The Troubles of Growing Up — Stuart Little

The Troubles of Growing Up — Stuart Little

Stuart of the Little family is, most of the time, just like an ordinary boy in an ordinary family—the kind of well-mannered, warm-hearted child with an adventurous streak one might expect from an American middle-class household in the 1930s and 1940s. He helps his father unclog the drains at home, helps a man in the park win a model boat race, and constantly engages in a battle of wits with the family cat. Yet he can also accidentally get tangled in the curtains or be carried off to the seaside by a garbage truck. While reading Stuart Little, if the author did not keep reminding us, it would be easy to forget that he is supposed to be a tiny mouse and instead think of him simply as an adorable little boy. The other characters in the book see him much the same way as well: aside from noticing how unusually small he is, they treat him no differently from any neighbor’s child. And aren’t the things that happen to Stuart exactly the kinds of things children face as they grow up?

In Stuart’s story, we often catch glimpses of our former selves—those thoughts and feelings that once tangled around us in childhood. Many of them may have faded with time, becoming little more than misty memories. Yet for readers who have children of their own, Stuart also constantly calls to mind their sons or daughters. This book, disguised as a fairy tale, can also be seen as an excellent book on parenting: one that awakens whatever childlike innocence parents may still have, and helps them understand and gently protect the troubles children experience while growing up.

At the same time, Stuart Little is also a story full of adventure. Stuart moves through the adult world much like the Little Prince traveling among the stars. But while The Little Prince is filled with metaphors about the adult world—the strength of metaphor being that it can be reread and reinterpreted endlessly through one’s own life experience, though its obvious weakness is a certain obscurity—Stuart Little conveys a child’s view of the world through Stuart’s perspective. Perhaps in that childhood realm where imagination and reality mingle together, children really can stand on a model aircraft and take part in a race, or drive off on a journey in a tiny car that can turn invisible. And their true feelings about subjects like math and language classes are probably not so different from Stuart’s either. At home, their relationships with siblings, with good friends, and even their feelings toward cats may all find echoes in Stuart’s story.

The Little Prince meets and tames a fox, though in the end they must part in sorrow. Stuart, too, has a bird friend named Margalo, and it is because of Margalo that he finally resolves to set out on his adventure. The Little Prince falls in love with a rose on his own planet, and among all the roses in the world, he can still recognize her at a glance. Stuart likewise meets a girl his own size and goes on a make-believe sort of date with her. Stuart’s carefully planned date does not go well, and the Little Prince also parts unhappily from his rose. Love is always warm and heartbreaking at once. This is true in the world of children, and no less true in the world of adults. Perhaps all the adventures and searching of our lives are meant to help us find a place where we can finally feel at peace.

In Stuart Little, Stuart’s story does not truly end. The author refuses to provide a complete conclusion, choosing instead to leave the book with an open ending—and for a story about growing up, that feels exactly right. Leaving home and setting off on adventures is a child’s ultimate dream. Stuart’s story is not meant to encourage children to run away from home, but to let that dream be fulfilled within the story. And Stuart’s departure—leaving his parents behind and heading toward an unknown distance—is not merely part of the plot; it is the inevitability of growing up. Growth does not come with fixed and unchanging endings. And so the ending of Stuart Little is really only the beginning of children growing from small to large, stepping into a new world.

“Stuart got to his feet, climbed back into the car, and drove north. The sun had just climbed above the little hill behind him. He looked steadily at the great land that stretched away before him, and he knew that the road ahead would be long. But the sky was bright, and he felt he was headed in the right direction.”