Malory Towers Essay

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This is an essay on themes and plot devices in Malory Towers. The Malory Tower books remain one of the best Blyton series. Yes, the usual conventions and plot devices are there—the new girl scoring the winning goal in the lacrosse match despite a twisted ankle (In the Fifth at Malory Towers); the midnight feasts (Upper Fourth at Malory Towers); the spoilt and childish blonde (Gwendoline Lacey). But, while the characters remain typically one-dimensional, they are more interesting and flawed than, for example, the St Clare's girls. Darrell with her temper, Sally with her jealousy, Alicia with her hard-heartedness—these are consistent in all the books simply as character facets, not as something a new girl must strive to overcome if she is to settle down at the school and become a happy member of it. The first book in the series starts, as is typical for Blyton and the genre, at the heroine's home as she is preparing to leave for school. Unlike Elizabeth Allen in the Naughtiest Girl series, and the O'Sullivan twins at St Clare's, Darrell Rivers is happy and excited to be going to school at last. Her father gives her a piece of advice that is later repeated by the headmistress Miss Grayling as she welcomes all the new girls: 'You will get a lot out of your time at Malory Towers. See that you give a lot back.' This sentiment of encouraging participation in school life, and of being 'sensible' in the environment, is consistent through Blyton's school stories and the genre as a whole. Darrell feels that this will not be a problem. She quickly settles into Malory Towers life, and the girls in her form 'soon accepted and liked her'. The girls in the first form North Tower dormitory are a good example of the types of schoolgirl character. There is Katherine, the serious head girl, just and calm and whom everyone obeys and respects, virtually indistinguishable from St

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