Examine the ways in which Penelope Lively establishes the worlds of childhood and adulthood in 'Going Back'.

With the war on, all of the adults are worried and careful, yet the children only see it as a game. “Standing on the lawn, staring up at those blue and white skies out of which Germans would come. We would misdirect them. Ah, we’d scupper them – London – pointing west, and send them storming.” The children see the war in the one-dimensional view that children do. They take every thing they hear literally, basically believing anything that they have been told. Jane and Edward do not understand the seriousness of the situation around them; all they have noticed is that “the war put an end to Betty’s Saturdays at the cinema. There was a war on, so you couldn’t have lots of sweets anymore, just one sixpenny bar of chocolate a week, and no more oranges or bananas.” Jane and Edward are not worried if they get a chocolate bar or not, they have their garden to play in, it is natural and simple, they don’t understand why the Adults are worried. The adult world is a very materialistic and ordered world, and they care about what will happen and that everything has to be right.

His is similar to when Jane and Edward become intrigued with “the words that crackle through Betty’s wireless in the Kitchen at breakfast.” Jane gently chants the words that she hears in the morning, “Immunization and evacuation and mobilization and Immunization and evacuation and mobilization,” Jane doesn’t understand what she is saying but she is trying to sound older by saying the words that an Adult might say, children often try to do this as they want to sound and be older than they are. Adults would only use words if they were sure what they meant and that they were in the right context, whereas children often use words that they are unsure on – just to sound older or more mature.

The children’s characteristics are often displayed through relationships. Edward and Jane’s relationship is very strong and they are both children so we see this very innocent honest relationship between the two of them. It is also a very loving caring bond that they have, as they are so literal that they have the best intentions for everyone and are naturally very loving. Both the children have a strong relationship with Betty but she isn’t the sort of person they could talk to about personal matters. She shows the children discipline yet she cares and loves for them. By her doing this it shows she is higher in status and has some control over the children. There is also ______, who stays with the family during the war. The children have a string connection with him; this is because he treats them as a friend rather than looking down on them, like their father would. He is only in his early 20’s and so can still relate to the children, and he has qualities that they would love to learn. _______ is a very musical person and Lively has shown their connection through the music, it is something all three can relater to.

Jane and Edward are well behaved children and do listen to what people have to say, this also shows a border between the two worlds as it tell us that the Adults are in charge, this is also represented in society today as well as within the book. Jane and Edwards strength as a duo is emphasised by Jane’s reaction when Edwards goes and both of there reaction when their father leaves. Both Jane and Edward are distraught when Edward is sent of to Boarding school, he becomes lifeless and Jane feels like a part of her is missing, she cries for days and days. Yet neither of the children are affected by the loss of their father, they do not have a particular strong relationship with him, so they do not miss his presence when his is gone.

Lively has portrayed this border because she wants to show the difference between both worlds. How children have this pure simple natural image of things yet Adults show a more complex, structured, geographical way of thinking. I think that one of her aim with this book is to show the reader that once you’ve become an adult and passed that border that have lost that childish charm and innocence that you will never be able to regain ever again. She has done by contrasting the children with the adults within the book and also the contrast of Jane’s perspective for when she was a child and as an adult. Some people say that Lively is writing about the childhood she simply dreamed of. She was brought up as an only child, with no friends. Maybe this is how she would have liked her life to be.