Premature judgement is a recurring theme in A Distant Prospect, as characters sometimes badly misjudge a person on first impressions, only to later discover their goodness.
Lucy is taunted by thoughtless schoolgirls who can see no further than her crippled legs:
‘Spastic.’
It was tittered on the station platform, giggled at the gate, whispered up and down lines of waiting girls and shouted from the verandahs. By the end of the second day of school, it had become a fully-fledged chant which dogged me wherever I went:
‘Spastic! Spastic! Legs like matchsticks!’
At Della’s dining table, Lucy summarily executes her judgement that Mrs Sotheby is snobbish, frivolous, racist, and a bigot:
‘Letty dear, you don’t need to worry. Our Irish dinner guest is not a Bolshevik.’
‘Well, she really couldn’t be could she, Desmond? After all, she is lame so she couldn’t possibly throw bricks through our window,’ Mrs Sotheby concluded. ‘I couldn’t help but notice your legs, dear,’ she added.At that moment, I wanted to throw twenty bricks through the Sotheby’s window.
Given time, Lucy will discover Mrs Sotheby’s thoughtfulness and learn about choices she had to make to give her children a chance. Lucy’s school companions will discover her academic and musical gifts and value her friendship.
But the pain of being prematurely judged is real, even if borne in silence, and it can so easily be avoided.