Mary Poppins Source Material and Audience

Mary Poppins has been labeled by the general public as a children’s story as far as my memory goes. While this is generally attributed to the Disney adaptation, it is evident in the story how, upon a surface level investigation, a reader could come to this conclusion. An obvious aspect that is present throughout the book is Mary Poppins’ “magic”. While she insists that none of the children’s experiences are magical, it fairly easy to see due to leftover evidence that there is some remnant of magical action. Generally this would cater toward a younger audience, as mythical or extraordinary actions usually are reminiscent of lower-level writing. As well, the story arch centered around a nanny and her children is a repeating situation that shows itself in more children’s books. However, what separates Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Comes Back is the increased robusticity of the adult characters in the story. Aside from a very prominent role that is given to the parents, Mary Poppins herself is a very dynamic character that is not only this happy and joyful women who has magic; she is more human. Poppins’ admired qualities are also balanced by a combination of vanity, arrogance, and a manipulative nature. While this creates a less child friendly character to be watching over other children, it creates a more intriguing situation to the reader as they are more able to identify and dig in to Poppins’ character.

It is these aspects that give validation to Travers’ claims that he did not write for children. However, given his comments, it is unclear as to who his intended audience is. While, in the article given, he dispels the idea that he wrote Mary Poppins for children, he never enlightens the reader on his intended audience. His writing also does not provide any hard evidence to suggest an intended audience, as it hints at and incorporates more mature events and emotions but it is packaged in a magical adventure. This leads me to believe that Travers did not write solely for a specific audience. While there was probably an audience he expected to entertain his novel, a story this encompassing in a multitude of child-like and adult aspects usually is mostly driven by a brain child of an author.

            I did notice that the two books were very similar in structure and situation. Mary Poppins Comes Back feels very much like the same outline of Mary Poppins was taken and then adjusted in details in order to create a “new” story. Although the beginning is in fact different, as the kids basically turn to the exact behavior that Mary Poppins encouraged them to steer clear of and a new character in Annabel is introduced, Mary Poppins Returns falls into a pattern that is familiar to the reader. Mary Poppins is still the same vain, manipulative, yet still caring nanny that is not afraid to tell lies to the children in order to maintain her mystery. Most of the story is either repetitive from between the two books or within the story such as Starling, who offers the same quotations in each of the chapters she pops up in.