by Eleanor Mannikka
synopsis
The pushes and pulls of an emerging post-war society are behind the antagonisms in this routine, slow-paced story set in a Jesuit school in 1952. A somewhat old-fashioned priest has his own ideas about how to train the boys in his charge and at the same time, the director of the school is faced with serious financial and moral decisions. The one boy who tends to follow the priest's viewpoints is, in the end, too troubled to live up to his expectations and in a dramatic turn-around, the priest becomes victimized. A sliding moral scale not only allows the victimization to occur but raises larger questions about ethics and one's adjustment to a changing world.
