions, inanimate objects may harbor life, energy, and even thought. In the story of Pearl, particularly, Steig imbues the magical object with complex talents. His magical object encourages the reader to think differently about the physical world in ways that suggest not only a child’s tendency toward animism, as Bettelheim explains, but Steig’s own belief in the living energy, orgone, in the universe.

Magic symbolizes forays into the unknown through imagination, play, and actual

experiences, some of which can be frightening, but all of which contribute to growth.

Steig’s magic leads to isolation, which provides an opportunity for his protagonists, albeit

children, to contemplate the great questions such as the nature of eternity, the meaning of

independence, the importance of love and security. In the case of Gorky, although he is

not transformed, he does find himself in a weightless environment, high above the earth,

surrounded by vast space, literally out of touch, so that he is in a metaphysical state, quite

beyond his comfort zone and bordering on terrifying. Out of necessity, he figures out,

with great relief, how to get himself back to earth and familiar surroundings. He reaches

beyond his usual life, enjoys the surge of energy that he experiences, then decides he has

had enough of that for the time being, anyway. At the outset of his adventure, we see

Gorky rising into the sky, bidding a sarcastic farewell to a cousin he considers stupid,

then suspended so far above the life he knows that he is almost completely disconnected from it. However, he survives and returns home with greater self-awareness and self- assurance. While curiosity may lead to unforeseen adventures and problems, it is worth the risks. That fact the Gorky resolves his dilemma by relying on his own body, regulating the magic potion so that he lands safely back on the ground near his home, offers reassurance to a child that he/she, too, may be capable of resolving scary problems.

Bettelheim argues that this is one benefit of fairy tales.4 Additionally, Gorky gains a sense of the world as wondrous and beautiful, and that he can reach beyond his home and parents and still return safely. In this way, he begins to experience what it is like to be a grownup and, in some respects, even surpass his parents.

4 Bettelheim, p. 17.

CHAPTER 9 PARENTS AND THE HOME

In general, representations of the protagonists’ homes as colorful and tidy signify economic and emotional stability. Steig’s representations of home signify safety, harmony, and cheer, places where children can engage uninterrupted in a hobby

(Sylvester), or sleep peacefully (Pearl), or dine pleasantly with family (Solomon), or enjoy creative freedom (Gorky).1 In other words, the home is a nurturing place that provides the security necessary –as Bettelheim argues—for healthy human development..

By contrast, Pearl’s captor, the fox, inhabits a bare, stark house with a broken stairway leading up to it and debris littering the small, but flowered, grassy lawn around it.2 Yet,

Solomon’s captor, the one-eyed cat, inhabits a house much like that of Solomon’s family

(tidy, with comfortable, attractive furnishings, pictures on the walls, and flowers or, plants). These similarities suggest that the cat captor and his wife are middle class, much like Solomon’s family.3 In this way, Steig is suggesting that danger may reside close to home and that it is not always evident on the surface of things. Further, he represents animals as true to their natures. For example, Pearl’s fox captor confesses that he can’t help the way he is, for he “didn’t “make the world.4

1 See Fig. 18, 28, 6, 13.

2 Steig, The Amazing Bone, pp. 18, 25.

3 Compare Fig. 6 with pp. 13-14.

4 _____, The Amazing Bone, p. 17.

50 51

Of the four protagonists, only Sylvester, a donkey, is represented without

clothing, as has been noted. In this way, Steig signifies this child’s youth and innocence,

especially in contrast with his parents, as all three of them are in the small family living

room in the opening scene of the Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. The parents’ postures, activities and clothing indicate their gendered roles. For example, the father , wearing a suit and tie, sits reading the newspaper in an easy chair, smoking a pipe, while the mother, in dress and apron, performs the domestic task of sweeping the floor.

