Tween’s Resource Negotiation in Lisa Graff’s The Great Treehouse War

Abstract

This qualitative study explores how under extreme scarcity of resources contemporary middle grade fiction, The Great Treehouse War 2017 reflect the tween’s journey of resilience. The study is carried out in the light of Socio-Ecological theory of resilience by Ungar and analyzed keeping in mind textual lens by Belsey. It investigates that under severe scarcity of resources the tween negotiates available meager culturally relevant symbolic resources. The tween’s anchor through symbolic resources other than relational support is a critique of social discourses that overlook a child’s developmental needs and overburden her with responsibilities of resolving adversities of parental divorce in isolation. Moreover, symbols and metaphors as a resource underscore that societal expectations excessively burden children with severe physical and emotional troll and unreasonably expect them to resolve adult imposed adversities. It suggests for interventions which can protect a child’s developmental needs by facilitating relational support.