The Ickabog

In her novel for kids The Ickabog, J. K. Rowling referred, in the narrative discourse, to the structural discordance between the creative natural power and the power of ownership or the exclusion of others through an imaginary, symbolic kingdom.

I see The Ickabog as an experimental novel because it reflected the cognitive worlds of the kids as the narrators of the tale. Therefore, the novel confirmed the multiplicity of the voices and the relative viewpoints. Furthermore, it represented the purity of their imagination and daydreams about the sign of the beast.

They used their informal logic to create the arguments which discovered the fake plot of the lord Spittleworth and his assistants, that the kids compared the different sizes of the foot of the fake beast and discovered the empty spaces of the crimes which were committed in the name of the beast. Moreover, the discourse of the narrators gave us several creative levels of the beast, that it was appeared as a phenomenological image, an archetype/myth in the collective unconsciousness, a fake inanimate, a hidden killer in the dark spaces and a real creature who had wisdom, love and discontent.

Consequently, the four kids, Daisy, Bert, Martha and Roderick escaped to reveal the truth, then they saw the beast and knew his simple life. Also, they listened to his mystic songs, his perspective and his desire to stay like humans. Moreover, we can recognize the singular sympathy between Daisy and the Ickabog and the ethical attitude to him as an icon of peace and wisdom at the end.

In several ways, the characters were developed in the novel, that the kids changed their mental image about the Ickabog from the negative impact to the positive natural or romantic impact dialectically. The Ickabog was transformed from fear, isolation and waiting to the state of activity and the desire to create a new harmonious kingdom with the new generation of innocent kids. As for the lord and king, they were imprisoned and lost their vast property. so, the discourse supported the harmonious cosmic life despite all the absurd tragedies of the past of the kingdom.

Finally, we can read the novel according to Greimas's actantial narrative schema, that the romantic power encouraged kids to make a transparent place beyond the opponent/the lord. Further, the Icabog was the supporter of this mission. Then, they revealed the truth to the simple, natural people.