Sylvester appears to be the model of good behavior as he sits at a round table, intently looking at an array of pebbles spread out on the tabletop. Sylvester’s father’s eyes are on his newspaper, the mother’s eyes are cast down to the floor she sweeps, and Sylvester’s are wide, as he studies his pebbles. The concentration of each character on a specific task, coupled with the room’s spare orderliness, enlivened with a vase of fresh flowers on the mantle, floral-patterned tablecloth and upholstered chair, convey peace, quiet and harmony.5

Traditional Anglo-European gendering is suggested here by the father’s

association with the world beyond the home, represented by the newspaper, and the

mother’s holding the broom, conveying her association with the workings of the

household. In each of the stories, the mother wears an apron, signifying her domestic

function, while the father wears a suit and tie, signifying his role beyond the home. All

the fathers are smokers of pipes and/or cigars (Sylvester’s father smokes both, for

example), evidence of a bygone era when smoking was socially acceptable—for men but

5 See Fig. 18.

not for women.6 No women are pictured smoking. Smoking is not limited to the fathers,

however, since even Solomon’s captor smokes a pipe.7 In fact, lighting his pipe and tossing the match are what start the fire that liberates Solomon, so in this way, smoking is represented as a good thing. In all instances, the protagonists’ homes are comfortably, if not lavishly furnished in a rather traditional, if not old-fashioned, style. The parents are fairly well dressed representatives of the middle working class, if from an earlier era as well. However, Steig’s decision to portray domestic interiors and clothing styles reminiscent of his own childhood years enhances the fictional quality of the stories, which carry timeless and universal meaning for young readers, and nostalgic meaning for those of Steig’s own generation.

In The Amazing Bone, Pearl is not pictured in her home until near the end of the story, which focuses on her curiosity about the world of adults around her, which she observes in the first three illustrations of the story. When her home is finally shown, its interior is brightly lit and colored with rich, yellow walls and green, floral carpeting.

Even her mother is dressed in a green blouse and a skirt patterned with green 8. In effect, the colors of her home and parents’ clothing—predominantly green, yellow, red and some brown-- suggest the grass, trees, flowers, and even butterflies that she is in the midst of enjoying so deeply at the story’s outset, just before events turn increasingly sinister.9 Pictures on the walls, a vase of flowers, and rounded furniture forms—sofa,

chair and foot stool—give the overall effect of warmth and welcome in Pearl’s home,

6 See Sylvester, pp. 1, 25; the Amazing Bone, p. 27; Solomon, p. 7; Gorky, p. 26.

7 Steig, Solomon, p. 14; pp. 22-23.

8 _____, the Amazing Bone, pp. 26-27.

9 Ibid, p. 7; see also Figs 7, 16..

especially when her mother takes her in her arms, with her father standing close by (Fig.

30). The furnishings and colors of Pearl’s living room are bright and somewhat more

lavish than those of Sylvester’s, shown in the opening scene of that story.10 Clearly the interior of Pearl’s home is warmer, more colorful and more richly decorated than that of her fox captor. It is comparable to that of Solomon and Sylvester, in that all of these interiors contain floral-patterned rugs and comfortable, inviting furniture as well as pictures on the wall, vases of flowers and, in Pearl’s case, a pet cat. In general, brighter color seems to indicate more intense feeling or activity, while the quieter colors of

Sylvester’s family living room at the story’s outset help communicate the initial calm in the household.11 As the story progresses, and the drama of his absence increases, the colors become more intense as well.12

The story of Solomon begins with him sitting outside his house, “just gazing at the world”.13 As in the Sylvester story, this initial quiet offers the idea of home or its immediate vicinity as a place where quiet is possible; though later in the story, the family of six gathered indoors, suggests noise and activity. Near where Solomon sits, a cluster of flowers sprouts in the bright green grass by his feet and a pot of them decorates the windowsill above his head—more evidence of the association of home and nurture.

Shortly after his transformation, Solomon’s mother comes out, spots the rusty nail tosses it into the trash but doesn’t look or call for him.14 He seems to be at liberty to do what he

10See Figs. 30, 18.

