Not Going It Alone: The Mysterious Benedict Society & The Adults Who Help Them

This week I'm continuing my series on The Mysterious Benedict Society.

SPOILER WARNING: While I have done my best not to give away major plot points, I have necessarily included some details of the story.

One of the things I love and find remarkable about the book is the role played by the adults of the story. It's a common trait of kid- and teen-oriented adventure novels to have unhelpful adult characters. The adult characters will all fall into one of the following categories: mildly sinister, downright villainous, or too ignorant and/or careless to help the child protagonists. If there are adults who are ostensibly on the protagonists' side, they will disappear at crucial moments, which supposedly allows the main characters to shine. I understand the urge to do this, because it's difficult to construct a story such that the main characters solve the conflict on their own if adults are caring for them; however, it's a disturbingly negative message to child readers when they are shown that adults don't care about or can't help kids like them. Counter to this prevalent literary trend, in The Mysterious Benedict Society, author Trenton Lee Stewart artfully ensures that his characters have the support of caring adults in their lives, even as circumstances force them to take the lead in the story.

 Because Mr. Curtain is using a school as the cover for his dastardly operation, children are the only ones who can infiltrate it. This circumstance allows the children to take center stage, and it makes sense that Mr. Benedict, who recruits them, has to send them into the dangerous situation. The author emphasizes repeatedly that Mr. Benedict is distraught over this fact and is determined to offer the protagonists as much help as possible. Accordingly, Mr. Benedict devises a system for the kids to communicate with him and his team via visual Morse-code messages. The limits of this situation require the children to do much on their own, but the adults are able to give them small amounts of advice and comfort. More importantly, the adults literally watch over the children: the Institute run by Mr. Curtain is on an island, and Mr. Benedict's team trains telescopes on the island from hidden vantage points on shore.

Eventually, when things get very dangerous for our heroes, one of their adult allies (named Milligain) actually comes to the island. He allows himself to be captured by Mr. Curtain's thugs, posing as a spy so that the children won't be discovered as the actual spies. This is a profound moment in the story, and it was the moment when my husband and I were first struck with the realization that the adults in this book help the children. Milligan's sacrifice is revealed as he is paraded before the students: "As Milligan passed through the cafeteria, the whole place erupted in applause for the Executives and Recruiters, then horrible boos and jeers for the captured spy. The miserable man was led past their table--right past the grateful and heartbroken children he'd saved--but never did he look up or reveal any awareness of them" (409). This scene reminds me of Christ before His crucifixion, as He was mocked and scourged in front of a jeering crowd. Milligan's coming to protect the children from being discovered is like Christ coming to earth to be with us: He doesn't rescue us from all temptations and struggles--we still have to pass through them--but He comes to be with us and to lighten our load by His presence and protection. And Stewart makes clear that, like Christ, Milligan "had sacrificed himself for them" (409).
I love that Stewart finds ways to show that kids can be the heroes and still have adults helping and supporting them when they need it the most. This is a much more realistic and nuanced version of the kids-save-the-world trope. By allowing the protagonists to receive help, the story shows the need for community to support us as we do difficult things, and it also shows that it's normal to look to those older than you for wisdom. In real life, kids need the support of caring adults in order to thrive, and The Mysterious Benedict Society embraces that reality.