Once upon a time I was ten years old and I read a story. It was not about love, adventures or fantasy, norprobably any other genre that could come to my mind. However, it had a little bit of all of them. It is probably closest to a bildungsroman, anarrative of the personal growth of a character from childhood to adulthood. Indeed, I followed my dear Darrel Rivers during that process. I remember vividly my mother offering to buy me the book series of Malory Towers when we were at the book store, and thinking that if she had liked it forty years ago, I could like it too. It was also a thick book, the kind of thickness that would have requiredboth of my small hands to describe it, so my young know-it-all pride wassatisfied. I did not know then that I would be embarking onsuch a special trip, one that would take me from the ideas of a British writer to my own understanding of life and would connect them all with an unbreakable bond.
In the 1940’s, Enid Blytondecided to tell the story of Darrel Rivers’ six years at the most wonderful boarding school on earth, Malory Towers. Many years later I fell in love with it and with its characters, who would become some of my best friends. These books have left their markon me to this day. While I was immersed in those pages, I lived the life these new friends were living and learned the same lessons they did; not those learnt inside the classroom, but outside of it, where real life – or maybe not that real – was happening. I realize now that, asan impressionable kid, I embraced manyof the principles that educators at Malory Towers tried to teach. But what were these principles? And why did I relate to them so quickly?
First of all, I should introduce the person whowas reading Malory Towersfor the first time:
It was 2010 and in the north of Spain a child was caressing the smooth cover of the book before entering its world – a ritual still alive in her life ten years later. She was a middle-school student eager forknowledge and new experiences, who did not really care that those experiences were inside a book. By that time, she already knew how powerful written stories can be. She was smart, and although she was aware of her lack of knowledge, she was also conscious ofthe fact that she knew more things than the majority of the kids in her grade. Perfection washer goal, and because life is quite easy when one is ten years old and is talented in multiplying and dividing in math class, it was her daily achievement too. That perfection shapedher young and developing character: she was the good girl whose behavior was always as correct as her decisions.
Yes, that was me, that little smart-ass. So, if we now take a look at what the goal of moralswas in Malory Towers, or in England in general, the connection is evident: self-control, discipline, honesty, good manners… Everything that I thought – and still think – that is necessary in order to be a role model could be found between those pages. And it could be found in the protagonist, Darrel. I admired her so much. She was smart, popular and a very good athlete. She seemed so mature; her sense of justice would fix the world. She had a really bad temper that got her in trouble a few times, but she learned to control it in just a couple of years. I felt so connected to her from the very first moment and wanted to be just like her. Although I did not realize at first, I transferred manyof her ideas and habits to my life. I still encounter some of them.
When Darrel arrivesat Malory Towers she isseeking what everybody else islooking for: a friend. What makesdifficult to find that friend is the characteristic that this friend hasto have: exclusivity. Of course, popularity isvery important for the students, but having manyfriends is not enough. You needed a best friend, a forever soulmate, somebody who would fit your personality and complete it in the way that only seems possible in books. During her first term in the school, Darrel strugglesto find that person. Every girl that she likesisalready matched, and nobody likes being a third wheel, even in friendships. It isat the end of the term when she getsto know Sally Hope, with whom she willseal this special bond. Sally isone of the most wonderful and kind peoplein the world. She will always be loyal and honest to her friend, give her the best adviceand calm her down when necessary.
I had my own best friend at middle school. We used to do everything together and share all of our secrets. Maybe we did not have that kind of Malory Tower’s friendship at first, but at some point, it became like that. It could have been the book and how I kept building our friendship after reading it; or maybe it was time, and we would have been that close anyway. I probably will not ever know it. But, coincidence or not, I ended up having a Sally. Her name wasAna and she was a gift from the sky: sensible, fun, shy but courageous enough to confront it, smart but not very aware of it, loyal and creative. We were just kids, but she was already all of these things and I already knew it.
The last time I re-read one of theMalory Towers books I was fourteen years old. The last time I saw Ana and talkedto her I was fourteen years old. I have been reconnecting with the books during the last few weeks, finding old – but also new– parts of myself in the process. Thishas made me want to reconnect with other things too. Maybe with people.