11 See Fig. 17.

12 For example, compare Figs. 32, 55, and 34.

13 Steig, Solomon,p. 1.

14 Ibid, p. 2.

likes. There seems to be a degree of benign neglect—an old-fashioned laissez-faire

attitude—in her parenting. As do all the mothers, she wears a long, matronly dress and

apron.15 Her appearance and gesture, the flowers, and a broom by the trash can associate

her with the domestic order that extends to the exterior of the home in this scene. In

ensuing scenes, Solomon climbs out of the trash can, sits on the ground, and then indoors at the dinner table amidst his three siblings and two parents, all oblivious—judging from

their closed eyes—to his newfound capability. As has been stated, in all the stories, the

children return home at the end of their more or less harrowing experiences to tidy,

orderly, warmly decorated homes and welcoming parents.

All we see of Gorky’s home is the kitchen, which is not a room of soft, rounded furniture. By contrast, it is a functional workspace serving as his laboratory for inventing a magic formula. Wearing a bright yellow shirt, he busily concocts the potion amidst similarly colored pots, faucets (one dripping) and towel, green cabinets, a bright blue table and chairs, all resting on a lavender floor. This array of colors echoes the excitement of his alchemical endeavor. No more of Gorky’s house interior is shown, for his adventures take him immediately outdoors, where flowers and trees sprinkle the rolling, green-blanketed landscape surrounding two white houses nearby, and where he places on a stump encircled with flowers the bottle of “reddish-golden liquid” that he has just created.

Overall, household interiors are rather modestly, but colorfully decorated. Floral patterns are prevalent, associating the homes with nature and spring, in particular. In other rooms of the protagonists’ houses, the flooring appears to be painted floorboards,

15 See Solomon, p. 2; Sylvester, p. 1 (Fig. 18); Gorky, pp. 26-28 (Fig. 26).

sometimes decorated with a small, round, multi-colored, possibly braided rug and an

occasional chair, or a rocker and possibly a small stool. Long tablecloths cover dining

tables, and kitchen tables are bare. Living rooms always contain at least one vase of

flowers, sometimes a fireplace, and various portraits on the walls—of whole family, as in

Sylvester’s case, or as in Pearl’s case, of a bridal couple, ostensibly the parents. A still

life, landscape, or a small sculpture of a standing military hero, ostensibly an ancestor,

might also be included, as in Pearl’s home.

In addition to the warmth and comfort of the home furnishings, the forms of both

Sylvester and Pearl are softly rounded well, suggesting children’s stuffed animals. In this

way, Steig emphasizes their appeal and vulnerability and encourages sympathy with their

respective plights. Pearls’ demeanor, the emphasis on her chatty friendship with the

magic bone, her clothing—a pink polka-dotted dress and bonnet—bespeak the fact that

she is a little girl, despite her representation as a pig. She is the most passive of all the

protagonists and as such, has developed fewer coping skills than the others. Home safely

in the end, however, she shows her parents her unique friend, which they accept as a new

family member. In this way, the family is shown not only as loving, but accepting of

change introduced by the child.16

Pearl gains self assurance through the bone’s intervention, for as soon as the fox disappears into a mouse hole, Pearl is larger than ever, standing tall, expressing her gratitude to the bone, which is as surprised as she by the feat it has just accomplished.17

Pearl walks confidently from the fox’s house to her own. She is no longer dreamy, but

16 See Figs. 17, 30, 26; Solomon, pp. 27-28.

17 Steig, The Amazing Bone, p. 24.

alert and wiser for her experience.18 The ending suggests that she will still have the bone’s companionship, and possibly its help, as she chooses.19

Clothing of the fathers suggests a “white collar” or office job, while, as noted, the

mothers appear to be guardians of the household. The fathers and mothers are about the

same height and girth, which implies equality and mutual respect. Such visual

representations of domestic stability and gender norms are fundamental to Steig’s

conception of a children’s book. His use of normative themes gives a structure within

which his imaginative tales can experiment safely so that flights of fancy, no matter how

wild or frightening, always end well.

