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Madeleine McCarthy, an eight-year-old daughter of the manager of the Central Officer's School, is blinded by her innocence into believing she is at fault for the events in her life that are realistically out of her control, but at the same time her youthful innocence allows her to live in a brightly lit world where nothing is as awful as adults make it out to be.
Madeleine is forced to stay after school to participate in "exercises" led by the fourth grade teacher, Mr. March, who is a perspiring, beefy man with rough hands. In reality, he is getting away with the rape of several young girls in his classroom. Claire McCarroll, one of the only girls able to escape the "after-three exercises" is killed by two of her classmates, although another boy is convicted of the crime. Madeleine is convinced that it is Mr. March who committed the rape and murder throughout her youth because she has fit him into this archetype that, as a child, she is unable to imagine changing.
Towards the beginning of the novel, Mr. March convinces Madeleine that she is to blame for her involvement in the "after-three-exercises because of the grades he is giving her. For several years after, Madeleine is worried that the tainted "smell" she imagines herself giving off with reveal the secret of the "after-three-exercises" to everyone she encounters. During a conversation with her father, she recalls something Mr. March had said to her: "Do you know what will happen if your parents find out what a bad child you’ve been?" (MacDonald 245). She can't help but invest in every words Mr. March says because he is an adult and, in her child-skewed mind, knows all the answers and the outcome of every situation.
This novel connects the levels of youth and innocence over generations in a family while divulging certain relatives' perceptions and misunderstandings about death, love, feelings, and other people. Anne, the niece of Connie Flood, narrates the story in her journey to better understand her aunt, which forces her to examine herself in the process.
Connie has an extensive past with a former school principle, Ian "Parley" Burns, complicated by their equally strong personalities and inability to trust one another. She believes he is the indirect cause of a young girl's demise. The girl dies after her house goes up in flames and she is unable to escape because her father trapped her in her room out of shame after the unknown events that took place between her and Parley Burns in his office after school hours.
When Parley Burns keeps the young Susan Graves after school, Connie is sure that her dying in the house fire a week later is linked; but she does not report it to anyone, keeping Parley Burns safe. Although she is convinced beyond every measure that Parley Burns is the cause, Connie refuses to discuss the matter and instead continues to study Parley Burns for further motive, clues, etc. for as long as they work in the same building. Soon after the incident, she comments, "Parley was never investigated, arrested, charged, impugned, or punished… But Connie had noticed a tremor in his right hand… Arrogance rescued him." (Hay 118). The adult perspective is proven superior once more in this aspect when she hears of him being admitted to a mental hospital later in life. Connie no longer feels the need to blame Parley Burns for what had happened, and is merely curious, perhaps concerned, about the events in his life leading up to his admittance.
Depicted by the 3-dimensional model, children and adults are able to see the same situation or event from different perspectives based on their developmental stages. The perception that a child has is often clouded by their confidence that the world is a safe place where nothing bad can happen, and that everyone and everything are black and white, while adults have more years of experience, and therefore are aware of how unforgiving the world can be and of the grey areas that lie within everyone and everything. This leaves adults with a less clouded perception of the world where they are able to rationalize and come to probable conclusions.
The model is based on a rough visualization of one of the crime scenes in each of the novels studied to more accurately show how youth with misinterpret a specific situation that they can perfectly understand as adults.
To look through the clouded window would be to look at the murder scene from the perspective of a young Madeleine or Connie, while looking through the clear window would show their growth as characters into adulthood and a better understanding of the events that took place during their youth.
The Way the Crow Flies
by Anne-Marie MacDonald
and
Alone in the Classroom
by Elizabeth Hay
Adulthood
Childhood