The Prodigal Girl by Grace Livingston Hill
"The Prodigal Girl" by Grace Livingston Hill is a Christian romance novel that explores the tumultuous relationship between a middle-class family and their rebellious teenage daughter, Betty. The story unfolds as Betty is lured by the temptations of the modern world, ultimately eloping with a flashy but irresponsible young man, Dudley Weston. This decision leads to a series of misadventures that force her family, particularly her father Chester, to confront the shortcomings in their parenting and the moral decay they perceive in their children.
As Chester reflects on his own upbringing, he realizes that the values of discipline, prayer, and guidance from scripture are missing in his children's lives. In a bid to reform his family, he removes them from their affluent lifestyle and immerses them in a more disciplined and spiritually focused environment. The narrative highlights themes of repentance, redemption, and the generational divide in moral values, as Betty grapples with her decisions and the consequences they bring.
The novel ultimately leads Betty to a transformative experience, resulting in her return home and acceptance of Christian faith. Hill’s work remains relevant today, addressing the ongoing struggles between parents and children, the effects of societal pressures, and the importance of spiritual guidance in family life. "The Prodigal Girl" serves as both a cautionary tale and an exploration of faith, discipline, and the possibility of redemption.
The Prodigal Girl by Grace Livingston Hill
First published: 1929
Edition(s) used:The Prodigal Girl. Chappaqua, N.Y.: Family Bookshelf, 1989
Genre(s): Novel
Subgenre(s): Romance
Core issue(s): Coming of age or teen life; discipline; prayer; sin and sinners
Principal characters
Chester Thornton , fatherEleanor Thornton , Chester’s wifeChris Thornton , Chester and Eleanor’s eldest sonBetty Thornton , Chester and Eleanor’s daughter, the prodigal girlJane Thornton , Chester and Eleanor’s middle childDoris and John Thornton , Chester and Eleanor’s younger twinsDudley Weston , Betty’s boyfriendMinister Dunham , the Thornton children’s tutorDavid Dunham , minister’s son
Overview
When Grace Livingston Hill died at eighty-two, she had penned more than one hundred Christian romance novels. Chief among them is The Prodigal Girl, a chronicle of two parents’ efforts to transform sinful children into obedient daughters and sons of Christ. The plot of this novel deviates from Hill’s standard fare. Many works contain a rags-to-riches motif (indigent Christian girl meets wealthy Christian man who rescues her from dire circumstances through marriage). Instead The Prodigal Girl features the Thorntons, a middle-class family whose fortunes have improved, but whose standard of living is reduced by the father’s choice. Teenaged Betty, lured by the temptations of fast boys, fast cars, fast dances, and sloe gin, impulsively elopes with the unprincipled, but flashy Dudley Weston on a winter’s night in 1929.
As the novel opens, businessperson Chester Thornton contemplates celebrating a successful venture by rewarding his children with luxuries. Christmas approaches, and he imagines surprising Betty with a sports car now that she is old enough to drive. These thoughts entertain him until when riding the train home, he overhears a ruffian who boasts about his lustful exploits and mentions Betty’s name. Blinders off, Chester arrives home and is further disillusioned. He sees his children for what they are: his son, a drunken gambler; his daughter Jane, an exhibitionist; and his prized Betty, a slut. During dinner his youngest offspring, the twins, share their lesson from school that day: evolution! Chester has seen and heard enough; he forbids his children to leave the house, but the teenagers sneak out with his wife’s knowledge. A convert to modern child psychology and permissive parenting, his wife sticks to her ways until her husband physically collapses later that night and she joins his crusade.
When Chester locates Betty in a car parked outside a bar, he pulls her from the arms of her boyfriend. The father criticizes his daughter’s loose behavior, and she laughs. Reminiscent of the family’s dinnertime discussion (when the children proved more knowledgeable than their parents about evolutionary science and adamant about its veracity), his advice on sexual mores is evidence, in Betty’s eyes, of her father’s outdated Victorian values. When he explains the wages of sin, she retorts, “What right would God have to make laws for us? If He put us here on the earth and made us live whether we wanted to or not, it’s up to us to have as good a time as we can, isn’t it? If there is a God.” Her narcissism, skepticism, and disrespect reveal to her father the depth of their generational and spiritual divide.
