Listening to the Bells on the River of Time: Review of Perce's "Tom's Midnight Garden"
【Gazing into the eye of time】1
"Tom's Midnight Garden" was published in 1958. It won the Carnegie Medal, the highest honor for British juvenile novels, that year and is still recognized as a contemporary fantasy classic. The author, Philippa Pearce, seamlessly bends the linear progression of time, blurs the boundaries between reality and dreams, and leads readers to listen attentively: What does the ticking of the grandfather clock mean to a person's growth?
Curved time linear progression
Throughout the ages, ordinary people's understanding of time has mostly been in a straight line: "The passing of time is like a man, never leaving day or night." When the great current of time surges forward, all living beings can usually only float and sink in the torrent, even if they have the courage and intelligence to do so. Those who are lucky may be able to lead the trend for a while and ride the wind and waves, but in the end they will inevitably "go eastward when the river goes east, and the waves will be swept away, and they will become famous people through the ages."
Looking at the big picture, the passing time brings a sense of era and history. Looking at the small picture also stirs up layers and distances in personal life: adults use memory bamboo nets to hunt down childhood colorful butterflies in vain, and children shoot longing wooden arrows but fail to shoot. Not a mature and aging bird⋯⋯
Whether you are imaginative or rational, the most incredible thing is the change that "time" brings to people. When children hear that they will eventually grow up and that adults were children in the past, they will laugh loudly... Children's laughter that ignores the power of time makes British children's book writer Perse start to think deeply about how to avoid it. Esoteric philosophical interpretations or complex scientific theories can be used to explore the difficult mystery of "time" in the form of stories suitable for all ages.
story axis
The long-awaited summer vacation is about to come, but Tom has to be sent to his aunt's house because his brother Peter contracted measles. My aunt's house is an old apartment converted from an old house. There is a grandfather clock in the corner of the empty hall on the ground floor. Tom immediately reached out his hand when he saw the clock, but his aunt said: "Don't touch it! Mrs. Bartholomew, the landlady on the top floor, doesn't like people touching this old clock." Late at night, Tom was lying on the bed helplessly and heard the big clock striking thirteen. Shocked and curious, Tom went downstairs to see clearly what time the hands on the clock were pointing. It was too dark to see clearly, so I had to open the back door to let in the moonlight, but outside the door was a large garden covered with grass and green trees...
Tom didn't understand why the desolate little backyard during the day turned into a manor filled with singing birds and fragrant flowers at night. He only knew that after the clock struck thirteen at midnight, he would be able to explore the garden. A few days later, he was surprised to find that while everyone in the garden turned a blind eye to him, there was a little girl Heidi who could sense his presence. Heidi's parents were dead and she was living under someone else's roof. Her aunt was indifferent to her. Tom and Heidi, who were also lonely, immediately became inseparable playmates. The garden is almost always a clear blue sky, there are so many trees waiting for them to climb, so many games to play, and so many stories to make up...
Tom becomes more and more attached to the wonderful garden he walks into at night. Since no matter how long he stays in the garden, real time will not flow. He even dreams of enjoying his childhood in the garden endlessly. The thing is, the garden has its own timetable, and little Heidi grows at an astonishing rate, and the innocent girl turns into a young girl in love. She gradually lost sight of Tom.
On the eve of Tom's return home, he opened the back door as usual, only to find that the Midnight Garden, which had been faithfully present all summer, had completely disappeared. Tom's desperate and angry cry "Heidi! Heidi!" woke up all the tenants in the apartment, and also woke up the sleepy old Mrs. Bartholomew on the top floor.
Before Tom left, the old lady had a long chat with him over tea. The old lady told him that for some reason, this summer she kept dreaming of her childhood back garden and the little playmate in the garden who only she could see and hear...
The pursuit and questioning of time
From the first time Tom entered the lobby on the ground floor of his aunt's apartment, he realized that the ticking of the mysterious grandfather clock seemed to be conveying clues to some important mystery. The focus of the entire story unfolds as Tom questions the mystery of time:
1. The mysterious and chaotic grandfather bell
Tom's first doubt about time was caused by the grandfather clock in the hall. My uncle complained that the hands on the face of this old clock were quite accurate, but the chimes of the old clock kept chiming randomly. It was clearly two o'clock in the afternoon, but it chimed five times. What was even more annoying was that no matter where in the house, it chimed. Its loud and chaotic bells can be heard from every corner. At midnight a few days later, Tom counted the bells drowsily: "One, two, three... thirteen!" At this time, his uncle's complaint took on a new meaning for Tom. When the clock strikes thirteen, does it imply that there are not only twenty-four hours in a day, but also a hidden twenty-fifth hour? The thirteen strange bells sounded as if calling to Tom: Come on! Come and discover the mystery of time!
2. The impact of two time streams
Tom responded to the bell's invitation and left the bedroom, but unexpectedly entered a splendid garden that did not exist during the day, stepping into the time flow of the late nineteenth century. Tom began to swing between two completely different life situations: in real time during the day, although he was a living flesh and blood, and his aunt took good care of him and welcomed him with delicious food, but he was bored in a narrow apartment with nothing to do and nowhere to go. Let Tom live like a year, extremely boring; the garden time at night does not have the strict order of day time, the seasons can change from spring to summer, the hours can change from early to late, and even everyone turns a blind eye to him - he runs on the grass without leaving any traces, and climbs to the treetops. It won't make the branches vibrate even half a minute. Even to Heidi, who could see him, Tom's presence was somewhat ghostly.
