Tracing The Development Of Theme In The Way The Crow Flies

Tracing the Development of Theme

in The Way the Crow Flies

In Isaiah Berlin’s Agnelli Prize winning essay, “The Pursuit of the Ideal,” the British philosopher claims that, “we are doomed to choose, and every choice may entail an irreparable loss.” Berlin’s statement is proven true in The Way the Crow Flies by award winning author Ann-Marie MacDonald. Set in a post-war era, The Way the Crow Flies tells a captivating story of a wing commander, named Jack McCarthy, and his family after they move to a close-knit community called Centralia. Jack’s choices in Centralia eventually place him in a compromising position. His daughter, Madeleine, falls victim to her fourth grade teacher’s horrible abuse after school. These two main plots are then intertwined with the death of a little girl, and an innocent boy named Ricky Froelich is placed on trial for her murder. Now, both Madeleine and her father Jack find themselves doomed to choose secrecy or exposure and find that every choice they make has great consequences. Over the course of The Way the Crow Flies, the theme of choice and its consequences is developed by Cold War chicanery, sexual abuse, and confrontation.

The Cold War was a power struggle between the United States and Russia. In The Way the Crow Flies, both governments make choices during the Cold War that eventually set off a chain of events leading up to the sentence of Ricky Froelich. During World War II, Jewish slaves built rockets in an underground facility called Dora under the supervision of Nazi scientists. When World War II ended, many of the scientists fled Germany to avoid prosecution from the American government. In The Way The Crow Flies, the U.S. government secretly recruits Nazi scientists to benefit the American space program. The CIA’s decision to help a Nazi scientist in order to benefit its government is a choice that eventually infects the small community of Centralia. When Jack McCarthy, a well-respected Wing Commander in the Air Force, moves to Centralia, he is contacted by an old friend named Simon, who works for the CIA. Simon asks Jack to secrete a Nazi scientist named Oskar Fried, who is seeking political refuge. Jack, however, is unaware that Oskar Fried is a former Nazi, so he agrees to do so because he trusts his friend Simon. Jack’s decision to help Oskar Fried eventually puts him in a compromising position when a little girl named Claire McCarroll is murdered and a boy named Ricky Froelich is placed on trial for her murder. Jack can provide an alibi for Ricky but in doing so, he would have to reveal his secret involvement with Oskar Fried. He is now caught between the choice to do what is right and a promise he made to Simon. Jack chooses to keep his involvement with Oskar Fried leaving Ricky without an alibi in court. The theme of choice and its consequences is developed through the government’s decision to choose dishonesty during the Cold War by asking Jack McCarthy to help them hide a Nazi scientist. The consequence is the loss of Jack McCarthy’s morality. And through Jack’s choice to help Oskar Fried, the theme of choice and its consequences is further developed as Ricky's promising life is shattered.

As Jack struggles with difficult choices, so does his tomboyish daughter, Madeleine. Her new teacher, Mr. March, chooses a group of his grade four students, including Madeleine, to stay after school to do “exercises.” These exercises include doing backbends to, as Mr. March told the girls, “improve their power of concentration” (pg 163). In reality, Mr. March is molesting and manipulating these little girls for his sick pleasure. Madeleine, thinking that her parents will be upset with her low grades, is now torn between telling them the truth or keeping Mr. March's "exercises" a secret. Madeleine chooses to keep it a secret and in doing so, has no way out of Mr. March’s molestation. Things only become more complicated for Madeleine when a girl in her class named Claire McCarroll is found mutilated and dead in a forest. Madeleine must testify for the jury at Ricky Froelich’s trial because she was one of the last people to see Claire. Ricky’s sister, Colleen, asks Madeleine to lie while she testifies by saying that she saw Ricky at a specific time that would prove his innocence. Madeleine is not sure whether she should keep her oath in court or lie to protect Ricky, but she promises her friend that she will do the latter. During the trial, two other girls in Madeleine’s class testify that Ricky Froelich had molested them, when in reality they were truly speaking about Mr. March. Madeleine chooses not to mention anything about Mr. March in court, but she also chooses not to lie about seeing Ricky Froelich. These two choices create dire consequences for Ricky Froelich. Ricky’s sister, Colleen becomes very upset with Madeleine and never speaks to her again. With the testimonies from the two other girls and no alibi, the jury finds Ricky Froelich guilty for the murder of Claire McCarroll and he receives the death penalty.

The theme of choice and its consequences is fully developed at the ending of the novel when Ann-Marie MacDonald