The Children Act by Ian McEwan

The Children Act is a book written by Ian McEwan in 2014. It tells about Fiona Maye, a leading High Court judge and her decisions. Fiona is facing a difficult period of his life for two reasons. On one side, she tries an urgent case: a seventeen-year-old boy refused the medical treatment because of his religious convictions and he is going to die. On the other, her 30-year marriage is in trouble: her husband Jack has told her he must have an affair.

Before analysing the book’s structure, let us consider the title “The Children Act”. First of all the word children is plural. This semantic choice could refer to the variety of juridical cases that Fiona deals with every day, but in a further interpretation, the intelligent reader could blame the behaviour of “children” both Adam (who is nearly adult) and Jack (who regrets youth).

Regarding the term “act”, it is polysemous. Actually, it could mean: something that people do or cause to happen, a legal document codifying the result of deliberations of a legislative body (in order to Fiona’s role), showing a certain behaviour.

Before starting reading, you collide with a quote from Section I (a), The Children Act (1989). The intelligent reader want to know what “The Children Act” is, and why the source of the quotation coincides with the book's title.

When a court determines any question with respect

to … the upbringing of a child … the child’s welfare

shall be the court’s paramount consideration. 

Children Act 1989 it is a decree that oblige local authorities, courts, parents and other agencies in the United Kingdom, to ensure children safety and promoting their welfare. It states that children's welfare should be the paramount concern of the courts. Wellness is a state that involves all aspects of the human being. The word "wellness", in the past coincided primarily with physical health, but now has gradually taken on a wider meaning, coming to involve all aspects of being (physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual). The court should take into account the child’s wishes; physical, emotional and educational needs; age; sex; background circumstances; the likely effect of change on the child; the harm the child has suffered or is likely to suffer; parent's ability to meet the child’s needs and the powers available to the court.The book follows a chronological order: it is organised in five chapters structured in three paragraphs each, except the last articulate into five.The first chapter is an introduction to the whole book, mixing and intertwining private and public life. As a matter of fact, it explains the relationship with her husband and exhausting the difficulty of the cases in court.In the second chapter, the reader attends to the presentation of the “Jehovah’s Witness case”. For a naïve reader the language is very difficult to understand because of the plurality of legal terms. Adam is suffering from leukemia, he becomes weaker and weaker every day, and only blood transfusion can save him. In court, Fiona’s choice is decisive. There is a moral dilemma. On one hand, the hospital hopes in the healing of the boy, on the other side parents and the community of Jehovah's Witnesses cannot accept the transfusion. Fiona decides exceptionally to know the boy. Chapter 3 opens with the meeting. The date is omen of something, but the reader cannot know what the consequences. Struck by Adam’s sweetness, by his love for poetry and for the violin, Fiona's sentence is ironclad: Adam should live.The relationship with her husband becomes almost superfluous, even if he decides to return to his wife. Nevertheless, the intelligent reader understands that in the economy of the text all information on Jack is secondary.The focus of the novel is another: a secret love: the one between Adam and Fiona, which find further clarification, in the fourth chapter. The second meeting in New Castle confirms this: a kiss. A seemingly chaste kiss but, to tell the truth, it represents Adam’s unconditional love for the one who saved him from death. Adam writes letters, no response. Then a poem that is the center of the novel. Is now that the reader can find the textual signs of a sick love. The fifth and last chapter is an existential reflection. Inaction and be passive about the people’s behaviors and messages is more dangerous than making a decision. At first, Fiona’s coldness and detachment are vivid; however starting from the meeting into the hospital, you have a descending and dangerous climax that leads the judge to indifference. Adam gets sick again, he does not accept transfusion. Premeditated death: Adam killed himself to escape from who in the past had saved him.