Steig’s quirky drawing style is, according to Cott, similar to his handwriting, and bears more attention.20 Commenting on it, Steig explains, “I always start with the face….”21 We’re constantly reading each other’s faces all the time—it’s a natural

interest…to see what he or she is feeling or pretending to feel.”22 “I draw those same

emotions that Darwin studied in The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.”23

However, he did not draw much as a child and of his early art training, says: I wasn’t interested in any form of culture at the time…I wanted to…see the world…but my father

lost all his savings and I had to take care of the family…I vaguely had the idea of

becoming a writer…I love the physical act of writing…moving the pen….In order to

18Ibid, pp. 25-28.

19 Ibid, p. 28.

20 Cott, p. 108.

21 Ibid, p. 115.

22 Ibid, p. 88.

23 Ibid.

support my family, I started doing cartoons…Later, I did a lot of advertising, which I

always felt bad about.24

He only “began writing kids stories” when Robert Kraus asked him to, which allowed him to give up advertising drawing.”25 Clearly, Steig’s artistic style contributes to the enduring popularity of a body of work that emphasizes the good in humanity and promotes a certain acceptance of the unchangeable, as evidenced by Pearl’s captor, who answers the bone’s scolding with,

“Why should I be ashamed? I can’t help being the way I am .”26 Ultimately, things work out for Steig’s protagonists as far as the story goes. In the end, there is always a hint of more to come. As Cott observes, “his children’s work is filled with shining suns.”27 And according to Picasso, the artist Steig most admired, “Any man can make the

sun into a yellow ball. Ah, but to make a yellow ball into a sun!”28

24 Ibid, p. 113.

25 Marcus, p. 187.

26 Steig, The Amazing Bone, p. 17.

27 Cott, p. 133; see Sylvester, .p. 29.

28 Ibid.

CHAPTER 10 FAMILIAL LOVE

Each story ends with a family’s reunion and the visual affirmation of the

importance of love within the family. For example, the last three pages of Sylvester

andthe Magic Pebble show first the surprise and joy of son and parents reunited; then

followed by mother and son embracing while the father laughs and dances on one hoof;

and finally, all three embracing in a colorful interior scene at home. On the final three

pages of The Amazing Bone, Pearl’s mother is so happy that, eyes closed, she lifts Pearl off the floor to embrace her, while the father stands closeby, reaching out one arm, it appears, while holding his pipe in the other hand 1 Then Pearl stands on her own two

feet, holding the bone up for her astonished parents to see .2 Finally, she is in bed with eyes closed in a darkened room, the bone on the pillow near her snout.3

In Gorky Rising, Gorky’s parents do not embrace him at all, possibly because he is the oldest of the protagonists. They demonstrate their concern for him in the final three pages of the story, as they search for him in a woods, among rocks and fallen branches, just before he appears with an elephant on the next to last page.4 The final illustration

shows the three of them altogether, standing near an indentation in the earth, beside

1 See Fig. 30.

2 Steig, The Amazing Bone, p. 27.

3 See Fig. 28.

4 Steig, Gorky, p. 26.

58 59

which the rock-now-elephant stands close by.5 Solomon the Rusty Nail ends with

Solomon emerging as himself again from a house fire, then bursting through the door of his family’s living room to be greeted by his surprised and delighted parents and three siblings.6 Solomon, his mother and two siblings all extend their arms toward his, while the father and another sibling lean away slightly, indicating their surprise.

In three of these four stories, Steig includes images of physical affection between parents and children at the stories’ end, thereby indicating that, after all, the family is the

the most important of all. While nature is beautiful, it is not necessarily nurturing; while adventure is exciting, it can lead to unforeseen, even terrifying consequences; and while luck or magic might sometimes be necessary, family represents the ultimate source of stability, happiness, love and safety.

