In the Phantom Tollbooth
1
The Phantom Tollbooth (Juster, 1961) is a children's fantasy quest story
that substitutes the “daunting and unsettling”[1] real world of rationality with the
imaginary world of a child. While rationality and power are inextricably
linked, fantasy does not require rationality. To find a settled world, Milo’s
pursuits go beyond rationality into imagination and oppose rationality as a
tool of adults’ power in favour of childhood freedom.
The imagery scene of driving the toy car from the real house to
“LANDS BEYOND”[2] represents Milo’s effort to confront
the adults’ world. Milo is bored and has no idea “what to do with himself.”[3] The story implies that Milo is
confined to reality, nevertheless, his imagination releases him from this
confinement. Milo’s ventures into imagination and achieving satisfaction
validates Rudd’s argument that children “also have subject position [to] resist
[being] powerless objects of adult discourse.”[4] The Phantom Tollbooth represents
the role of children in shaping the concept of childhood, and thus, the story
demonstrates the historical tension between adults’ power and childhood.
Milo does not merely drive to the “unfamiliar country”[5] he also visits men some of whom are
not much like adults as they encourage childhood. Unlike many adults, Whether
Man exclaims child’s “questions”[6], encourages “beyond Expectations”[7], and has no idea about “any wrong roads.”[8] Whether Man behaves more like a
child than an adult. This represents the tension between adults’ power and
childhood freedom, in the way that their binary oppositions are subverted in
fantasy to criticise the supremacy of adults in reality.
The story exerts the idea of resistance against the tools that tend
to control what children should learn. Milo satirises pedagogy: “subtracting
turnips from turnips, or knowing where Ethiopia is or how to spell February”[9]. This is an evidence of tension between
childhood freedom and adults’ mainstream ideology which imposes power through
certain values in education.
2
The Phantom Tollbooth demonstrates the cultural meaning of childhood and adulthood,
with respect to one another, by using a language device that Lakoff
and Johnson call “orientational metaphors.”[10] In chapter 9, Milo meets Alec who
floats three feet the ground. The story employs metaphorical meaning of ‘up’
and ‘down’ in which ‘up’ implies the higher perspective of adults, while ‘down’
refers to the lower viewpoint of children. Milo’s wish to get Alec’s height is
subject “to look at things as an adult does.”[11] The failure of Milo in his
experiment to float, convinces him to “continue to see things as a child.”[12] This story represents a cultural
meaning of childhood in which the child is recognised by having a different
perspective than the adult.
The story highlights the importance of childhood in shaping the
basis for maturity. For this purpose, the story uses some different aspects of
‘looking’ in metaphorical meaning to indicate childhood as the process of
acquisition of knowledge. Although Alec leads Milo to admit the inevitability
of childhood, he has to look at things from the same perspective for his entire
life. Alec says, “[w]e always see things from the same angle,”[13] while Milo’s viewpoint changes as
he grows up. Furthermore, the story implicitly states that Alec and all his
family lack comprehensive vision because each of them is limited to a
particular angle, but Alec praises their life as “much less trouble.”[14] The
story reminds difficulties of Milo’s journey, who has to learn to
look from different angles and gain further experience for adulthood. According
to Buckingham, childhood is “precious and […] problematic”[15] and chapter 9 of The
Phantom Tollbooth applies the metaphor to explain the concept of
childhood as a demanding, distinctive, and crucial social construction.
3
By the end of his imaginative journey, Milo perceives the real
world to a greater extent, which signifies that The Phantom Tollbooth represents
the importance of fantasy for the realisation of reality. Additionally, Milo
intends to have more fantasy, suggesting that the novel urges children not to
grow out of fantasy but into it.
Following the completion of Milo’s journey, the tollbooth is
replaced by a letter that advises Milo to take trips himself as he “NOW KNOWS
THE WAY.”[16] The letter mentions many unknown
things that are yet to be revealed “many lands you've still to visit […] and
wonderful things to see”[17] suggesting that Milo’s imaginative
trip was just an initial run. Although the letter persuades him to take further
journeys, the headline includes the word ‘way’ which signifies that all
journeys necessarily involve imagination because imagination is the way that
Milo knows so far.
The shifting between fantasy and reality is brought to expand
Milo’s perception of his surrounding world and makes him more capable to
encounter further realities. This way, the story may refer to Milo’s growth;
nevertheless, in adolescence, confronting a vast and more complex world is
inevitable. Finding a way within such a complex world requires fantasy, as
Pierce argues children need fantasy as “fuel to spark” [18] new ideas. The story urges Milo to
have the imagination for further speculation.
Although the overall sequence of Milo's trip based on
home/away/home implies the trip to be ended in reality, it equally values
reality and fantasy. In spite of being restrained by “so much to do”[19] in his real life, Milo is still
longing for fantasy: “[w]ell, I would like to make another trip.”[20] But as Milo grows up, he
should endeavour to take more serious journeys. The Phantom Tollbooth ends
with the admiration of the sky by Milo, and thus new motives open up for
unlimited journeys of fantasy and reality.
References:
Buckingham,
David. After the Death of Childhood: Growing Up in the Age of
Electronic Media, Polity Press, Oxford, 2000.
Gleitzman, M. “Morris
Gleitzman on Why Kids Need Books in a 'Dark and Uncertain World.” ABC
News Breakfast, September 9, 2018. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-02-12/morris-gleitzman-on-why-kids-need-books-author/9421494
Juster, Norton, and
Feiffer, Jules, Illustrator. The Phantom Tollbooth. 50th
Anniversary ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.
Lakoff, George, and
Johnson, Mark. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2003.
Pierce, Tamora.
“Fantasy: Why Kids Read It, Why Kids Need It.” School Library
Journal 39, no. 10 (10, 1993): 50-51. https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/docview/1970118671?accountid=36155.
Rudd, David. “Theorising and theories:
how does children’s literature exist?” in Understanding Children's
Literature, edited by Peter Hunt, 2nd Edition, 15-29. New
York: Routledge, 2005.