Childhood in View

Television that often represents childhood correctly is the shows that are aimed to entertain children. The shows are simple and only show the basic view of life. They often ignore darker aspects and adult content. Even when an older person watches one of these shows, they may not feel like they're getting the whole picture. A child on the other hand doesn't need the whole picture thereby making the show perfect for them.
A good show that represents the feeling of childhood on the other hand is a different story. For me, Lost shows what it's like to be a child. You often don't fully know what is going on, and you still have a lot to learn about life and the people around you. In lost the characters are there to have a second shot at life. Essentially they are all children, because the are re-learning the value of life and the basics you need to know about it. They also all have to learn to get along, much like school. The Island is a controlled environment that forces them to grow up and stop living in the fantasy they once did.
In the four stories we've read a different aspect of childhood is shown. In "The Sutton Pie Safe" the child doesn't know the seriousness of situation around him and only focuses on the most basic of things, like the snake belt. In "Every Little Hurricane" the child shows how he dissolves the situation around him by using his imagination. In "Where are you Going, Where have you Been?" the teenager hates her parents so blindly, that she leaves them to go on a ride with a rapist. Often teenage angst leads to bad decisions much like this one. In "Bottle Caps" the lead character's little brother takes his collection to help make himself feel better about the basic nature of death by making graves for the insects he sees each day.