This article will compare the two children's stories "Shiroi-boshi" and "Gon-gitsune" in terms of narration, plotting, and context. "Shiroi-boshi" is doubly structured; there lies another kind of context beneath the apparent context. According to Minoru Tanaka's theory of narrative functions, the manifest context can be defined as "narrative," while the latent one as "fictional," a paradoxical literary device which makes any fixed meaning impossible. In this sense, "Shiroi-boshi" is more than a mere children's story. On the other hand, the context of "Gon-gitsune" remains "narrative," for there things are too articulately represented through its explicit plot and narration.
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