Removing the Fear
Ronald Marshall, writing in Touchstone:
Jonah is a horrifying book, with its raging storm and fierce sea-monster,
a suicide attempt and near drowning, and, at the end, a confrontation with
a massive enemy city. But in American children’s literature it is largely
a harmless adventure story, all about travel and intrigue, underwater hideouts,
success and fame.
a suicide attempt and near drowning, and, at the end, a confrontation with
a massive enemy city. But in American children’s literature it is largely
a harmless adventure story, all about travel and intrigue, underwater hideouts,
success and fame.
Jonah may not have been eaten alive in the Bible, but he has been in the
children’s books. In the nineteen versions I examined for this essay,
the horror of the story has been extracted and removed from sight, and with
it an important theological and imaginative preparation for the gospel.
