Birdyline Book Blog

Before I begin I’d like to make a note that I am aware this article is nit-picky. Heidi is a children’s book, and it is quite an older one at that. I do not expect some sort of politically correct representation from it, nor do I dislike the novel in any way. In fact, I think the book is whimsical and cute, and I have no problem with children reading it. The way disability is thought about in society is something that is very important to me as it hits very close to home. Please keep in mind that this is a lighthearted critique while you read my thoughts!

The heavily moral plotline of the novel coupled with the miraculous healing of a young, partially paralyzed girl named Clara serves to illustrate how Johanna Spyri’s children’s novel Heidi, as a whole, seems to approach disability from the charity model’s angle and reinforces stigma. The book is aimed towards young children, and so the underlying suggestions within the book implying that disabled people are not a part of God’s will and that they should be pitied and preferably healed could reinforce stigmas in the readers’ minds that will hold them back in life from having genuine relationships with disabled people around them. 

The heroine of Heidi is the novel’s namesake, a precocious young orphan delivered to her uncle to be cared for and subsequently raised on a mountain surrounded by fresh air, beautiful views, and plenty of goats. Heidi serves as the novel’s role model. She has a cheerful attitude at all times, is respectful to the adults in authority over her, and has a strong morality dictated by her dedicated faith in God. The purpose of this, most likely, is to encourage the children who read the book to take after Heidi. For multiple pages at a time, Heidi will speak about how a person should think and live. If they do not act as Heidi believes they should, “‘Then everything goes wrong, for God lets us then go where we like, and when we are poor and miserable and begin to cry no one pities us, but they say, You ran away from God, and so God, who could have helped you, left you to yourself.’” (Spyri 191) This theme plays throughout the novel, with the characters having to take accountability for their choices for or against God. Many times it is suggested that negative circumstances are direct results of rebellion against God. On the other hand, the novel also highlights times when negative circumstances work out to be positive ones.

One such example of an unfortunate event-turned-miracle is the destruction of Clara’s wheelchair. Peter, being jealous of the attention Clara receives from his only friend Heidi, pushes Clara’s wheelchair off of the mountain during Clara’s visit. He believes that as a result, Clara will not be able to go up the mountain with Heidi and him during his grazing route with the goats he herds. Grandfather, however, has other ideas. He decides that Clara should go anyway, and that day Clara tries harder than ever to walk on her own and is able to take a few steps without pain. When Clara’s Grandmamma comes to visit, she preaches to Peter “‘…for you see the harm you intended has turned out for the best for those you wished to hurt. As Clara had no chair to go in and yet wanted so much to see the flowers, she made the effort to walk, and every day since she has been walking better and better… So you see, Peter, God is able to bring good out of evil for those whom you meant to injure…” (Spyri 324) Not only does this reflect Heidi’s assertions about God’s character, but it is almost a direct quote from The Bible. Grandmamma’s lecture to Peter is reminiscent of how Joseph comforts his brothers when they begged for forgiveness for selling him into slavery. Genesis 50:20 reads, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” (KJV) 

To put this concept into different wording, both Heidi and Grandmamma are expressing how God’s will transcends the intentions or desires of human kind. By this logic, not only is Peter’s jealousy a human flaw, but Clara’s disability is as well. The novel’s attitude here links character ‘flaws,’ whether physical or mental, as separate from God. Johanna Spyri, already being established as writing a Christian moralistic book with Heidi, likely views anything not connected directly to or created by God as sin. This undoubtedly links Clara’s disability to sin despite the novel making no claim that she ever did anything wrong to deserve it. The opposite of this sin is exhibited by the adults through their acts of service in the novel. Despite Peter’s bad behavior, Grandmamma offers him a gift to encourage him to make better choices. In a similar vein, Grandfather shows his care by attempting to fix Clara. “The grandfather seemed to feel an especial sympathy for this little invalid charge, for he tried to think of something fresh every day to help forward her recovery.” (Spyri 289) 

Grandmamma and Grandfather stand in stark contrast with Peter because they pour their time and effort into helping Clara while Peter does not. Their love for Clara and their hope that she can walk and enjoy the mountain flowers the same as her able-bodied peers is not inherently bad. Their intentions are good, and Clara herself wishes she could keep up with the other kids. However, this structure of relationships in the novel comes straight from the charity model of disability, which emphasizes the problem of disability, encourages pity, and has become irreparably entangled with morality because of the church’s heavy involvement. Therefore, while the charity model’s mindsight is what may encourage Grandmamma and especially Grandfather (who is not a direct member of Clara’s family) to support the young disabled girl, it also imposes a label of something being wrong with Clara onto her and makes it impossible to view Clara as a complete person without the constant assistance of other people. On the surface, children who read Spyri’s novel may be encouraged to care about and even provide help for kids they see who have a visible physical difference. Laying under that wholesome message is the unfortunate suggestion that disabled people need to be fixed or pitied. As a result, instead of opening the child’s mind up to the knowledge that there are people with different limitations than them who are equally deserving of God’s love, (a concept that Spyri never directly denies) the child is taught stigma. 

In Disability Studies: A Student’s Guide, Colin Cameron draws from past definitions of stigma to ultimately describe it as this: “Stigma is an attribute that reduces a person in another’s mind from a whole and usual person to a tainted and discounted one.” (Cameron 147) Stigma largely comes from unfamiliarity and ignorance. For example, when Heidi first meets Peter’s grandmother, she has never heard of blindness before. When the grandmother attempts to explain that she cannot see anything, Heidi is horrified. “‘In her distress she kept on sobbing out, ‘who can make it light for you again? Can no one do it? Isn’t there anyone who can do it?’” (Spyri 57) Heidi’s interactions with Peter’s grandmother and the aforementioned ones with Clara show how she and most of the other characters in the book view both of them as inherently broken. Even while recognizing that nothing can change the Grandmother’s sight, Heidi reads her hymns to comfort her. This is a decision less influenced by stigma. The actions taken towards Clara, on the other hand, are very different. 

Heidi relies on God to heal everyone she meets who needs help in her eyes. The doctor acknowledges during his visit to the mountain that “‘it is good to be up here, [on the mountain] good for body and soul, and a man might learn to be happy once more.’” (Spyri 233) This quote particularly links the physical health of the body to the spiritual health of the soul. Grandfather later reinforces this idea when he attributes Clara’s healing to “‘…God’s good sun and mountain air…’” (Spyri 315) The implications here seem to be that a person who just breathes fresh air, consumes quality food, and has a positive attitude in the way Heidi does will be healed. It is true that these things can improve a person’s quality of life, but the suggestion that disability always can and always should be healed, especially when linked to the morality of the disabled person and their family, and even the possibility of not being within God’s design could be incredibly damaging to young readers who are not aware of their own stigmatized ideas coming from society in conjunction with the underlying stigmas surrounding the disabled characters in Heidi. 

Works Cited:

Colin, Cameron. Disability Studies : A Student′s Guide. SAGE Publications Ltd, 2013. EBSCOhost, 147-149 research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=806d73e0-d3b6-34ea-9df2-141aff0ad49d. 

Spyri, Johanna. Heidi. Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., 2017.

The Bible. King James Version, Christian Art Publishers, 2016. Pg. 65