I Love You Forever by
Robert Munch is a beloved children’s book published in 1986. The story came to
Munch by way of the lullaby that is repeated throughout the story:
I’ll love you forever
I’ll like
you for always
As long as
I’m living
My baby
you’ll be.
Munch used to sing this lullaby to himself after he and his
wife had two stillborn babies. According to this interview with Munch,
this story emerged quickly as he was performing the lullaby in front of an
audience. His publisher refused to publish the story that he wrote because it
was too dark for children’s literature, but his distributor decided it was a
story worth sharing. This 34-year-old book goes beyond children’s literature
and captures the hearts of people of all ages. But why? It’s interesting
why this book reaches an audience beyond the intended one. It’s more than adult
children feeling nostalgic. In the same interview, Munch has a hunch as to why.
“The book is kind of an ideal, the way we hope things will happen,” he said in
the same interview, “ It's the only one of my books that escaped being a
children's book."
“The book is kind of an ideal.” This story is about a
mother caring for her growing boy and the love she shows him until the very
end. The story speaks about unconditional love, even through difficult teen years and after moving away. So, yes, the content of the story
itself is an ideal we all hope to have in our lifetime. But, I think Munch
portrays this in an interesting way that can even prompt adults to tear up. And
I think it is because of his use of repetition as his main rhetorical device.
Repetition as a rhetorical device is commonly found in
children’s literature, along with other devices such as metaphors, similes,
personification, hyperbole, alliteration, and onomatopoeia, according to this article.
Repetition, according to Susan R. Gannon’s article, repetition creates suspense, rhythm, and gratification
for young children in literature, but it also “is also a powerful means of
generating meaning in fiction.” This meaning, I would argue, has something to
do with a parent’s love for their child; something that impacts every human.
The rhetorical use of repetition paints this love as unconditional love as
well, which, like Munch notes, is an ideal that we all strive to have and give.
This story is told rather point-blank. The language is
simple, the reading level sits just above an 8th-grade level (but with creative
works, we know that’s not always an accurate statistic to look at), and many of
the phrases are repeated. The frequent repetition creates not just a rhythm to
keep the reader or listener interested, but the anaphora and epistrophe
tell the story of growing up and of a mother’s love for her son. The mother’s
actions are repeated throughout the story, despite the fact that her son is
growing into an adult. The recurrent actions of the mother create a sentimental
tone. It is through the repetition of specific words and phrases that Munch
successfully portrays what it feels like to watch your child grow up and to
love (and be loved) unconditionally. It’s in writing about this ideal that
Munch was able to reach an audience beyond children.
One phrase that is repeated throughout the book is “He
grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew…” This phrase is used at the
beginning of every age jump of the son in the story. The little boy jumps from
being a newborn to age 2, then to 9, then to his teenage years, then into
adulthood. These age gaps get wider and more ambiguous as the pages go on, but
the phrase stays the same. I think the repetition of these words shows just how
quickly the years go when raising a child. Your newborn turns into a
two-year-old a few words later. Then your two-year-old turns into a nine-year-old
a few words later. And it continues. But, despite how quickly time seems to be
moving in the story, the mom is still present in her son’s life, even into his
adulthood.
Her presence is shown through the other instance of
anaphora in this book. The mother of the story is seen rocking her son “back
and forth, back and forth, back and forth” repeatedly through the years. This
specific phrase is found every time the mother sneaks into her son’s room to
rock him to sleep. This phrase is more than an action. It repeatedly paints the
image of the mother holding her son in the different stages of his life (even
if it becomes a bit ridiculous when he’s an adult). It shows the steadfast
presence of the mother in the son’s life, holding and supporting him no matter
what. Every night, even if the boy was being mischievous or even if he lives
across town, the mother was with the boy to tell him she loved him. This, I
think, is an ideal we all yearn for: for someone to love us like that, or to
love someone like that.
At the end of the story, the roles reverse as the old
mother lays in her son’s arms. Instead of the mother rocking him back and
forth, it is the son rocking his mother back and forth and sings to her as she
passes away. In the story, the words “back and forth” are still repeated during
this moment. This simple phrase of “back and forth” shows the impact of the
mother’s presence in her son’s life affected him. The phrase is also repeated
when the son goes into his daughter’s room to sing her to sleep. The repetition
in the new contexts with the boy continues to show the idea of the steadfast
presence of the mother in his life, even beyond death.
Another use of repetition, and the most significant one, is
the epistrophe of the lullaby. It is repeated throughout the book at the end of
the pages when the boy is asleep. Munch mentioned on his website
that the whole idea for the book stemmed
from this lullaby he created. Themes of love and growth are found in this short
lullaby. As with the rocking back and forth, the repetition of this lullaby
throughout the pages shows the steadfastness of the mother. The rocking back
and forth showed the mother’s presence in the boy’s life, but it goes beyond
that. The repetition of the lullaby shows the constant presence of the mother’s
love in the boy’s life as well. The rocking and the lullaby are always repeated
together. Again, at the end of the book, when the mother is laying in her son’s
arms, he finally sings the song to her. When she passes away, he rocks his
daughter and sings her the same song his mother sang to him. This repetition
shows that love can stretch beyond generations and is passed down.
Sentimentality is created when something in our lives that
we enjoy or love repeats itself. Whether it’s a movie we enjoyed watching again
and again or a certain type of bird that keeps popping up to remind us of the
loved one we lost, sentimentality occurs when something continues to return
that reminds us of something significant. If I Love You Forever didn’t
repeat the phrases and the lullaby, what effect would it have on the reader? If
the son didn’t repeat the same song at the end of the book, what effect would
it have on the reader? The story wouldn’t be the same, and it wouldn’t have the
rhythm and consistency we strive to have.
When I think back to the books I was read as a child, I
think a lot about There’s a Wocket in My Pocket by Dr. Suess, or Don’t
Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. I think one main goal of most children’s
books is to get the child’s imagination running. To try to get the child to
believe there’s a world where weird, mostly-friendly creatures live in the
nooks of our houses, or worlds where pigeons can cause human mischief. I think
the goal of I Love You Forever is quite the opposite of that. I think
the goal of this book is trying to get children to look at those loved ones
around them, to appreciate them, and to love them back unconditionally. Instead
of trying to get us to look beyond this tactile world, it’s trying to get us to
take a step back and look at our world. It’s reminding us to love until the
very end. A reminder we all, big or small, need over and over again.
Emily Rux
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