The Paradise of Children: (from: "A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys")
1851
The Paradise of Children: (from: "A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys")
1851
Hawthorne recasts the ancient Greek myth of Pandora as a fable for young readers, transporting them to a luminous childhood paradise where nothing hurts and everything desired springs fully formed from the earth. Two children, Epimetheus and Pandora, dwell in eternal summer, their days untarnished by work or worry, their wishes granted by the abundance around them. But Pandora's irresistible curiosity drives her to open a forbidden jar, and the world's sorrows escape in a swarm of shadowy forms. What follows is the loss of innocence rendered with quiet, devastating simplicity. Yet at the bottom of the jar, one thing remains: Hope, a gentle spirit who promises to comfort humanity through all its troubles. Written for children but bearing the weight of something older, this tale asks whether paradise can survive knowledge, and answers with quiet grace: not unchanged, but not empty either.