When Chester realizes his children are not the angels he had envisioned, he measures their upbringing against his own and identifies the missing elements. He too was raised in a large household, but one that was disciplined, removed from the vices of the city, and centered on daily prayer and Bible study. As a countermeasure to his children’s lax morals, he re-creates his childhood environment by transporting them to that very cabin in a secluded forest where he grew up. As money appears the root of many of their evils (Tom’s gambling, Betty and Jane’s immodest attire, and the teens’ purchase of alcohol), he prefers that his family not know about his recent monetary gains and allows them to think their fortunes have declined. Reduced means act as an antidote to overindulgence, and the children learn to relish pleasures like hikes through the woods and ice skating (but only after they have cleared the snowy paths and the pond by virtue of their own labors).
Because the Thornton children are withdrawn from school, a devout local man is hired as their home tutor. Minister Dunham’s curriculum is based entirely on the Bible; from this single volume he instructs them in literature, history, mathematics, and most crucially, Christian fundamentals. Initially reluctant, the children, with the exception of Betty, are persuaded by his knowledge and his sincerity. Daily family prayer is instituted in the evenings. While her brothers and sisters engage in spiritual activities with their parents, the sight of her father on his knees praying aloud to God repulses Betty, who steals upstairs and locks her door. Deprived of the fun she once enjoyed and feeling imprisoned, Betty plans her escape. A letter to Dudley and some lies told to her family enable her to sneak out one night and hike through the snow to the village train terminal.
The prodigal daughter’s anticipated elopement is disastrous. Dudley arrives drunken and late to their rendezvous. He drives recklessly into New York City, causing an accident that lands both of them in the hospital, Dudley with severe injuries. Betty finds her way to an aunt’s city apartment, but the maid bars the girl’s entrance because of her tattered appearance. After selling her watch to purchase a ticket, a hungry and penniless Betty journeys homeward by train and by foot. Suffering from hypothermia, she is rescued (by chance or perhaps divine intervention) when the minister’s son, David, finds her asleep in a snowdrift. Delirious, she calls him “God’s child,” and he delivers her to worried parents who celebrate her return. Back home she recovers physically and spiritually, accepting Jesus Christ as her savior and David as her fiancé.
Christian Themes
While certain material in Hill’s novel may strike readers as dated, the core issues are still relevant. Problems continue to exist between parents and children. Academic curriculums and the social environment of public schools cause some parents to choose home schooling. While rebellious teenage behavior may change with the times (Betty’s kissing and backtalk notwithstanding, she remains a virgin after eloping with Dudley), most parents are troubled by their children’s experimentation with alcohol, drugs, and sex, and by their disrespect for authority.
In The Prodigal Girl, Hill presents the temptations and the penalties of sin for both the children and the parents. After his awakening, Chester admits his indulgent parenting and his sin of neglect. To lead his family spiritually, he must guide by example and mete out discipline when needed. However, Chester is neither without mercy nor does he abandon his children in times of trouble. When Chris’s gambling debts mount, Chester hires a lawyer and helps him repay the money, keeping his son from jail. During Betty’s absence, Chester spends a long night entreating God’s assistance and begging mercy for his own sins. Likewise, Eleanor acknowledges her role in the children’s misbehaving. Feeling duped by permissive attitudes, she vows to consult biblical teachings and not popular texts when seeking counsel on mothering.
However, parents cannot raise children in the way of the cross alone; they need the assistance of institutions that affirm the values of the Christian household. The Thorntons rely on home schooling and seclusion for a period of time to reform their children, but they realize they must rejoin the world at large. To live in isolation is not a solution. In the final chapter, plans are made to return to the city and open a Christian school under the direction of Minister Dunham and his son, David, who is completing theological studies to join his father’s ministry. Hill’s The Prodigal Girl emphasizes that discipline, instruction, and prayer are fundamental to the reform of the sinner and to sustain a Christian lifestyle, and it is for this purpose the school is to be established.
Sources for Further Study
“Grace Livingston Hill.” In Twentieth Century Romance and Historical Writers, edited by Lesley Henderson. Chicago: St. James Press, 1990. Features information on Hill and her popular Christian romance novels.
Karr, Jean. Grace Livingston Hill: Her Story and Her Writing. Mattituck, N.Y.: Amereon House: 1982. Republication of the 1948 biography that includes an analysis of major works in chronological order. Traces the author’s career from her first publication at age twenty-two to the novel she was composing when she died at eighty-two.
Munce, Robert L. Grace Livingston Hill. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House, 1986. Written by her grandson, this biography recounts Hill’s two marriages; the first ending with her husband’s death, the second in a separation. Discusses Hill’s family, many of whom were writers, and assesses Grace’s reputation and legacy as a writer of Christian fiction.
Paulsen, Joanna. Grace Livingston Hill: A Checklist. Mattituck, N.Y.: Amereon House, 1981. Comprehensive bibliography listing all of Hill’s novels.