The analysis focuses on the rhetorical analysis of the book, The Boy Who Wouldn’t Go to Bed written by Helen Cooper. This book entirely focuses on the bedtime story whose motive is to coerce small children to bed. The book revolves around a boy who would not accept to go to bed because he wanted to play with his toys. Eventually, everything that the boy was playing with gets tired and he is forced to remain alone. Because of tiredness, the tiger stopped playing with the boy, the musicians stop blowing trumpets, the moon starts to get dim, and the train stops. The entire world stops and the Child has to also sleep. The consistent progression of events from the beginning of the book and the bold illustration through images provides a soothing environment whose intention is to get children to bed. How does Helen Cooper use images, personification, dialogue, and onomatopoeia to enhance the effectiveness of the story to the audience?
Images have been effectively used in the entire book to enhance the flow of the story and to give children an easy way to understand. At the beginning of the book, an image is used to clearly illustrate what the mother wants and what the boy wants. The image helps in drawing a larger picture of what the entire conversation will be. While the mother is in pajamas, the boy is sitting comfortably in his toys and he is going out (Cooper, 4). The boy moves around meeting marching soldiers and a little train which are well illustrated in the images. The soldiers are marching but they seem tired as depicted by the bending images. Both the musicians and the moon are illustrated through the images in a way that shows they are tired(Cooper, 6-14). The musicians had downed their instruments and the moon was already feeling drowsy. From the beginning of the book to the end, there is a consistent depiction of tiredness shown through the use of the images. The author’s creation of this book as a bedtime story for the kids is well illustrated by the use of the images. The images create one aspect that allows the author to achieve her mission. There is the creation of a unique attention at the first by the use of the images. There is a boy sitting in a toy car and beside him is the mother begging him to sleep. As the story progresses the Images also start to show dullness in the characters. The tiger, musicians, soldiers, and the birds all are tired and each does not want to play with the boy. Creation of aesthetic sense to the readers is achieved by the use a style that engages both the senses in the book. The use of the images therefore effectively appeals to the aesthetic senses of the audience in a manner that conforms to the main role of the book which is to be read before bedtime.
Also, personification helps to build the main role of the book to be more appealing. Helen Cooper has used personification entirely to give the story a more human characteristic. The objects in the story are given the ability to operate like human beings. Cooper entirely brings everything closer to kids. The ability to get the attention of the kids so that they can sleep is entirely demonstrated by the humanistic characteristic that everything has. When the boy drives away from home, he meets the tiger who tells him, ”come back in the Morning, I’ll play with you then am too sleepy” ( Cooper, 5). Next, the boy meets a little train and the train tells him” My time is for resting not playing” consequently the boy meets with the moon and the birds who both tell him that they were tired. The use of personification plays a key aspect both in gaining the interests of the small children while on the bed and also giving the audience a more diverse way of looking at it. It is always evident that small children are attracted more to animals, plants, and gadgets like trains (Combs, 45). The ability to effectively gain the interest of the small kids is to give objects humanistic characteristics (Galda et al, 136). The characteristics given to the objects pass a message that would have been more hard if human beings were used. There is the creation of attention when the story is narrated out loud to children. Helen Cooper influences her target audience by tying what they like to what she wants to achieve. With the book specifically meant to be read out aloud, attention is created by the use of objects that have the ability to talk. The objects used are also what the children like and carry along always as the toys. Therefore, the ability for the story to encourage children to sleep is entirely achieved by the thorough use of personification.
Consequently, the use of the imitative words enhances the development of the use of the book as a bedtime story. Onomatopoeia is wildly used in the book and Cooper effectively uses this aspect to create attention especially when the book is read out loud. Young children often have a low concentration span and they often lose concentration (Combs, 78). Research shows that children below the age of 7 cannot effectively concentrate for more than 30 minutes (Combs, 100). Therefore, the ability to create activities that resonate well with their concentration is often key. Hooper therefore effectively employs onomatopoeia to capture their concentration during the narration. Each time the baby wanted to leave, the words …”Vrruum-Chugga-Chung” are used to represent the noise made by the car((Cooper 6). Vrruum-Chugga-Chung is used majorly in the story. When reading the story aloud, the words create a sound that resonates with the start of the car. Hooper effectively employs Onomatopoeic in the story and its effect is the creation of a sound that creates attention when reading out the story aloud. The ability to read a book loud and keep the audience at bay is often a problem. It can only be enhanced by the creation of a heartwarming story which entirely applies to adults or creation of a story that will create an, especially for children. Cooper therefore effectively nails the attention and the appeal of her audience by the effective use of sounds in the story.
The last key aspect that the story uses to capture the attention of the audience is the use of a conversational language between the characters. Cooper effectively employs the use of conversational language from the beginning to the end of the story. A key aspect that Cooper manages to give the book is the ability to keep the audience alert. At the beginning of the book, the boy and the mother are seen talking. The second part shows a conversation between the boy and the tiger. The next parts entirely show conversations between the boy and the train, musicians, soldiers, moon, and the birds. The use of a conversational language throughout achieves two things in the story. First, the story can easily be read out loud as opposed to silent reading and also it creates a certain pattern. The ability to create attention among the children under the age of 7 can be effectively achieved by a dialogue (Galda et al, 137). A dialogue between the reader of the story and the child can be achieved by each taking a role. The ability for this story to present itself in a dialogue form is therefore highly likely to enhance their attention on the bed and make them sleep. Cooper therefore effectively achieves her objectives in this story by using a well-developed dialogue language.
In conclusion, there is enough evidence to show that Cooper effectively achieved her objective in the book by effectively using aspects like images, personification, conversational language, and Onomatopoeia. The appeal to the audience is enhanced by how effective the images are in creating a more practical picture and also how attention is enhanced by the use of a conversational language and also Onomatopoeia.