The paradox is that only during garden time, Tom can climb and jump freely, play and laugh, and share worries and dreams with others... Gradually, Tom discovered that he was just passively resting and waiting during the day, and wandering around at night. It’s only after entering the garden that you wake up and come alive!
3. The betrayal of time in the "Eternal" Garden
Since the real time is so cold, dull and rigid, and the garden time is so carefree and colorful, Tom is more and more eager to stay in the garden forever, keep Heidi company, and play endlessly... ⋯ He racked his brains to think about how he could stay in the Garden of Eden of his childhood and never grow up. When he confirmed that no matter how long he lingered in the garden, the real clock would not move even a minute or a second, he confidently concluded that as long as he insisted on staying in the garden and not returning to the bedroom, he would not be able to avoid it forever. Real time flow? In other words, he can stay in the garden as long as he likes, and real time will stop for him.
Tom thought he was sure to get a two-way pass on the river of time, but his plan went wrong. He insisted on holding on to his innocence forever, but his playmate Heidi couldn't wait to swim down the river and grow up... The last night, in the garden No longer exists, and Heidi no longer answers his urgent call. Tom steps on the cold stone ground in a daze, unable to believe that the green grass disappears in an instant, the skylark's song is muted, and his childhood has betrayed his sincerity.
4. Lose time and reconcile with life
At this point in the story, with the last few pages in our hands, we really want to put down the book and cry together with Tom, lamenting that the garden has withered, innocence is gone, dreams are shattered, and weepers cannot seize time after all. All they can seize is Pain and despair...but we chose to read the last few pages: In the deep conversation between Tom and old Mrs. Bartholomew, hot tea soothed the pain, and many mysteries were solved by gentle words.
It turns out that Tom's daydreams of longing for a garden and playmates overlap with old Mrs. Bartholomew's childhood night dreams of recalling the garden behind her old house half a century ago. Two lonely souls meet in the curved flow of time, and then develop a profound friendship on the edge of reality and dream.
At this point, no matter whether we can accept this point of view: when the soul's need is strong enough to break the barriers of time and the routine of reality, we will all be moved by the last scene: Tom, who has already walked downstairs, rushes up the stairs two steps at a time. Go back to old Mrs. Bartholomew! The aunt later described to her husband: "They just met for the first time this morning, but they hugged each other tightly, as if they had known each other for many years. Old Mrs. Bartholomew was a shriveled little old woman, not much taller than Tom; but, you You know, when Tom hugged him goodbye, it was like he was hugging a little girl."
Tom takes the initiative to embrace the gray-haired Heidi, symbolizing that he accepts the process of growth and change in her life, and is willing to face the fact that he will pass from childhood to adolescence, adulthood, and old age. He walks out of the childish garden and follows the river of life. Travel to the vast ocean. Tom finally understood that through his mind's eye, he could still see the beauty of the primroses blooming under the silvery moonlight in the memory garden. The passage of time is not a betrayal that never comes back. The churning of the river will leave shining gold of growth in his life. The brightest thing among alluvial gold is the timeless love between people.
———–
[Extended reading]
1. "My Grandmother's Clock"
Text by Geraldine McCaughrean, illustrations by Stephen Lambert
Translated by Liu Qingyan, Taipei: Daosheng, 2004.
Starting from a stopped grandfather clock in grandma's house, through the vivid dialogue between granddaughter and grandma, it leads readers from the micro to the broad, from close to far, to rethink the multifaceted meaning of time. The introduction by translator Liu Qingyan is extremely brilliant and is worth reading carefully together with this rare picture book.
2. "Young Ge Malan" by Li Tong, Taipei: Xiaolu, 1992.
Li Tong is one of the few writers in Taiwan who has dedicated himself to cultivating the field of juvenile novels and achieved great success. "Young Ge Malan" narrates the journey of Pan Xinge, a 14-year-old descendant of the Pingpu ethnic group, across two hundred years of time and space. When he returned to the beautiful river mouth where his ancestors lived, he not only witnessed the vicissitudes of racial history, but also witnessed personal lives. The novel is full of time and interest without losing profound information.
Parent-ChildChannel
These discussion topics are specially designed for families with teenagers who want to learn more about parent-child reading. Readers can modify or extend it according to their own needs.
1 Try to find the symbols of time in the book (the grandfather clock in the house, the sundial in the garden...) What meanings do different symbols convey about time?
2 List the synonyms and antonyms of the three times, and also try to name three things that "transcend" time, compare and share each other's choices.
3 Perls chose the title of the book as "Tom's Midnight Garden", and the story basically focuses on Tom's mental changes and growth; if the title of the book was changed to "Heidi's Midnight Garden", would the narrative point of view and the focus of the story be different? ?
4 Some critics say that one of the characteristics of children's literature is that no matter how tragic the story is, the ending always gives readers upward strength. Try to discuss the importance of the last chapter of "Tom's Midnight Garden" from this point of view.
5 If you could go back alone to any point in your life, or in human history (past, present, future), which point would you go back to? Why? Would you rather be a spectator or a participant? If the Lord Jesus traveled through time and space with you, what changes would you make?
Author profile
Huang Ruiyi, from Taiwan, majored in Chinese education at Ohio State University, specializing in children's literature. Now living in Los Angeles, I practice the balance between raising children and serving in the church every day. I also enjoy catching the flashes of inspiration in the flowers of words.