Avon River and the Great Depression

The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 2010, viewed from the Avon River side
(photo by Peter Scott, courtesy of the Royal Shakespeare Company) 

In this post, I’m examining an aspect of the Anohito clues that I have not delved in details so far because to me it’s very obvious that it is linked to Terry. This aspect is the Avon River. However, it occurred to me that a new reader might be confused as to why Avon River is immediately linked to Terry, for there are 19 (yes, nineteen) Avon Rivers in Wikipedia. Those 19 rivers are spread across four countries: the United Kingdom (5 in England, 3 in Scotland, 2 in Wales), Australia (5), New Zealand (2), and Canada (2). Here I will examine why I think the River Avon in England (the one flowing through Warwickshire, to be exact) is the river Nagita Keiko meant in CCFS.

I will start my explanation by briefly examining the 1930s Great Depression in the USA and in the UK, because that event IMO is strongly linked to Anohito bringing Candy to live by the bank of River Avon. Many experts linked the start of the Great Depression in the USA with the collapse of Wall Street in New York on a “Black Thursday” on 24 October 1929. Around the same time (give and take a month’s time), the London Stock Exchange collapsed. Ever since, the US economy spiraled down, dragging down other stock markets in Europe. It took about a decade for the USA to recover its economy, just in time to be ready for World War II. Interestingly, the United Kingdom recovered approximately three years after the Black Thursday (1929-1932), a good 6-7 years before the US recovered. This article is quite good to understand why the UK economy recovered relatively quickly from the 1929 Great Slump. I’m not an economist, so I will not summarise the causes for the slower recovery of the US nor the faster recovery of the UK. Suffice to say, when the US was still struggling to come back on its feet, the UK was already healthier economically.

Where is Terry? The missing person in the Epilogue

Source

I talked about this post with Nila a while back after I posted my article about Anohito’s voice, smile and open arms in the CCFS Epilogue, however, I didn’t remember to post it until now. It’s a short post, but I might post another (longer) article tomorrow or on Sunday if time permits.

It started with me receiving the Italian version of the CCFS. I flipped through the books and realised again something odd with the Epilogue.

Before I resume with my explanation, let me quote what an Epilogue means. The Cambridge Dictionary states that an Epilogue is “a speech or piece of text that is added to the end of a play or book, often giving a short statement about what happens to the characters after the play or book finishes”. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives three main meanings of an Epilogue. One of them is related to a book, thus an Epilogue is “a concluding section that rounds out the design of a literary work”. In contrast, a Prologue is “a part that comes at the beginning of a play, story, or long poem, often giving information about events that happened before the time when the play, story, or poem begins” (The Cambridge Dictionary). Although the Merriam-Webster version is very straightforward, I like using the Cambridge Dictionary’s version more because it stipulates that an Epilogue usually discloses what happens to the characters after the last chapter (pre-Epilogue) of the book.

Anohito statistical tests

The hunt for Anohito (left: Chapter 4; right: Chapter 9)

If you have read through my posts, you will notice that I have collected and reviewed up to 14 Anohito aspects in Candy’s “present day” monologue. In my latest post, I said that out of the 14 aspects, 11 of them are only attributable to Terry, 3 of them are attributable to both Terry and Albert, and none is attributable to Albert only. Thus… what does it look like if I plug those numbers into a statistical program? Does the proportion of Terry-related aspects (11 out of 14) significantly overwhelm both-Terry-Albert aspects (3 out of 14)?

The fact that there is no Anohito aspect that refers only to Albert in Candy’s monologue already established that Terry is Anohito. However, just to satisfy some statistical curiosity, let me plug those numbers.

Two more clues for Terry as Anohito

This painful scene has now lit a new understanding in me
(Chapter 7, art by Igarashi Yumiko, story by Mizuki Kyoko)

Recently, a combined effort between me and Nila has led us to find two more clues for Terry as Anohito. They are from Vol 2 pp 196 and 237. I think the clue at p 237 is more glaring and impactful, but nonetheless, the clue at p 196 is also interesting. The justifications are as follows, thanks to Nila for the original scripts and Kanji assistance. Tanoshikatta ne!

Anohito laughing at Candy’s mistake

Nila asked me to check the translation Candy's retrospection in Vol 2, p. 196. This is when Candy was thinking about Dr. Leonard (at the St Joseph’s Hospital in Chicago). Candy thought Dr. Leonard as a ruthless person, but later she realised that he was just being a professional doctor, thus he reprimanded Candy for treating Albert without an authorization. Later, when he became the director, Dr. Leonard abolished Room #0 in the hospital, effectively stating that all patients must be treated equally. In this monologue, Candy was saying this (last line of p. 196):