Due to recent global circumstances, the Hay Festival has gone online this year and as I was looking back through previous talks on ‘Hay Player’ I came across an interesting interview. Jenny Valentine was interviewing three authors about their short stories on the topic of journeys. As an avid reader it is always fascinating to hear authors discuss their influences and those themes and topics that are purposely reflected in their work. For the festival, 39 writers were asked to write a short story for either young readers or a YA audience with the aim of encouraging empathy. The four writers on stage discussed books, the writing process and where they find inspiration.

Reading for many was a form of escapism that helped them find solace. It is even an escape from the mind and thoughts, for reading is the only time that you are rooted in just one thought. This focus of the mind is important, as we spend so much of our lives flitting from one thought to the next. Interestingly, they agreed that writing also focusses the mind. Another thing they agreed upon was the immersiveness of books in comparison to television. Books tell the story from the inside and readers feel that they are part of the story. Whereas, television gives the audience a view of all of the action,which often excluded the characters’ thoughts. Books help us to interpret reality – ours and on a global scale.

One the writers focussed on identity and how it is connected to place. Identity is a common theme within literature, just as it is in life. People feel that they must be individual and have a separate self to those around them. It is also common for people to connect their identity with a place and two authors were exploring displacement. Throughout literary history, writers have discussed the implications of travelling away from one’s home and whether a character’s sence of identity changes when they settle in a new home.

Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South tells the story of Margaret Hale, whose family moves quite suddenly from Hampshire to a mill town in the North of England. At the beginning of the novel, Margaret is very certain of who she is and much of this is based on her material  surroundings. She is the daughter of a clergyman and lives in the New Forest. How easily this reality is shattered by one decision made by someone else. Surely someone’s sense of identity should come from within? Yet, the character discussed at the Hay Festival saw himself as belonging to where his parents were born. As a young person, we base so much of ourselves on our parents and our role models, so perhaps it only makes sense that we root our identity in our parents’ choices.
Moving to Milton has a profound effect on Margaret and for much of the book she feels out of place in the smokey industrial environment. She is disdainful of her new home and this may be a determination not to belong there. Milton represents progress and the industrial revolution and Gaskell may have been trying to discuss the views of many of her contemporaries. This would imply that Margaret’s slow appreciation of the town was to encourage readers to reassess their preconceptions on this new, different way of life.

But it is not only Margaret who is affected by the move and the illnesses and deaths of her parents would have an irreversible impact on how she sees herself. Pain and loss shape characters, but in Margaret’s case it is also the workers’ strikes that make her shift her views of the world. This shift makes her appear more compassionate and less aloof. Soon she considers herself to be at home in the North rather than the South and even discourages Higgins from moving South in search of work.

This distinction between North and South is clear throughout the book and is reiterated by the title. The North is a place of industry, where class boundaries are less discernable and wealth comes from business ventures. Thornton is a self made man who completely contrasts the men Margaret knows in the South. The South is a place of privilege, where the characters seem to spend their days paying calls to friends and neighbours. It is a sense of affluence that permeates Margaret at the beginning of her arc and the Milton lifestyle slowly grinds away what many perceive as her arrogance. This is not to say that she is not a caring character to begin with.

Therefore, identity finds its roots in place far more than in money and this seems to be the case even if a character is not considered particularly patriotic. For, Mrs Thornton often describes her son as a Milton man, seeing as he grew up in the town. It is his drive and determination that have secured his position rather than his wealth and even when the family loses everything they do not lose their pride of their home. Despite this, Thornton does come to appreciate the beauty of the South just as Margaret does the North. Interestingly, this means that a person’s sense of identity can change as their circumstances change. Every experience shapes an individual and can make them see themselves in a different way. Whether these events are small like the marriage of a family member, or life-changing like the death of a parent makes no difference. Margaret Hale considers Milton to be part of her identity by the end of North and South.