Posted by Ed Kiser on January 02, 2005 at 23:08:30 from 205.188.116.6 user Kisered.
It is a rather common feeling that one would like to "get back to
that place that we once called home." We desire to return to the
pleasant times of our youth, and thus to that place of our youth.
But sadly, it is seldom possible to "go back home" again. The
"home" we once knew and loved is either not even there anymore,
or has undergone such changes as to be almost unrelated to that
image that is in the eye of our memory.
It appears that our Ransome characters seem to think that Wild
Cat Island is that home that personifies the pleasures of their
youthful enthusiasm. In subsequent adventures, there is that
feeling of needing to return to Wild Cat, to get "back home
again."
In that final chapter of S&A, Mrs. Dixon speaks of their
returning next year as a possibility. She says:
----------
"But perhaps you'll be coming again next year."
"Every year. For ever and ever," said Titty.
"Aye," said Mrs. Dixon, "we all think that when we're
young."
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In Mrs. Dixon's answer, we see the thread of the idea that
returning "home" is not all that easy as we would want it to be.
Here we see the expression from Titty of that desire to return to
this place, again and again, and yet, somehow, it does not seem
to happen quite as we would want it to happen.
We, as readers of these stories, also looked forward to some
later book taking our friends back to Wild Cat Island. It was
that desired goal, something to work for, to look forward to, but
somehow, they did not really get there.
As we picked up each new book in the Lake series, we were always
with the hope that once again, they will be able to continue
their adventures of living on Wild Cat Island. That was what we
wanted, but somehow, we never were given that success.
It was a near thing though, as in Swallowdale, it started out on
such a happy note, as if this story was to be the answer to our
desires (and theirs) to once more get back to Wild Cat Island.
But even as they made their voyage that first day back to the
island, something was different; something was amiss. The
Amazons were not anywhere to be seen. The houseboat seemed to be
closed up. There was no cannon firing to welcome them, no
dipping of the flag on the houseboat to salute their return.
When they landed, hoping to find the Amazons there, they found
instead some firewood had been stacked up for them, apparently by
the Amazons, with a note indicating some sort of "native
trouble." Already the return to Wild Cat Island was not what
they had hoped it would be.
But their plans to camp there became rather suddenly altered by
the loss of the Swallow. So the camp had to shift to
Swallowdale, but even there, the Amazons were not able to camp
with them, as they had to rush home to be on time for meals.
At the end of the story of Swallowdale, they did return to the
island, but we readers did not get to enjoy that return to island
life again, as that is where the book ended. As to what they did
after they got back there, we will never know. We never were
able to share those adventures with our friends.
Even in Pigeon Post, their working on that mining project was
really a temporary occupation until the "real" fun could begin
back on the island. Captain Flint was not there, and he was a
big part of the fun of camping on the island, what with his
walking the plank for example. Until Mrs. Walker came to Holly
Howe, there was no Swallow, as it belonged to the Jacksons.
There was the matter of getting permission from the various
parents involved who had not yet arrived at the Lake yet, so Mrs.
Blackett felt a great responsibility for all this crew as she
wanted them relatively nearby so she could keep an eye on them.
Again at the end of this story there is the implication that now
they can get back to the island, this time with Timothy as well
as Captain Flint to walk the plank, but we, as readers, again are
denied the joys of sharing those adventures with our friends.
In Picts and Martyrs, due to the special circumstances of the
minimum of adult supervision, there was to be "no adventures"
until Mrs. Blackett returned. So that ruled out the island as a
camp site. The D's did get their own boat, so that certainly
made the island a more accessable target, but again, without the
parents' permission and more local supervision, such was to wait
until the elders showed up. This book also ended with the
anticipation of the soon arrival of those parents and thus the
way would be free to return to the island, but again, we readers
were not to share in those adventures.
While it was aluded to that our friends did get back there from
time to time, we were not to share those adventures with them, so
we kept up the hope that sometime, the adventures on Wild Cat
Island would once more be on the pages for us to read. There was
hope with "Coots in the North" that perhaps there, the joys of
island life could be demonstrated once again to the benefit of
their new found friends, the Death and Glories from the Broads,
who would feel that the Lake area was a strange foreign land, so
different from what they knew as home, but again, that adventure
was left dangling in our minds to our utter frustration.
We readers never were able to truly get back to the island. That
hope kept us grabbing for each new book of the series, but never
actually was satisfied, leaving us wanting more.
We can only try to imagine what happened then, at the end of
those lake stories, where there was the anticipation of their
returning to that island, but such return was to be be done
without us sharing in those adventures. We can only hope that at
least, they again had fun there that we can only try to imagine.
It seems that in the stories of Swallowdale, Pigeon Post, and Picts
and Martyrs, that at the end of the book, the adventures are now
just about to start, and it is to happen on The Island, which is
where they wanted to be anyhow. But for that part of the continued
story, we readers are not invited to be there with them.
We knew they made it back to The Island, but we, the readers,
never did.
Ed Kiser, South Florida