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The Children’s Book Nobody Can Agree On
The Rainbow Fish is remembered as a simple children’s book about sharing. But more than 30 years after its release, people are still arguing about what its message actually means. Is Rainbow Fish learning generosity and letting go of his ego? Or is he being taught to give up pieces of himself in exchange for friendship? In this video essay, I revisit Marcus Pfister’s The Rainbow Fish through ideas about consent, people-pleasing, status, mimetic desire, individuality, ego and Reader-Response Theory to understand why such a simple picture book has created such a complicated debate. Maybe The Rainbow Fish isn’t really controversial because it teaches one bad lesson. Maybe it’s controversial because the exact same story can teach two completely different ones. #nostalgia #childrensbooks #videoessay #mediaanalysis #literaryanalysis #bookanalysis #rainbowfish