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Babar, the Neocolonialist
What political correctness has done to The Story of Babar
. . . with Jason Ng
[Illustration by Ellen Heck]

In 2000, the American Library Association released a list of the most frequently censored and banned books in school libraries across the U.S. Besides notorious ones like Huck Finn and Judy Blume novels, the list includes Martin Hanford’s Where’s Waldo (for a near-topless sunbather in a beach scene) and Harry Allard’s children’s series The Stupids (for obscene use of the word “stupid”). These are admittedly children’s classics and in the canon of E-Z reader literature, but adults are banning them in an effort to protect children during an increasingly sensitive age.
But were these blasphemies inherent in the works or were they the product of an overstimulated adult mind?

Frenchman Jean de Brunhoff’s 1930s series about Babar the elephant has become the center of the children’s book debate for its alleged depiction of Eurocentrism and colonialism. Patricia Ramsey, director of the Gore Child Studies Center in Mount Holyoke, states that Babar, a story about an elephant who wanders into the city and returns to the jungle a clothed, automobile-driving King, “extols the virtues of a European middle-class lifestyle and disparages the animals and people who have remained in the jungle.”

Ariel Dorfman’s The Empire’s Old Clothes is the most renowned criticism of Babar, in which he concludes, “In imagining the independence of the land of the elephants, Jean de Brunhoff anticipates, more than a decade before history forced Europe to put it into practice, the theory of neocolonialism.”

What follows is an analysis of Merle Hass’ 1960 translation of de Brunhoff’s The Story of Babar. An effort was made to uncover anything that may be seen as offensive or subversive in the vein of Dorfman and Ramsey’s conclusions. Is the analysis forced and contrived, an attempt at jamming a square peg through a circular hole? Or is de Brunhoff a rabid colonialist fulfilling his duty to promote France’s Manifest Destiny. Finally, does it matter? Are children of 5 and 6, de Brunhoff’s intended audience, really affected by these subtle inflections, if such inflections existed?

One day, “Babar is riding happily on his mother’s back when a wicked hunter…shoots at them.” The mother is killed and Babar runs away. He comes to a town and is amazed by all the houses and cars. “However, he is especially interested in two gentleman… He says to himself: ‘Really, they are very well dressed, I would like to have some fine clothes, too! I wonder how I can get them?’ Luckily, a very rich Old Lady who has always been fond of little elephants understands right away that he is longing for a fine suit.” She gives him a purse of money and Babar thanks her.”
De Brunhoff’s decision not to explain the hunter’s killing as a capitalistic exchange (hunter kills elephant for money, the likely reason for his hunting) ostensibly allows the reader to conclude that the hunter killed her for sport. Capitalism is not indicted, and thus, Babar’s later embrace of it is never discouraged.

The man’s suit and porter’s uniform entrances Babar even more than the people themselves. Babar’s fascination with clothing coincides with a desire to “get them.” Already, Babar has developed a want for material goods.

Babar’s first capitalist exchange comes when the “Old Lady” reciprocates a purse of money for the pleasure Babar’s sight instills in her. In essence, Babar is prostituting his novel appearance for money, and like slaves captured from alien lands, de Brunhoff’s Western world puts the alien on display. Babar’s accepting of the purse creates the seeds for distinct classes for he is reliant on “Old Ladies” who monopolize the wealth.

“Without wasting any time, Babar goes into a big store” and buys a shirt with a tie, a green suit, a derby hat and shoes with spats. The Old Lady “thinks he looks very smart in his new clothes” and Babar begins to live and eat at her home. He exercises and “goes out for an automobile ride every day.” The Old Lady gives him “whatever he wants.” A professor tutors Babar and he “is a good pupil.” During the evening, he regales the Old Lady’s friends with tales of the jungle.

