Abstract:
This study is aimed at evaluating psychologically the novel ‘Rose’, written by Era
Natarasan. Era Natarasan, who currently lives in Cuddalore, a Southern town of
India, is a Tamil children literature writer, translator and novelist. As an eminent
scholar and teacher, he was conferred the Dr Radhakrishnan State Award for his
contribution in the field of Education and Child – Rights. At present, there is a
trend to analyse and evaluate creative literatures psychologically. However, such
psychological evaluative studies are rare in Tamil. Yet, this study is carried out as
an attempt to evaluate Era Natarasan’s novel ‘Rose” with the followings as
objectives: (1) To identify the educational practices that are found in the novel (2)
To evaluate psychologically the appropriateness of those educational practices for
children. Accordingly, the descriptive and analytical methods are used to evaluate
the novel. Psychological theories such as Piaget’s Intellectual Development
Theory, Erikson’s Psychosocial Development Theory and Lewin’s Field Theory
are applied to examine the appropriateness of the current educational practices.
The study identifies the ‘life space’ of children found in the novel, amidst the
sophisticated mechanical lives of parents. Also, it reveals the mismatches between
the educational practices for children and the theories of child psychology. Finally,
the study raises some questions which need immediate actions in relation to
children’s educational practices.
