Reading Memorial High School - Pioneer Yearbook (Reading, MA)

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k iO THE PIONEER. j with a fierceness; when she dislikes she always is trying some way Of letting forth her hatred. Recause she is so different from other children, her mother do ' eS hot Understand her and she struggles On alone. When she seeks to revenge anything she retreats to the attic, where she Vnakes a Wooden doll receive all her vengeance. Then immediately she becomes sorry and re¬ pentant. Maggie is very, very loving and always needs somebody whom she can love and who loves her. This person she depends upon for all her encouragement. If her brother had loved her as much as she loved him, many of Maggie’s childish troubles would have been unknown. Her father’s love was the one star of hope in her childhood. We sympathize with her throughout her life the more because we know what turning points and circumstances in her first years made her what she wars later. In all her writings, George Eliot has a wonderful wav of holding her readers’ atlen- tion; yet she says of herself that she could make her characters more interesting “if I were a clever novelist, not obliged to creep servilely after nature and fact, but able to represent things as they never have been and never will be.” Rut in this “creeping after nature and fact” lies all her charm. J. Gertrude Francis, ’02. v

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THE PIONEER. 19 their minds about every new incident. So we are much more interested in how the theft of his money will affect the character of Silas Mar- ner than in what became of the monev itself. Then, too, our attention is held by the effect caused on the mind and thoughts of Adam Bede by the wrongdoing of his before esteemed and much admired friend — Arthur Donnithorne. We wonder what change it will make in his character and George Eliot does not disap¬ point us ; she shows how it sobers him and dark¬ ens his view of life. Because she follows life so closely and por¬ trays many incidents of universal experience, we sympathize with the characters we meet in her books. None of us fails to understand how the Poyser family spoiled Totty, for often in our own experiences we see a family indulgent toward the youngest of the household and this petted child we see develop into a selfish woman. To all of us New Englanders, Dolly Winthrop, the ever-ready nurse, comforter and helper for everybody of her acquaintance, is per¬ fectly familiar. We all have among our own friends a “Dolly Winthrop,” always willing to help. And because we know what good our kind friend does for us, we easily understand how «■ Sil as Marner was helped by the sympathy and kindness of Dolly Winthrop. These different book-people really seem like new friends and grow and develop before us like real individuals. r e unconsciously admire Dinah Morris and, if we are girls, choose her as an ideal, as she grows into a strong woman in the midst of poverty and discouragement. We long to comfort Adam Bede in his despair, and to be¬ friend Silas Marner in his loneliness. We know what effect loneliness and despair will have upon them. The characteristics of these friends un¬ fold and change before us without the author once saying “here she changed” or “such and such characteristics were changed.” We know all their thoughts and we see the change occur as a result of these. We follow Hetty Sorrel, and we do not see how she could change in any other way than from a simple-minded girl to a trouble-worn fugitive. So we sympathize with her because we know just what thoughts and reasons in her own mind led her to do wrong. George Eliot so presents her hero or hero¬ ine that we often see all the other characters through their eyes and feel the same towards them as does the hero or heroine. This is especially true in “Adam Bede;” we love Hetty as Adam loves her; we feel just as impatient towards Lisbeth ; we respect Mr. Irwine just as much; and we have the same attitude towards Dinah. Likewise in “Silas Marner” we love Eppie just as much as Silas himself did. The child characters of George Eliot’s novels are most beautifully and carefully por¬ trayed. Eppie, in “Silas Marner,” though not the principal character, is the heroine of the story and the saviour of Silas Marner. She is presented to us with such delicate touches, that it is almost impossible to believe the author was never a mother. At the very first a charming picture is given to us of this little gold¬ en haired baby toddling through the snow after the bright ray of light. Her shawl is trailing behind and her bonnet hanging down her back. Surely only a great lover of children could have written this. Then, too; the little incident of baby’s wet shoes and the interest she took in her tiny feet, when the shoes were removed, shows the charming childishness of this mother¬ less baby. The love of mischief was manifested by Eppie when she cut the band of cloth she was tied with and ran away when “dad-dad” wasn’t looking. This roguishness is also shown by the utter lack of impression that the confine¬ ment in the coal-hole made upon her. As she grows older, her love for Silas grows stronger and stronger. In this feeling, she does not once think that she ever had a father other than Silas. By this tribute to her adopted par¬ ent, she also shows in her own character, deep trust, affection and gratitude towards the man who has taken care of her for so long. Very different from Eppie, is Maggie Tulliver, the heroine of “The Mill on the Floss.” Maggie is rebellious, impulsive, passionate and loving. Everything about her seems to go a little too far in one direction. When she loves, she loves

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