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“The Changeling” Samantha

“The Changeling” by Robin Jenkins is a novel which centres around the theme of the importance of peoples roots and different peoples attitudes towards them. It depicts the story of a young boy, Tom Curdie who is taken on holiday with his teacher, Charlie Forbes. Tom is raised in a slum in the east end of Glasgow called Donaldson’s Court.
Many of the inhabitants of this slum are either mentally ill or have learning difficulties, very few people who live there make a success of their life and inevitably end up spending their life in Donaldson’s Court. It is a viscous cycle and many who live close to the slum know that. However, Tom is very intelligent and many of his teachers recognise this but they believe because he lives in Donaldson’s Court he will end up like every other product of the slum. Charlie realises this and believes that if he takes Tom away from this environment and into a more supportive home he will flourish and gain encouragement and kindness to motivate him through his education. Nevertheless, throughout the novel the reader begins to realise that for Charlie, there is an ulterior motive. He thinks he will gain respect from his colleagues if this succeeds, he is using Tom as an experiment.
Robin Jenkins effectively portrays the idea of deprivation through his use of symbolism and characterisation. This essay will aim to show how these two techniques enhance my appreciation of the novel.
The most important use of symbolism is the concept of the changeling. The title of the novel is fitting because this “the changeling” stems from an ancient myth which said that a child of a family was replaced by a fairy known as the changeling. This symbolises how Charlie favours Tom over his other children and is effectively “replacing” his own children for Tom. This theme is established early in the novel when Tom’s younger sister is crying, “humming a song about a baby stolen by fairies in the Highlands”. As the family are boarding the train to Towellan, Charlie’s wife, Mary sees how Charlie is acting towards Tom “with his arm round the boy’s neck they went in, looking so much like father and son that as Mary saw them she couldn’t help feeling jealous on behalf of her own son”. This is the beginning of the development of Charlie’s fondness towards Tom. Another example of this is when Charlie’s mother in law, Mrs. Storrocks says “if he’d been one of your own you couldn’t have been prouder”. This shows that in the few days Tom has been there Charlie has treated him as if he were his own child, not only that but has been proud of him although he has had no achievements. It also shows that his newly formed relationship with Tom has been noticed by others around him. Another significant moment is when Tom finds a library in Dunroth and decides to look up “changeling” in the dictionary. It says that the “creature” left by the fairies “often applied to ill-favoured person or animal spreading an evil influence”. Once Tom has read this he rereads it because he begins to realise how this is reflected in their situation, “seeing more and more why Mr. Forbes had applied it to him and why Mrs. Forbes had looked at him with such loathing”. After he has read it and come to the realisation he describes feeling “a strangeness” and the reader sympathises with Tom as they know how he truly feels about the family and how distraught he must be that when he finally feels loved no one can forget where Tom comes from.
Another use of symbolism is early in the book when Tom discovers a cat cowering on the staircase in Donaldson’s Court. He recognises the anguish of the cat and the suffering it has had to endure in the slum. He then offers the cat the apple he has earlier stolen for his younger brother, Alec. The cat, however does not accept the gift because it is wary that Tom is still there watching him. Tom knows that the cat does not want to eat the apple because it will make him susceptible to anything Tom may do to him if he lets down his guard. This represents Tom’s relationship with Charlie. Tom has learnt that you never survive Donaldson’s Court unless you let nobody see your true emotions. He does not want to let his guard down around Charlie, even though he is offering Tom a helping hand, for fear that he may become attached and sooner or later he will be let down by Charlie.