5 Ibid, p. 28; see Fig. 26.

6 Steig, Solomon, pp. 26-28.

CHAPTER 11 APPARENT BIOGRAPHICAL INFLUENCES

Steig’s representations of society, gender and culture are revealed to some degree by details of his own biography. For one, although he was a child of the city, having been born in the Bronx and reared in Brooklyn, he later maintained a home near Kent,

Connecticut, which was surrounded by various hardwood and apple trees, and which

overlooked a pond populated by ducks and geese, probably inspiring such representations

in the Sylvester, Pearl, and Solomon, stories.1 Images of Pearl’s trek through town with its cobblestone street, sidewalk, dense buildings and various businesses, as well as its proximity to local farmers, countryside and a stand of woods suggest the small towns and rolling landscape of New England.2 Similarly suggestive are Gorky’s hometown of

Pruneville, situated amidst gently rolling, cultivated green hills and consisting of plain

buildings, scattered church steeples, and shops such as “Cottingham’s Bakery;” and the

location of Solomon’s house, as well as a snowy, wooded bank for sledding, and the

inclusion of a low stonewall in the countryside near the home of Solomon’s captor, the

one-eyed cat.3 While the town names are fictional, the landscape resembles, at least in

some respects, a part of the country familiar to Steig as an adult.

However, the absence of motor vehicles, and images of farmers with hay wagon,

rake, and pitchfork, as well as of a street cleaner with push broom and pushcart, suggest

1 Cott, p. 114; Sylvester, p. 3; Solomon, pp. 18-19; see also Fig. 16,.

2 See for example Figs. 7, 27.

3 See The Amazing Bone, pp. 1-3; Fig. 23; Solomon, pp. 8-9, 18-19.

60 61

an earlier era and place. And the names of some characters—Gorky and Gogol, for

example—indicate that he creates an amalgam of New England and Old Europe. Such

fictional settings hark to the artistic practice, prevalent between the Civil and Second-

World Wars, of representing New England visually as a restful place, contrasted with the

reality of a nation in flux.4 Such a remote ideal of New England assuages the urban strife

of the 1960s and after, the same way it disguised strife during the Civil War.

Despite the fact that he did not begin writing and illustrating picturebooks for

children until after 1967, and that most were published before 2002, his depictions of

family, clothing style, parental roles and activities, as well as interior furnishings suggest

a middle class family structure and way of life common during the nineteenth and early

to mid-twentieth centuries, when the father usually worked outside the home and the

mother took responsibility for maintaining the household. This model was prevalent

during Steig’s childhood, although it was beginning to diminish-- as it has continued to

do--by the late 1960s, when Sylvester and the Magic Pebble was published.

And, while Steig claims to have had a happy childhood, and did have good

relationships with his siblings, he has talked about his own parents’ stormy marital

relationship.5 He himself was married four times and fathered children from two different marriages. Therefore, the family stability he represents in his picturebook images does not duplicate that of his adult experience. Perhaps that is why the parents, both in shape and costume style—may seem more imaginary than real for his readers. .

4 For a general discussion of this practice, see Dona Brown and S. Nissenbaum, “Changing New England: 1865-1945,”in William H. Truettner & Rober B. Stein, eds., Picturing Old New England: image and memory (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institutuion; New Haven: Yale University Press, c1999); pp. 1-13.

5 Cott, p. 112.

To a readership from the 1960s on, however, the mothers Steig portrays represent a

timeless ideal of maternal love and nurturing. This concept is in tension with emerging

challenges to the maternal domestic ideal of the Victorian era that reasserted itself in the

1950s. Certainly, Steig was aware of changing family structure in the latter half of the

twentieth century, but chose to portray family as a stable unit, always there for the child.

In so doing, his stories convey optimism about family bonds of love and stability, while

reinstating the family as a controlling norm. His New England setting is effective in this

regard.

By giving his characters such unusual names as Sylvester, Gorky, Gogol, Ambrose,

and Clorinda, and by interspersing ordinary (as well as extraordinary) events in

uncluttered settings with a mixture of archaic, sophisticated, colloquial, foreign,

humorous, and/or invented words and phrases, Steig conveys a degree of simplicity,

while frustrating the audience’s ability to pinpoint a specific time or place for the story.

