UKISOCIETY
Well-known member
Goodnight Moon is one of Colin's favorite books right now. I started singing the words to him as a lullaby and found that they fit very well into a song. So here's my setting of "Goodnight Moon" by Margaret Wise Brown.
..But we all know that in reality Goodnight Moon was written as an allegory of the cold war. In 1946, children's book author Margaret Wise Brown was asked by Senator Joseph McCarthy to write a children's story warning of the perils of Communism and America's apathy toward the Red Menace. Goodnight Moon was the result.
In the book, Communism is represented by a large red balloon, which continually hovers over the young child's bed. The light on the nightstand represented McCarthy's efforts to shed light on domestic conspiracies by foreign operatives. The clocks represented the countdown to the next world conflict.
Although the bunny child (the American public) recognizes these objects, they appear to him as harmless. The old lady, representing a docile and perhaps even conspiratorial national press, reassures the bunny that everything is alright, and even if he has some doubts he should still "hush". The disturbing page where the bunny says "Goodnight nobody" is America looking to its once-friendly allies and finding no assistance in challenging the looming Soviet threat. Kittens, also representing smaller yet crucial allies, play with a ball of yarn, oblivious to their impending doom. In a final act of complete willful ignorance, the bunny even shuts out the stars, the air and all noises everywhere. His fate is now sealed. The red balloon looms closer, ever closer. The light that once shone as the sole beacon of truth has been extinguished.
For more information on the history of the real meaning of Goodnight Moon, watch this.
..But we all know that in reality Goodnight Moon was written as an allegory of the cold war. In 1946, children's book author Margaret Wise Brown was asked by Senator Joseph McCarthy to write a children's story warning of the perils of Communism and America's apathy toward the Red Menace. Goodnight Moon was the result.
In the book, Communism is represented by a large red balloon, which continually hovers over the young child's bed. The light on the nightstand represented McCarthy's efforts to shed light on domestic conspiracies by foreign operatives. The clocks represented the countdown to the next world conflict.
Although the bunny child (the American public) recognizes these objects, they appear to him as harmless. The old lady, representing a docile and perhaps even conspiratorial national press, reassures the bunny that everything is alright, and even if he has some doubts he should still "hush". The disturbing page where the bunny says "Goodnight nobody" is America looking to its once-friendly allies and finding no assistance in challenging the looming Soviet threat. Kittens, also representing smaller yet crucial allies, play with a ball of yarn, oblivious to their impending doom. In a final act of complete willful ignorance, the bunny even shuts out the stars, the air and all noises everywhere. His fate is now sealed. The red balloon looms closer, ever closer. The light that once shone as the sole beacon of truth has been extinguished.
For more information on the history of the real meaning of Goodnight Moon, watch this.
