Re: Amazon Wimps?


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Posted by andyb on April 02, 2005 at 14:34:27 from 213.122.18.218 user beardbiter.

In Reply to: Re: Amazon Wimps? posted by Jon on March 30, 2005 at 13:23:19:

"I always feel like the centre of attention is on the four younger ones (T, R, and the Ds), with the older characters facilitating their adventures"
I like Lisa's bold premise but it can be countered by suggesting that, the voices of the 'young ones' act as a chorus commenting on their elders.
Looking at which characters develop most in the course of the stories, I suggest that in SA, although AR is careful to sum up what island life has meant for each of the Swallows "for Roger it would be the place where he learnt to swim and first went with the others." John develops the most, through the business with CF and having to explain night sailing to his mother.
In SD John again, has to face the consequences of his actions, as does Titty in the wax doll episode.
WD is definitely John's (and to a lesser extent Susan's) story. As is SW where John finally lays the ghost of his "failing to live up to father's expectations" anxieties. (You might have thought sailing Goblin safely across the N Sea would have been enough for any boy but AR had this worry big-time, as a reading of his biography shows.)
Returning to the Amazons, as Jon said Peggy has a major role in WH, while Nancy acts as deus ex machina, or some sort of guiding spirit of adventure throughout the stories before emerging as a real person in PM.
In 'real life' Titty/Mavis was said to be AR's favourite, perhaps that is why she is so central to the early books. John, as I've just argued is the competent but sensitive person AR would have liked to have been and Nancy is a favourite in another way. As Taqui Altonyoun said when asked "Are you John or Nancy?"
"I'm supposed to be John but I wanted to be Nancy". Most? Many? Of us can feel this with her?
After all we don't have a "John Walker, Titty Walker or Dorothea Callum Trust do we?




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