MORAL AMBIGUITY IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: FINDING THE GRAY SPACE AND IN BETWEEN IN THE WORKS OF GARTH NIX AND J.K. ROWLING

Abstract

One of the cornerstones of heroic fantasy literature is the ever-persistent struggle between opposing forces traditionally conceived as the sides of good and evil, often metaphorically described as a conflict between “the light versus the dark.” This dichotomy was cemented within the genre with the publishing of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia series in the mid-twentieth century. Since that time, the lines between “good” and “evil” within the genre of heroic fantasy have been drawn very clearly, especially when the fantasy is intended for a child or young adult audience. However, in more recent years, subversions to these characteristic conventions have been increasingly popular; moral ambiguity now seems to be a dominant thematic trend for twenty-first century heroic fantasy, especially that aimed at a young adult audience. The focus of this thesis will be on morally ambiguous characters as seen in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix.