Behind the Tub
She is not allowed in the gig to fetch Tom. The morning is too wet for a little girl's best bonnet. Maggie dunks her head to ruin the curls, then climbs to the cobwebbed attic where she keeps a Fetish: the trunk of a wooden doll, once round-eyed and red-cheeked, now defaced by a long career of vicarious punishment. She beats the doll for misfortunes she cannot get at. Childhood government starts as a private court with one defendant who cannot speak.
Key Insight
When the real power is out of reach, a child will still hold a trial. The attic court does not stay in childhood. Adult rage often still needs a doll that cannot answer back.
“Here she kept a Fetish which she punished for all her misfortunes. This was the trunk of a large wooden doll.”Explore full theme analysis
