Ian McEwan – The Children Act

The Children Act is an act that regulates the law concerning children’s walfare. So the title anticipates that the novel will deal with Law and in particular with cases where children are the subjects of legal proceedings. Indeed, after have read the novel, the intelligent reader can notice that the title refers both to the protagonist Fiona Maye (an High Court Judge) and to the central legal case developed in the novel, Adam Henry’s case.

The centrality of the Children Act is highlined by the quotation that precedes the first chapter (indeed it is taken by the Children Act of 1989 (section I a)). The quotation anticipates Fiona’s point of view as a Judge, and so the policy she will follow to take her decision about Adam’s case. In addition the intelligent reader can notice a discrepancy between the quotation taken from the Children Act, that is clear and simple, and the novel in which Fiona Maye has to deal with cases where there’s a fine (and debatable) line between wrong and right judgments.  

The novel is arranged into 5 chapters, each of which has its personal function:

In the first chapter, the narrator presents the character of Fiona Maye, interchanging the characterization from a personal point of view and from a public/professional one. As regarding the personal point of view, the narrator explains Fiona’s personal life also presenting the marriage crisis with her husband. On the public/professional point of view, the narrator tells the reader about some legal cases Fiona had to deal with. In that way, the narrator manages to make the reader awake of the main story developed in the novel.

The second chapter is a continuation of the previous one since the narrator chooses to follow the Judge in the courtroom and so to characterize, once again, Fiona through her work. This chapter has also the function of presenting Adam’s case, and the children himself through the doctor’s and Adam’s father’s opinions. In addition, the chapter is important since it brings to light one of the main theme of the novel (that is religion and its relationship with society) and contains the turning point of the narration (Fiona decides to go to the hospital to meet Adam).

The first chapter’s focus is the characterization of Fiona, while the focus of the second chapter is the presentation of Adam’s cases and the characterization of the child. It seems logical that the third chapter is about the meeting of the two characters. The chapter has the function to characterize the two characters through the eyes of the other (in their conversation the intelligent reader can find out Adam’s respect/admiration towards Fiona, and Fiona brings to light Adam’s intelligence, sensibility and beliefs). Interesting to notice that even in the conversation between Fiona and Adam, the narrator alternates the personal and the professional level.  

Since at the end of the third chapter Fiona delivers her judgment, the fourth chapter concerns the consequences both on Adam’s and Fiona’s life. The chapter seems to be another turning point in the narration, since Adam chooses to abandon his religious beliefs: its function is to explain the development of the relationship between Adam and Fiona and Adam and his religion.

The function of the fifth chapter is to explain the final development of the story, explaining the consequences of Fiona’s choice to drift apart from Adam. The narrator also gives and indirect starting point for the reader, in order to make him reflect on Adam’s choice to commit suicide and on Adam’s situation, where his parent’s beliefs and his youth (that increases the probability of being easily influenced) led him to take extreme choices.