In this way, he enhances the emotional truth of the protagonist’s plight and its resolution.

Steig owns that in his own childhood, he and his friends enjoyed Arthurian language in

their everyday play, and he seems to revisit other archaic turns of phrase as well.6

Steig’s language play is exemplified in the Gorky story by the archaic “attar of

roses” ingredient (see below) and the narrator’s colloquial inquiry, “What the doodad was

keeping him up there?”7 Additionally, in the Pearl story, the bone inquires, “Rezumiesh

popolsku?” and “Sprechen sie Deutsch?”; the fox captor exclaims, “As I live and flourish!”; and the magical, “Yibban sibibble!…Adoonis ishgoolak keelbokkin yibapp!”

6 Cott, p. 122.

7 Steig, Gorky, pp. 2, 15.

spill from the bone.8. Such contrasting verbal juxtapositions also heighten the droll humor of these stories, a subject that calls for a separate discussion beyond the limits of this discourse.

The opening scene of Gorky Rises provides a good example of Steig’s pared-down settings. Gorky stands on a chair in a kitchen resembling that of a typical middle class

American home of the early twentieth century.9 The tall porcelain backsplash of the kitchen sink with its hot & cold spigots, and hinged towel rack above his head, the simple inset cabinets and drawers, and the wooden chair on which he stands, suggest an early to mid-century American home, while the patterned flooring, possibly tile, is not time specific. In fact, its atypical rosy hue seems another example of artistic license, which contributes to the setting’s fictional quality.

Gorky is experimenting, finally deciding that he needs “attar of roses” for the alchemical potion he is concocting. Curiously, he has no trouble locating it among his mother’s perfumes, although most readers would not even be aware of it, without some knowledge of literary fairy tales.10 It is speculative but interesting to consider that

Gorky’s plight may represent that of the creative individual, who must rely on his own resources for survival. Steig’s highly successful career as an illustrator began of the necessity to support his parents during the Great Depression, when his father’s house painting business came to a halt and the only means for the family’s survival was

8 ____, The Amazing Bone, pp. 6, 7, 4, 15, 22, 23.

9 Steig, Gorky,p. 1; see also Sylvester, Figs. 17-18.

10For a discussion of one fairy tale source of the “attar of roses”ingredient, see Marcia Lane, Picturing the Rose: A Way of Looking at Fairy Tales (New York : H.W. Wilson Co., 1994), pp. 81-82.

William’s drawing ability.11 Therefore, like Gorky, Steig relied in a sense on magic of his own making for survival.

11 Cott, p. 113.

CHAPTER 12 CONCLUSION

William Steig’s concept of liberation is not a radical theory for transforming society, but concerns individual freedom available through creative endeavor. He embraces the offbeat Reichian theory, which seems fitting to his own experience as a

Pinocchio boy, and in turn, he offers to adults and children curative stories of the power and value of curiosity, solitude, imagination, independence, adventure, change, chance, the natural world, and familial love and stability. If he advances conservative ideas of class and gender, he simultaneously invites other possibilities that encourage children to seek their own paths and make their own worlds within the existing terms of the actual.

APPENDIX ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 1. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, p. 6

