There he goes one of God’s own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to love, and too rare to die.
Ninny is a
young girl who appears as a main character in Moomin book Tales from
Moominvalley (1962), in a short story named after her called The Invisible
Child. Ninny had an awful upbringing by her cruel aunt, which left the poor
girl completely invisible. Aunt’s
constant irony damaged the child so deeply that besides being invisible, Ninny
is also terribly quiet and submissive. Her voice is terribly small and she only
plays when told to do so. Ninny is a picture of a perfect child as she is obedient and does her chores even without being told, but the story also reminds the readers how sad it is for a young child to behave like this. Ninny does not laugh and her only reaction to playing after beind told to do so is to say, rather emotionlessly, how fun it is. Ninny never asks for anything or has opinions or shows creativity. This causes Little My to snap at her and wonder if Ninny even has any life in her.
All of Ninny’s behaviour serves to show that she does not have an actual personality; nothing separates her as her own person. Ninny simply performs whatever is expected of her. Her aunt’s distant and cruel treatment has not offered Ninny a healthy mirror and her development has been severely damaged because of this. Aunt’s irony has also caused Ninny to hide herself entirely because everything she has expressed has lead to shaming and ridicule. Getting to a safe environment heals some of this. But even though Moominmamma’s kindness is able to bring
out Ninny’s legs and her body up to her neck, her face remains missing.
Little My
tries to get Ninny to get angry and tells her that she will never have her own
face if she does not learn to fight. Eventually, this turns out to be true.
When Ninny aggressively attacks Moominpappa to defend Moominmamma from his
prank, her hissing face finally appears. After this she has a wild laugh at
Pappa’s expense. Too-Ticky thinks that the girl may have turned out even worse
than Little My, but she is finally visible and that is all that matters.
It is most
likely not a coincidence that the two characters who help Ninny the most are
Too-Ticky and Moominmamma, who’s real life counterparts were Tove Jansson’s
most beloved people Tuulikki and Ham. There is a lot of writer herself in Ninny
and Tove even wrote in her notes that she would need to learn to show her anger
and gain her face like Ninny. This may explain why Ninny and her predicament
are portrayed with such attention and understanding.
Ninny’s
story has been lovingly analyzed in more academic papers than one can possibly list
and has become a classic about children and their development. At the core, The
Invisible Child is a story about how coldness and irony mercilessly devastate
the fragile selfhood of a child. A child needs to feel that they are so safe
and loved that they are also allowed to be difficult and get angry. Ninny has
been robbed of a real care all her childhood and her selfhood is completely stunted.
It’s only under Moomin family’s patient acceptance and Moominmamma’s gentle
loving that Ninny can finally find herself again. Besides academics, many people who have grown up in emotionally abusive homes seem to strongly relate to The Invisible child and her experiences.
