Dorfman: Pre-class

In the piece, "Instructions on How to Become a General in the Disneyland Club," Ariel Dorfman criticizes the power of the Disney corporation. He claims that "in juvenile literature, the adult, corroded by the trivia of everyday life blindly defends his image of youth and innocence.... [and] thus, the imagination of the child is conceived as the past and future utopia of the adult" (113). I think this is saying that because the world of Disney is created by adults who have their own ideas of what the innocence of childhood should be like, the constructions of this "utopia" are unrealistic and can sometimes even contain subliminal messages/agendas. Children watching Disney programs pick up on the way in which the characters interact with one another, problem solve, etc. and thus learn to imitate what they see on screen  Children are not aware that the television shows, cartoons, comic books, etc that they are consuming could be biased and contain propaganda. Dorfman states that "fiction reinforces, in a cicular fashion, the manner in which the adult desires the comic be received and read" (114). By having our youth absorb the messages and lessons told by Disney, we are in a way inhibiting them from expressing their own, natural creativity. Disney acts as an authoritative "father surrogate," telling the youth what childhood is supposed to be like. "The authoritarian relationship between the real life parent and child is repeated and reinforced within the fantasy world itself" (114).