Comic Books or Classical Literature

張貼日期：Jun 15, 2012 4:53:51 AM

Edith Chen

Most parents prefer their children to read the classical literature, including my parents. In fact, comic books are a kind of forbidden books in my family. Whoever tries to read Comics will be punished harshly. Therefore, I want to argue for reading Comics, which are not heinous things for kids. If parents approve their children to read the comic books, and try to understand why they like them, they can realize that reading comics can bring several benefits for their children and family, which are cultivating the children’s creativity, developing the artistic talent of the children, and improving relationship between parents and kids.

The first benefit for kids to read comics is cultivating their creativity. The biggest difference between comic books and classical literature is that in the comic book there are 6 or 8 pictures on each page to tell a story, and it uses a few words to let readers understand what the story is about. Different from Comics, classical literary works which contain so many words on a page are less interesting than Comics for children because they have to gather their patience to read each word in the book to understand the whole story. The biggest challenge for reading Comics is to figure out the order of the pictures, but the truth is that reading Comics is easier for children than reading the classical literature, and it is a good way for children to cultivate their creativity and spatial logic capacity.

The second benefit for children to read Comics is to develop their artistic talent. I believe if parents want to develop their kids’ painting skill, the best period of time is when their children are little, and it is all because of the strong ability of learning and imitating of children. According to their particular ability, I think that reading Comics is a kind of way for children to learn how to draw pictures; because of their great passion for Comics, children might try to figure out how to draw a picture like those in Comics. As a result of the special command in my family, I was not good at painting. Consequently, I figure that if I had a chance to read Comics when I was little, the situation might have been totally different.

The third benefit is the most obvious and important one, which is improving the relationship between parents and children. For me, reading comic books is always my favorite thing during the free time, and I believe that everyone who has ever been a child could understand the enchantment of comics. When I was little, my parents used the strong way to forbid me to read Comics. However, it could not stop my enthusiasm for reading Comics. Due to the forbiddance of comic books, I started to retain my own secret of having comic books in private. For this reason, I started to do anything inappropriate for keeping my secret which was not allowed by my parents, and was always worried that once I got caught I would be punished in a very harsh way. But I have to admit that this was not a good idea, and it did not do anything good for the relationship between my parents and me. Therefore, I consider that if parents can try to understand why their children like to read Comics and approve their reading them, the parents and the children should enjoy a better relationship.

Some parents consider that reading comic books bring a negative influence on children’s schoolwork, and it might bring the unfavorable effects for their children. For this type of parents, reading the classical literary works is the wonderful choice for the kids when they have free time because parents believe that reading classical literature can bring positive effects for their children, but they forget that the appropriate rest is necessary for their children. The children have already done hard work in school, but they still have to read classical literature in their free time. It is a kind of spiritual torture for children. So, why not let children choose what they really want to read?

Finally, I just want to say that reading Comics in not a heinous thing. Some comics are not just books with many pictures; they contain exciting and interesting stories which are not less stimulating or enlightening than classical literature. I cannot deny that I like to read classical literature, but I also cannot resist the temptation for reading Comics. I hope that parents can try to understand why their kids like to read Comics more than classical literature and give them reasonable support for what they like to do.