DISSECTION OF A NOVEL - SECONDARY CHARACTERS PART II: A Woman's World

 Secondary characters enrich a novel. In novels like Moral Fibre with distinctly separate plot lines, a different population of "supporting cast" inhabits each plot. While the male protagonist is surrounded primarily by his crew, the female protagonist has her family, her colleagues and the children at her school.

 

Unquestionably the important secondary character in the heroine's world is her father, Reverend Edwin Reddings. As an Anglican priest, a father, and a veteran of the last war, Reddings provides a mature and (usually) wise point-of-view in a world (and book) otherwise inhabited primarily by teenagers. He also has a better overview of what is happening and other unique gifts that contribute materially to the plot of the novel.

 

But Georgina is also challenged by a class-conscious headmistress in a school which is flooded with refugee children from London's slums. Georgina is determined not to be like the bigoted headmaster -- only to encounter her own difficulties in dealing with children from backgrounds so different from her own. An important lesson is provided by "Batty," a girl who is disinterested in everything and whom all have given up on -- until her secret is revealed. 

 

Next week I will explore the challenge of describing wartime Britain and operations.

Riding the icy, moonlit sky— They took the war to Hitler. 

Their chances of survival were less than fifty percent. Their average age was 21.

This is the story of just one Lancaster skipper, his crew,and the woman he loved.

It is intended as a tribute to them all. 

Order Now!

 Flying Officer Kit Moran has earned his pilot’s wings, but the greatest challenges still lie ahead: crewing up and returning to operations. Things aren’t made easier by the fact that while still a flight engineer, he was posted LMF (Lacking in Moral Fibre) for refusing to fly after a raid on Berlin that killed his best friend and skipper. Nor does it help that he is in love with his dead friend’s fiancé, who is not yet ready to become romantically involved again.