The Raging Quiet: Relationship

In the novel The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan, an important relationship is that between Marnie and Raven. This relationship helps us to understand the idea that perceived ‘outsiders’ can be treated inhumanely by a community. Marnie is treated as an outsider because of her sex and her ill-defined place in a medieval society. Raven is treated as an outsider because of his disability. Together, their relationship founded on their similar backgrounds gains the reader’s empathy. Jordan is able to use this relationship to portray the importance of being included within a community.

Marnie is treated as an outsider because of her sex and her ill-defined place in a medieval society. Instead of living within the generic profile of a woman, Marnie disregards the idea that women can’t work as hard as men, and she spends her days working passionately alongside her father. “Because her Father had been elected as overseer on the Lord’s estate, she could have been given lighter duties, but took no privileges and worked harder than most.” Because of her insistence to step outside the typical profile of a woman, Marnie is treated as an outsider by the people of Fernleigh. Raven is treated as an outsider because of his disability. All his life, Raven has been an outcast. He has never had the opportunity to be accepted for who he is. Growing up as an orphan in Torcurra, the villagers began to accuse him of being filled with demons because of his strange behavioural outbursts. Father Brannan attempts to care for him, but whenever he isn’t around, the villagers try to beat the apparent ‘evil spirits’ out of Raven. They are completely unaware that the reason Raven acts the way he does is because he is actually deaf. The villagers have always ostracised Raven because of the deceptive lies they believe; that he is filled with demons, rather than suffering with a mere disability.

When they meet in Torcurra, Raven immediately touches Marnie’s heart. She is