A Persistent Force: Violence in Maurice Gee’s Historical Novels for Children
Since the publication of his first novel, The Big Season, in 1962, Maurice Gee’s fiction for adults has been noted for its preoccupation with violence. But can we say the same of his fiction for children? And if so, how might that predisposition be reconciled for young readers? Using a predominantly literary-historical reading of Gee’s fiction for children published between 1986 and 1999, this thesis attempts to answer these questions. Chapter 1 establishes the impact of violence on Gee’s early years and its likely influence on his writing. Chapters 2-4 then consider the presence of violence in Gee’s five historical novels for children. Chapter 2 focuses on the wartime novels, The Fire-Raiser and The Champion, and their respective depictions of war and racism, while chapter 3 explores individual, family and social violence as “expanding scenes of violence” (Heim 25) in The Fat Man. The fourth and final chapter discusses the two post-war novels, Orchard Street and Hostel Girl, where social violence runs as an undercurrent of everyday life. The thesis finds that violence – in different forms and at different intensities – persists across the novels and that Gee tempers its presence appropriately for his young readers. Violence, Gee seems to be saying, is part of the mixed nature of the human condition and this knowledge should not be denied children.