My Book and Heart Will Never Part

Well first off, I enjoyed myself at the movie and thought the whole production was very charming. It was definitely a great mix of comedy and drama and information. I found the segment on Little goodie two shoes quite interesting. Generally someone calls another a "little goodie two shoes" in a somewhat derogatory and insulting way. At least from my memory as a somewhat rowdy youth, we used the term to make fun of friends who wouldn't join us in creating mayhem around the neighborhood. The movie however illuminated little goodie two-shoes as a much more positive character. She was almost a literary Messiah. She taught literacy to the illiterate youth, taught proper morals, and most importantly preached a love of the natural world. I became instantly curious as to why the connotation of little goodie two shoes became more of an insult when it should be a compliment. I think the answer is a bit more obvious than it should be. The term is only an insult when used by mischievous little kids doing mischievous deeds. When removed from incident an observer actually realizes that the term is a compliment even used in the method described above. Essentially the person called the little goodie two shoes shows poise and maturity in not joining the other grommits in causing havoc so it seems to an outsider that the comment though used negatively by children actually is positive.

But why then do kids still use this term negatively. Goodie two shoes teaches literacy and therefore steals the Innocent nature of children by teaching them to read. Literate children can learn any number of things from books. Some of this material may not be to pleasant and even children consciously or subconsciously compare the carefree nature of innocent childhood and literate maturity. Even seen in the movie, children's readers had a fascination in death, a topic not to terribly excellent in the mind of a child. I think somewhere along the line, the idea of literate maturity, gained an aura of sadness because of lost innocence. Essentially, Goodie two shoes ruined the fun of innocent youth by bringing literacy and imparting morals to young children. She was like a giant fun sponge sucking up all youthful exuberance of a very young child. Thus the term became an insult among gangs of marauding children. The little goodie two shoes of the group refused to cause mayhem and became the fun sponge to the other children. A horrible name to be called by your friends that spurred itself from a very endearing figure of 18th century children's lit.