My dear Darrel not only had friends, she also had an “enemy”, a girl who hated her because she was jealous of Darrel’spopularity. Her name was Gwendoline and she was the bad guy of the story: spoiled, arrogant and selfish; she hated sports and she was not a good student. I dislikedher fromthe first time she appeared in the story due to her attitude towards the school and the other girls. However, I remember once rethinkingher role in the story. In one of the firsts books of the series, during a PE class, Gwendoline startsto complain about a pain in her stomach. Everybody guessso quickly that it isjust flatulence due to the exercise, and she is advisedto bend over and touch her toes with her hands. She tries, but she isnot able to do it, so all of her classmates makefun of her. Suddenly, I felt fear. Was I able to touch my toes? So I ceased my reading, stood up and bent over to try to reachmy feet. And I could not. Darrel and all of her friends could! I was like Gwendoline! But I liked sports and I was not as pretentious and annoying as she was and I was obedient and I got good grades and I was Darrel not her! I was in the “dark” side, trying to figure out how to get back with the good guys. However, I was mostly trying to figure out if I really wanted to be on Darrel’s side, because she was being so mean. But when you are a kid you do not usually give much credit to suchreflections, so I kept reading and idolizing my heroines.
Nonetheless, if you are lucky, there may be occasionsin your life when you will have to go back to moments like thisand think about them again, probably from a different perspective. Planning this essay was such and occasion:I had to ask myself what values I had embraced from Malory Towersand Enid Blyton. “Every good thing that I am,” was my first thought.“Be more specific,” was the challenge then. And I started to dig into the education of the books, where I unexpectedly found that Blyton’s world was not as perfect as I used to think. Why would every single character make fun of the French teacher’s French accent? Why would they make such mean jokes aboutkind and naïve teachers? What was wrong with Gwendoline not plaiting her hair because she liked it free? And sowhat if she was not good at sports? Was it really that badthat a group of 16-year-old girls organizeda party at midnight? Why did everybody have to like swimming? I was suddenly finding dozens of almost insignificant attitudes that all together were making me question some of the values that I used to look up to. Disappointment and objectivism took me to an unexplored point of view. I was not reading any more a story a little bit old-fashioned, I was reading a story about a girls’boarding school in Great Britain, written after World War II, when manyBritish Imperialistvalues were still alive and held sway in children’s fiction (Lathey 296). I discovered ideas that I strongly disagree with and had not noticed before. For example, almost every foreign character was bad, or at least strange; also, the duty of Malory Towers students once they left the school was to behave as respectable women who could serve the world, not byaction, but throughcalmness and support ofthe real servers. Why was my admirable Enid bringing into such a beautiful story racist and sexist ideas? The woman Iwas starting to hate stated once in her autobiography:
“I am a teacher and a guide (I hope) as well as an entertainer and bringer of pleasure. A best-selling writer for children (particularly the younger ages) wields an enormous influence. I am a mother, and I intend to use that influence wisely, no matter if I am, at times, labelled ‘moralist’ or even ‘preacher’. All the Christian teaching I had, in church or Sunday school or in my reading, has colored every book I have written for you … most of you could write down perfectly correctly all the things that I believe in and stand for – you have found them in my books, and a writer’s books are always a faithful reflection of himself.” (Dixon 44)
I had always thought fondly about Malory Towers, but suddenly I was finding myself in a dilemma: I had to choose whether to reject the story that I used to love or to embrace it despite the sense of conservatism and conformism that could be found in so manyof the life-lessons that I thought it had made me learn. When I focusedin this reflection a tough question came to my mind. Would my little-self be proud of the person that I have become? I have been afraid to answer this, since I have been analyzing that little-self and it looks like we are not very similar anymore, because time and my own experiences have shaped me more than any story.
However, I believe that I have come up with a solution. It is not an answer, but a statement:
I am proud of my-10-year-old-self. I am proud of the person who I have become, a person whohas moral issues when encountering her favorite childhood novels.
I do not regret having read Blyton’s books at all. Can I blame her for living in a different time, where life was probably more complicated? Can I blame her for thinking accordingly to what was right then? Because I am doing just the same by embracing contemporary ideas. In the other hand, she was a powerful woman, she had the opportunity to make a difference with her books by influencing many children, and instead she stayed in an imaginary cage where freedom was still an illusion, and she kept the children in that cage too. But, how fun was that cage! Marilynn Olson and her writing partners explain that, in her books, children found scenarios where their sense of adventure and achievement could be explored and in her readings they could play at mastery (Olson, Ingram, Ashley 295); this was certainly true for me as I experienced Malory Towers.I will forever be grateful for the happiness she provided me. I wish I could talk to her now that the world is a completely different place. I would ask her what she thinks about it, and about me, and if she would change something about her ideas and, therefore, her books. I wish I could know how she created such powerful female characters with such weak ideas. Because Darrel was strong and independent, and despite the way she was raised, I am sure she would have thrived everywhere she went. Above all, I wish I could see Darrel now, living a life like mine, in order to find out how she would do it and if I really have that much to learn from her.Darrel, I still adore you. You will always be my friend.