It's the moving timeline that creates all the debate about Rowan's decision. In 1948, it would be entirely normal for a child to leave education and start work before the age of 18. I'd bet everyone on Trennels knows of an elderly acquaintance or relative who couldn't go to university/train for chosen career because either their family couldn't afford it and/or their family needed an extra wage coming in. Admittedly it would be less usual for that to happen in an upper class family, but it was still fairly normal for a daughter to stay at home to help the family in various ways (keeping a widowed parent company, for example). And in 1948 Rowan would have had a social life in the country - not just the hunting/ horsey set at parties, but in daily life there would have been a lot of people working on farms, and more young people growing up in the village. By the early eighties though, when RAH is set we are into the era of student grants for all, an expectation that any reasonably bright child will go to university, and a huge choice of potential careers for girls. Also, by the eighties, farms which had once employed twenty workers were only employing a couple of people at most, and young people had moved from the country to the town because they couldn't afford the house prices, so a country life would become a more lonely life for Rowan.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Rowan's decision / timeline.
Date: 2014-07-29 06:15 am (UTC)By the early eighties though, when RAH is set we are into the era of student grants for all, an expectation that any reasonably bright child will go to university, and a huge choice of potential careers for girls. Also, by the eighties, farms which had once employed twenty workers were only employing a couple of people at most, and young people had moved from the country to the town because they couldn't afford the house prices, so a country life would become a more lonely life for Rowan.