Introduction
for
parents
and teachers
In 1937, Metro Goldwyn Mayer produced Captains Courageous, one of those
adventure films that transcend time. Years after seeing it for the first time,
I decided to use the original story, the novel by the same name written by
Rudyard Kipling in 1896, for this small collection of children’s books. I
thought it would be a good idea to adapt the original story into an
easy-to-read tale that, nonetheless, would still keep the spirit in Kipling’s
work.
Captains
Courageous tells us what happens to Harvey Cheyne, a ten year old boy, an
American tycoon’s only child, when he travels to England in an ocean liner.
Harvey is, above all things, a boy who lacks vital balance. A boy who has been
spoiled by his parents, who indulged his every whim. The unbearable kid doesn’t
receive the attention nor the guidance needed, which is turning him into a real
monster.
Nevertheless, life intervenes in the form of
an accident, and the indomitable Harvey ends up in a humble fishing boat, where
he’ll have no other choice than to wake up and start adjusting to a tough
reality, previously unknown to him.
Kipling’s book is a bildungsroman, german term that refers to formation novels, genre
of which Great Expectations, David
Copperfield, The Wizard of Oz or Catcher in the Rye are also part of. And
as such, Kipling shows us the boy’s psychological growth until he reaches the
levels of maturity needed to be considered a spiritually healthy human being.
This adaptation of Captains Courageous focuses on two main values: the effort to know
and humility. Both, well combined and together with self-trust, bring the boy
closer to the basic conditions so he doesn’t end up having an anti-natural,
trivial vision of the world. There is no easier path for understanding the
circumstances of others who didn’t have it so easy.
But also, this story of growth reminds us it
is always good to slow down the rhythm of our lives until we become in synch
with Earth’s heartbeat. Harvey –and the readers- will have the chance to temper
their attitudes and learn to appreciate the little moments of peace hidden
within life’s fast pace. After all, reading promotes the love for silence and
harmony. At the beginning of his adaptation process, the rude brat thought the
ocean stunk, but he ends up feeling a healthy nostalgia for those days spent
aboard the We’re Here ship.
If all this is important, it’s no less than the
learning process that will turn Harvey into a better person, a need he shares
with his parents.
That’s right; the flaws the boy wore with
pride were the result, at least in part, of his poor upbringing. They didn’t
make their son understand who was in charge of his childhood, and they didn’t
show him how to navigate without leaving a trail of destruction around him. True and fair; fair and true, would add
captain Troop.
Although the educational effort in the family
doesn’t guarantee attaining its high goals, it is also true that following the
current rules, based on avoiding responsibilities, increases the chances that
the child will only acquire the natural defects of spiritual and intellectual
ignorance: indifference, mediocrity and conformism.
In short, this story reminds us that,
sometimes, the best thing that could happen to us is not having our
expectations fulfilled; we just might be fortunate when the desires born in the
clouds of our minds don’t materialize. And it reminds us good trees deserve
help not to bend; and that each codfish –no matter how small it is- which
enters the We’re Here hold, matters.
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