Characterisation is effectively used in the novel to depict different characters inner thoughts and feelings. The character of Charlie is well portrayed because in the beginning of the novel the reader thinks Charlie is extremely kind and sensitive to realise that Tom is not just an insolent thief. However, this respect for Charlie begins to waver during the holiday when the reader realises that Charlie may recognise Tom’s intelligence but he does not truly understand or want to understand what Tom really feels. When Mrs. Forbes says that Tom must go home, Charlie replies with “I’ll take him the whole way home”. This shows the reader that Charlie realises his experiment has failed and admits defeat but does not think of how this will affect Tom he just thinks that Tom will never change and he must accompany him to prevent him from stealing anything with his friends. He cannot see that taking Tom away from Donaldson's Court means that he can never return because Charlie and his family have influenced him so much that he will not survive if he has to go back to the slum. In contrast to this in the beginning of the novel when he reads a story description Tom has made of the sea he sees that it is truly wonderful and understands that Tom himself may never be able to go to the sea and therefore feels pity. When he turns to Tom he sees him smiling and thinks to himself , “it was, they said the smile of the certified delinquent, of misanthropy in bud, of future criminality, of inevitable degradation. Forbes refused to accept it as such”. This shows that Charlie can see that Tom is not trying to be impudent, he was smiling because he is aware of how others view him yet they could not be further from the truth. Charlie does not know the true meaning behind this smile and we see that Charlie does not know as much about Tom as he thinks throughout the novel.
Another important character is Gillian, Charlie’s daughter. We see how the roles are reversed and how at the beginning of the novel Gillian appeared to be prejudiced towards Tom and by the end of the novel she is the only person who truly understands him. This first happens when Gillian catches Tom stealing from Woolworths, “instead of rejoicing she was dismayed”. This shows that she was shocked because she was not expecting to have the reaction she did. She expected to feel smug that finally she had found a flaw to Tom and she could use this against him by telling her dad. Instead, she feels closer to Tom because it is as if she had been an accomplice and she knows that Tom has not just done this merely for thrill but for some self-reassurance. This idea is further enforced when it says “it did not make her clear of him, rather did it bind her to him in a way she could not avoid or understand”. One of the most important points where she sympathises for Tom and when she first starts to change her opinion of him is when “she began to realise that this armour, of calmness and patience, forged somehow in the dreadful slum where he had been born, must be heave and painful to wear”. This is where she realises that Tom’s persona he’s built up to survive his life in Donaldson's Court is just an act in order to screen his feelings and that having to do this must be hard for him. However she decides to ignore this feeling and continue to annoy Tom but the reader can see that she is doing it in order to understand Tom further but she does not know how to. Towards the end of the novel when Tom’s family arrive followed by the police wishing to question him about a robbery his friend carried out. Gillian had seen the police and decides to warn Tom when she sees him she tells him they should run to a shed. While they are hiding she says “did you steal those things in Woolworths because – because you didn’t want – to get – too fond of us?” this shows the reader that she has finally been able to understand what Tom really feels and she does not resent him for his attachment to her family and does not look down on his actions.
The main character the theme of roots is portrayed through is Tom. From the beginning the reader knows the reason behind his actions but they do not really sympathise with him until the end of the holiday. One of the first examples which evoke our understanding of Tom is when he is in a lesson and a teacher tells him to step away from his desk because Tom is very dirty. “‘Drop it on the desk and then keep your distance’… Many in the class laughed. He neither blushed nor sulked.” This shows that Tom is used to being treated like vermin and that as part of his act he can handle people treating him like this. Another quote which helps build up his persona is “he knew that if he ever were to be grateful to anybody, his confidence in himself would be destroyed”. This is another insight into the mind of Tom as it conveys how important it is to Tom to survive Donaldson's Court as being “grateful” is another way of letting someone get close to him. Another key point is when the headmaster of the school, Mr. Todd says that despite Tom’s circumstances “‘no child in this school, in this whole city, seeks pity less’”. This shows that Tom is able to accept the life he was born into and does not want others to feel sorry for him because he is perfectly contented with what he has and is. The reader can see Tom’s anguish as he is due to leave the holiday he knows he has come to far with the Forbes’ and cannot return to Donaldson's Court because he has experienced true love and loyalty which has broken his shield of protection and it is now unable to be fixed. Many things build up to the climatic ending where Tom ends his life and we can see that it was the thought of returning to his home after this experience that causes the eventual destruction of everything Tom is, his persona.
In conclusion, Jenkins manages to portray to the reader the idea of the importance of roots and deprivation through how use of symbolism and characterisation in a sophisticated manor. He is able to let the reader know what Tom and fellow characters really think and feel using these techniques.