Destroying_Avalon

Destroying Avalon “Why did Avalon feel that she had to promise to keep Marshall’s secret and was unable to break that trust'” In order to maintain a strong friendship, you must keep that trust between one another. This importance of trust is evident in Kate McCaffreys intriguing novel “Destroying Avalon”, in which Avalon remains silent as she undergoes similar experiences. As Avalon and Marshall are both victims of systematic bullying, Avalon feels the need to remain silent to keep the trust between her only real friend, Marshall. As a result of Avalon’s silence, consequences followed such as Marshall’s tragic death. Avalon is systematically bullied the same way that Marshall is. Avalon is bullied by cyber bullies who keep their identity sacred and faces bullies in reality. She receives anonymous text messages reading “u r a slut” and Marshall will read threatening emails quoting “Marshall the fag, you are disgusting and abnormal me and my mates are gonna get you and kill you! You pervert queer.” Their experiences of bullying allow us as readers to empathise with them, as we eventually learn that innocent lives are lost, caused by bullying such as Marshall’s death. Throughout the novel we see their friendship become stronger as they both undergo the same experiences and relate to one another. Despite the tragedy of Marshall’s death, we understand and are able to support her decision of remaining silent as we know that it is important for her to keep that trust and not jeopardise her only close friendship. Although we are able to support her decision in remaining silent, it can also be seen as selfish of Avalon to not seek the attention needed to help Marshall. If Avalon was to talk to her parents or school counsellors, Marshall’s death could have been prevented. Avalon knew she could have done something to help, as she says “What if I told Dad about the bullying' What if I’d spoken to Miss Mac'” It was selfish of Avalon to keep this secret despite the fact that Marshall had made her promise to remain silent about his situation. This makes the audience feel that Marshall could still be alive if Avalon spoke to the right people and received professional help. As teenagers, Marshall and Avalon felt as if they were able to control the situation themselves. Bullying is a life threatening situation. It causes people to become depressed, some harm themselves and some take their own lives because they are bullied. Neither Avalon nor Marshall spoke to anyone about what they were experiencing on a day to day basis. Marshall persuading himself that everything will be fine tells Avalon “It’s okay, I’ve got it under control…. But I need to do something first”. Avalon mentioned “Marshall, we have to do something. You can’t do it alone.”Marshall ignoring that suggestion led him to his own suicidal death. This makes the readers consider that if they were to just seek professional help, authority could have stepped in and Marshall could still be alive. In this way, we can see that Avalon’s silence could have come from Marshall’s belief that he had the situation under control. The author shows us that deaths caused by bullying can be prevented by calling for help. We see this through Marshall’s death as he made Avalon promise to remain silent about his bullying situation which resulted in him taking his own life. Kate McCaffrey tells us that keeping the situation to yourself results negatively. The readers now see that remaining silent has been an important aspect of Avalon and Marshall’s friendship. Although we come to understand the reasons underlying her decision to keep her promise, we also see that it can cause the loss of an innocent life.