In light of wider reading explore the ways in which Dickens and McEwan present the significance of child development in their novels ‘Hard Times’ and ‘Atonement’
Childhood is a common theme in literature as children’s psychological development has concerned writers and thinkers for centuries. The aging and maturing both physically and mentally in adolescence has been harnessed by writers and thinkers as they attempt to portray the intricate emotional development. “Childhood’s familiarity, yet unknowability, is one reason why it is so intriguing to writers”
The defining bracket of childhood adapts with the societal beliefs of the time and the parenting style bestowed upon them. “He that spared his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” This quote from the Bible states that if a child is undisciplined they will become disobedient, ill-mannered, and will grow up with having little respect and takes little responsibility for their actions; possibly unrounded, like the adults from Atonement and Hard Times.
The defining age at which childhood ends and adulthood begins has adapted to accompany social states, such as wars and economic crisis, but also specific to the individual character, divorce, education or abuse are all responsible for prematurely dragging children out of their childhood, leaving them different to their peers. Much of eighteenth century’s Romantic poets presented childhood as essential and tried to protect the innocence which was to be lost in adulthood.
“Sweet joy I call thee;
Thou dost smile.
I sing the while
Sweet joy befall thee”
The Victorian novel published in the midst of the industrial revolution when childhood wasn’t valued as highly as during the romantic period, Hard Times by Charles Dickens presents adults and children who are the result of the rejection of childhood fancy and obsession with fact, whereas in the contemporary novel Atonement by Ian McEwan presents the result of emotionally feral children with an imbalance between fact and fancy. Both Dickens and McEwan present a timeline of the emotional development of neglected children into adulthood, who becomes different from their peers. The bildungsroman children are presented as the result of the failure of adults and the flawed world which has created imbalances between fact and fancy during their childhoods which has prevented them from becoming fully rounded adults.
1. Childhood, the bildungsroman (growing up novel), lack of balance drags children out of childhood too early,
The Bildungsroman is a novel which narrates the story of growing up, “it tells the experiences of the character; through the narrative about one or more character’s experience of growth, it reflects the course of changing from naivety to maturity in mind and psychology of the characters.” Both Atonement and Hard Times have elements of this genre noticeable in the protagonists Briony, Louisa, Tom and Sissy. Briony’s moral development and maturing in Atonement gives the novel it’s Bildungsroman qualities as she searches for redemption as she ages. “was everyone else really as alive as she was? For example, did her sister really matter to herself, was she as valuable to herself as Briony was? Was being Cecilia just as vivid an affair as being Briony? Did her sister also have a real self-concealed behind a breaking wave, and did she spend time thinking about it…if the answer was yes, then the world, the social world, was unbearably complicated…but if the answer was no, then Briony was surrounded by machines, intelligent and pleasant enough on the outside, but lacking the bright and private inside feeling she had.”
In her innocence and immaturity, she finds it unfathomable that others could have as vivid an experience of life as she does, that each person could have as complex an inner mind seems impossible and unquantifiable, therefore she struggles to regard these perspectives as highly as her own. She disregards others in her youth which only retrospectively through the metanarrative, Briony realises is a problem.
Hard Times has been regarded as a Bildungsroman for the growth of the protagonists, Louisa, Tom and Sissy. These children are brought up under a utilitarian education system which doesn’t regard creativity as highly as academic ability. A system which ‘taught that human nature was motivated by self-interest, and was the duty of the state to, through education and extension of the franchise”. It fails to regard genuine human qualities such as compassion and love which without as demonstrated in the novel represses morals and creativity. “Dickens believed that this system was a failure to children as it changed their mind and morals” as it “robs children of their childhood” as shown in Frauds on the Fairies, (1853) “In a utilitarian age, of all other times, it is a matter of grave importance that fairy tales should be respected." The failure to recognise these genuine characteristics makes the children incapable to be in touch with their emotions and morals. “If we reason that we want happiness for others, not for ourselves, then we ought justly to be suspected of failing to recognize human nature for what it is and of wishing to turn men into machines.” This requires the characters to psychologically grow to repair the damage of their upbringing. “There was an air of jaded sullenness in them both, and particularly in the girl: yet, struggling through the dissatisfaction of her face, there was a light with nothing to rest upon, a fire with nothing to burn, a starved imagination keeping life in itself somehow, which brightened its expression.” Louisa feeling starved of adventure as her upbringing encourages her to believe all actions must be efficient and hold purpose, supressing her natural creativity and leaving her out of touch with her emotions. This suppression later prevents her from forming meaningful loving relationships.
Whereas adopted Sissy Jupe who has different upbringing to her siblings, as her father valued her creativity and wonder is able to be in touch with the emotions which her siblings are incapable to naturally producing. SISSY TO LOUISA QUOTE
The juxtaposition between Sissy’s and Louisa’s upbringing presents the two extremes of imbalances as both characters are incapable of the other skill, of fact or fancy. To such an extreme that Mr. Bounderby views people who indulge in fancy as a threat as presented in much of chapter four.
These imbalances make the protagonists psychological development more intriguing to the reader.
2. BOTH HAVE: diverse family upbringing, Dysfunctional family life, lack of adequate parents, special sibling relationships
Both books have the theme of a dysfunctional family life which results in a diverse upbringing. The parents in Atonement are presented as being absent and inadequate from the readers understanding from young Briony’s metanarrative. Her mother who is presented as absent as she suffers from migraines and subsequently shuts herself up in her room. Her father as a part of the Civil Service he is absent due to his work, pre-world War was time consuming, leaving Briony and her sister to be emotionally feral in their large country home. The absence of her parents results in a different family dynamic resulting in the siblings being more reliant on the support of each-other. Briony to Leon and Louisa and Tom. To compensate for the lack of control in her life Briony develops a compulsive nature and a reliance on order.