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.

Candy Candy Final Story Proposed Chronology and Timeline

Update 25 Jan 2025

Five of my blog posts in this blog have been moved to "draft" because I used unlicensed manga images with English translations. Well, to make these posts appear again, I have to delete those manga images. Sorry guys, I don't have time to look for images right now, so I have five pages with no manga images... but at leat you can still read the post again now.

-xxx-

In which the blog authoress postulates her theory about the chronology and timeline of Candy Candy the Final Story. Scroll down to the end of the letter – I mean, post – to read the proposed timeline.

Thanks to Nila from the CandyTerry.com, I’ve gained access to the precious unofficial English translations of the Candy Candy the Final Story. The translations were done by many fans, and because I do not have their permissions to disclose their screen names, I will not attribute the translators one by one. Suffice to say I’m forever grateful for their service. If you’d like to read those translations, contact Nila at the CT Forum for access.

I was rather worried before reading the novel, worried that it would be too difficult to understand. However, the novel turns out to be not so difficult to follow. Nagita Keiko wrote CCFS in flashback styles, here represented by a third person reminiscence of the events in Candy’s life from her childhood at Pony’s Home until she left St. Paul’s. Those events are divided into two volumes, Volume 1 (up to Candy knowing Terry’s lineage secret at St. Paul’s) and Volume 2 (until Candy left St. Paul’s to pursue Terry in America). Volume 1 contains Chapter 1 (Anthony’s story) and Chapter 2 (Terry’s story), while the first part of Volume 2 contains Candy’s life with Terry in St. Paul’s London.  Candy only returned to her present time twice until this moment: the first one was after reminiscing on Anthony’s death and the second one was when she started to reminisce on her journey to and in the UK.  I think these recollections or monologues serve the novel well, for it bridges us back to the “present moment” where Candy was at her new home by the Avon River.