Schooled

In the novel, Garland Farm can be seen as representing idealism, while Claverage Middle School represents realism. Flora Donnelly, especially, talks about how the farm had left her ill-prepared for the “real world.” We see this, too, in Rain, who is an idealist, whereas, by the end of the novel, Capricorn is a realist.

Rain has spent the last forty years creating an environment in which she never has to compromise on any of her values, and is guided more by ideals than by practicality. According to her, the world outside Garland Farm is “not a nice place” (21), and to move off of the farm is to abandon “the lifestyle and value system” (23) of the commune. The people in mainstream society are “spiritually handicapped” (90), and interaction with them should be eliminated, or at least limited, because of the risk of “contamination” (181). Rain seems to need her surroundings to exactly match her values, because, at least in the beginning, her values do not seem to withstand contact with the outside world. For example, Rain teaches Capricorn that “when people are negative, they’re trying to put duct tape on their own damaged souls” (90).