Babar’s desire for clothing and assimilation begins immediately after the Old Lady’s payment for his services. This emulation continues with a full immersion into the European world. By living at the Old Lady’s house, he is rewarded for being displayed to the Old Lady’s friends like a zoo animal as well as a model of conversion. However, to maintain the car and the opulent life he lives, Babar must be a “good pupil” at mimicking the Old Lady’s lifestyle.
Babar is not happy because he misses his home and mother. Two years later, two elephants with “no clothes on,” his cousins Arthur and Celeste, approach him in the city. “Babar kisses them affectionately and hurries off with them to buy some fine clothes” and eat cake.

When his cousins arrive, Babar particularly notices that they have “no clothes.” Though he embraces them warmly, he immediately goes off to buy clothes for them, lest he be shamed by their appearance. He does not ask them about the jungle; instead, Babar only indoctrinates Arthur and Celeste with his urban values. The transformation of Arthur and Celeste’s walking on all fours to bipedalism like Babar best exemplifies the indoctrination. Babar is like a European missionary, disinterested in the savages’ culture and only concerned with ascribing his own upon them.
An “old marabou bird” sees the children and relays the news to the jungle. The mothers come to get them and scold the children. Babar decides to return as well and the “Old Lady helps him to pack his trunk.” Babar is reluctant to leave the old lady, but he “promises to come back some day” and “never forget her.” Babar drives off with his cousins, and since there is no more room in the car, the mothers “run behind, and lift up their trunks to avoid breathing the dust.”

It is appropriate that the marabou, a legal term used to describe mixed-race African Americans in the 1930s, is the courier of the news that Arthur and Celeste have gone to the city. By returning from the white world—the first animal to do so—with news about the children, the marabou becomes an intermediary between the savage jungle and the white world. It foreshadows a continued influx of white ideas entering the jungle.

Babar’s promise to the Old Lady is a declaration that he will never revert to his native ways. He will “never forget” his Westernizing influences, and further, he promises to return and maintain the link between jungle and city. Consequently, it follows that the gentile Babar drives back to the jungle, leading the charge of Westernization, while the still savage mothers must trail behind on foot and on all fours, treading in Babar’s tracks and coping with his polluting dust.

That same day, the King of the elephants dies when he eats a bad mushroom; the elephants hold a meeting to decide the new King, but are interrupted when Babar returns. They shout out in joy, “What beautiful clothes. What a beautiful car!” Cornelius, the oldest elephant, then nominates Babar because he “has just returned from the big city, he has learned so much living among men, (so) let us crown him King.” Babar accepts with one stipulation: “While we were traveling in the car, Celeste and I became engaged. If I become your King, she will be your Queen.” All the elephants cheer.

The elephants instantly hail Babar as their messiah. Like natives in the Americas who initially embraced the god-like European explorers for their technological prowess (Babar’s car), the elephants are unprepared for Babar’s subversive teachings.

And Babar marries his cousin. Isn’t that a little strange?

“‘You have good ideas,’ said Babar to Cornelius. ‘I will therefore make you a general, and when I get my crown, I will give you my hat.’” Babar decides to have the coronation after the wedding; he asks the birds to invite everyone and tells the dromedary “to go to the town and buy some beautiful wedding clothes… After the wedding and the coronation everybody dances merrily.”

While Babar speaks, Cornelius stands in a bowed position on his hind legs. Cornelius, who speaks “wisely” and is beloved by his fellow elephants, is forced to become subservient to the newcomer. Babar rewards Cornelius for his loyalty by giving him a hat, in essence, forcing him to become civilized. Not only does Babar dominate Cornelius, but he also orders birds and the dromedary to do his bidding. Finally, after donning clothes from the town and ascending to the throne, the animals all dance on their hind legs. The transformation and domination of the entire jungle by Babar is complete.

“The festivities are over, night has fallen, the stars have risen in the sky.” Everyone has gone home happy and “now King Babar and Queen Celeste, both eager for further adventures, set out on their honeymoon in a gorgeous yellow balloon.”

Jason Ng B’06 says you can love Babar, but please don’t love him.

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