Figure 2. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, p. 7

66 67

Figure 3. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, p. 27

Figure 4. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, p. 28

Figure 5. Solomon the Rusty Nail, p. 3

Figure 6. Solomon the Rusty Nail, p. 4

Figure 7. The Amazing Bone, pp. 4-5

Figure 8. The Amazing Bone, p. 7

Figure 9. The Amazing Bone, p. 12

Figure 10. The Amazing Bone, p. 13

Figure 11. The Amazing Bone, p. 15

Figure 12. The Amazing Bone, p. 19

Figure 13. Gorky Rises, p. 2

Figure 14. Gorky Rises, p. 5

Figure 15. Gorky Rises, p. 18

Figure 16. The Amazing Bone, pp. 8-9

Figure 17. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, p. 30

Figure 18. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, p. 1

Figure 19. Solomon the Rusty Nail, p. 11

Figure 20. The Amazing Bone, p. 20

Figure 21. Gorky Rises, pp. 6-7

Figure 22. Gorky Rises, pp. 8-9

Figure 23. Gorky Rises, p. 15

Figure 24. Gorky Rises, p. 19

Figure 25. Gorky Rises, pp. 20-21

Figure 26. Gorky Rises, p. 28

Figure 27. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, pp. 8-9

Figure 28. The Amazing Bone, p. 28

Figure 29. Solomon the Rusty Nail, p. 17

Figure 30. The Amazing Bone, p. 26

LIST OF REFERENCES

Bader, Barbara. American Picturebooks from Noah’s Ark to the Beast Within. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1976.

Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Vintage Books, 1979.

Conger, John P. Jung and Reich: The Body as Shadow. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 1988.

Cott, Jonathan. Pipers at the Gates of Dawn: The Wisdom of Children’s Literature. New York: Random House, 1983.

Cuppy, Will. The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody. Edited by Fred Feldkamp; drawings by William Steig; new afterword by Thomas Maeder. Boston: D.R. Godine, 1984. Originally published New York: Holt, 1950.

Higgins, James E. “Steig, William H.” In Something about the Author 111. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Group Inc., 2000.

“Illustrator William Steig Dies at 95.” School Library Journal 49 (11 November 2003): 21

Lane, Marcia. Picturing the Rose: A Way of Looking at Fairy Tales. New York : H.W. Wilson Co., 1994.

Lewis, David. Reading Contemporary Picturebooks. London; New York: Routledge Falmer, 2001.

Marcus, Leonard S. Ways of Telling: Conversations on the Art of the Picture Book. New York: Dutton Children’s Books, 2002.

Nodelman, Perry. Words About Pictures: The Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1988.

Publishers Weekly. Review of When Everybody Wore a Hat, February 10 (2003): 184.

Reich, Wilhelm. Character Analysis. Trans. by Theodore P. Wolfe. New York: Orgone Institute Press, 1949.

School Library Journal 49 (11 November 2003): 21.

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_____. Listen, Little Man! Trans. by Ralph Manheim. Illus. by William Steig. New York: Octagon Books, 1971 [c1948].

Steig, Irwin. Poker for Fun and Profit. Illus. by William Steig. New York: McDowell, Obolensky,1959.

Steig, Jeanne. A Handful of Beans: Six Fairy Tales. Illus. by William Steig. New York: HarperCollins, 1998._____.

_____. Alpha Beta Chowder. Illus. by William Steig. New York: Farrar Straus, 1992.

_____. Consider the Lemming. Illus by William Steig. New York: Farrar Straus, 1988.

_____. The Old Testament Made Easy. Illus by William Steig. New York: Farrar Straus,1990.

Steig, William. The Amazing Bone. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1976.

_____. Brave Irene. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1986

_____. Gorky Rises. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1980.

_____. The Lonely Ones. Foreward by Wolcott Gibbs. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1942.

_____. Solomon the Rusty Nail. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1985. _____. Brave Irene. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1986

_____. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. New York: Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1969.

_____. When Everybody Wore A Hat. New York: Joanna Cotler Books, 2003.

Teahan, James T., translator, annotator. The Pinocchio of C. Collodi. New York : Schocken Books, 1985.

“William (H.) Steig.” In Contemporary Authors, 2004. Thomson Gale. University of Florida Lib., Gainesville, FL. 04 Jan. 2005 .

Zipes, Jack. When Dreams Came True: Classical Fairy Tales and Their Tradition. New York: Routledge, 1997.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Joann E. Ihas graduated from The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Arts

degree in French literature and a minor in English literature. As a post-baccalaureate

student, she has studied creative writing at the University of Florida, and art history at the

University of Oregon.