Identity as a Constructed and Erasable Thing in The Children on the Hill
The Thematic Claim: Identity Is Built, Not Born—and Can Be Torn Down and Rebuilt Again
In The Children on the Hill, Jennifer McMahon treats personal identity as a malleable construction rather than a fixed essence. The novel’s central claim is that a person’s sense of self can be deliberately fabricated, erased, and rebuilt—often through coercion, medical intervention, and psychological manipulation—and that this power can be used for both monstrous and redemptive ends. The story traces this idea across three distinct arcs: Gran’s creation of Vi as “Patient S,” Vi’s violent erasure of that false self and her rebirth as a monster, and Vi’s later adult program of giving abused girls entirely new identities. Each phase reveals that identity is not a stable core but a story told by others—and sometimes retold by oneself.
The novel opens with an epigraph from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, in which a first-person speaker describes being “spurned, kicked, and trampled on” and calls themselves an “abortion”—a creature rejected by its maker. This epigraph immediately frames identity as something imposed from outside, a label that can be affixed or stripped away. Vi, who reads Frankenstein as a child and feels the book was “written just for her,” becomes the novel’s central figure of constructed identity: she is both the creature and the creator, the victim of identity theft and the architect of new selves for others.
Gran’s Construction of Vi: The Mayflower Project
The first major plot arc reveals that Vi’s entire childhood identity—her name, her family history, her memories—was fabricated by her grandmother, Dr. Hildreth. In chapter 22, Vi breaks into Gran’s office at the Hillside Inn and discovers files labeled “MAYFLOWER.” The notes describe an experimental program aimed at taking “a subpar human being” and, through surgery, medications, and therapy, erasing their past and rebuilding them into something “greater.” Gran’s own handwriting declares, “I have taken a doomed soul and created a blank canvas.” Vi realizes that she is the subject of this project: “Patient S.” The files detail how Gran implanted false memories—Vi believes her parents died in a car accident, that she has a brother named Eric, and that she was raised by a loving grandmother. In chapter 32, Vi and Iris read a note stating that “Patient S fully believes that her parents were killed in a car accident that she and her brother survived,” and that she has “early memories” of the accident—memories that are entirely invented.
This construction is not merely psychological; it is physical. The evidence shows Gran used electroconvulsive therapy, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, and drugs like sodium amytal and Metrazol. Vi’s own body bears the scars of these procedures—she has a scar across her head, just like Iris, though she never knew its origin. Gran’s goal was to erase Vi’s original self and replace it with a compliant, brilliant granddaughter who would become a doctor and continue her work. The identity of “Violet Hildreth” is thus a deliberate artifact, a story Gran wrote and enforced.
The character of Iris serves as a mirror to Vi’s experience. Iris arrives at the house with no memory of her past, only a scar and a fear of the dark. She tells Vi, “I’m no one,” and Vi promises to help her find out who she is. But the search for Iris’s identity leads Vi to the shocking truth that she herself is the one whose past was erased. This inversion—the seeker becomes the found—underscores the theme that identity is not something we discover but something we are given, and that the giver can be a tyrant.
Vi’s Erasure and Rebirth as the Monster
The second arc shows Vi’s violent rejection of her constructed self. In chapter 35, after reading the files, Vi experiences a complete breakdown. She realizes that “everything she knew, or thought she knew, was a lie.” She declares, “Violet Hildreth was a made-up name. A character.” In a fury, she destroys the ECT machine, smashes files, and sets fire to the office. She embraces a new identity: “I am Patient S. I am a monster.” This is not a return to some original self—Vi has no memory of who she was before Gran’s experiments. Instead, she chooses a new identity, one born of rage and self-definition. She tells herself, “She’d give them a monster,” and she begins to act like one, attacking Iris and later fleeing into the woods.
This moment is crucial because it shows that identity can be erased not only by others but also by oneself. Vi cannot recover her pre-Gran self; that self is gone, perhaps forever. She can only build a new one, and she chooses the identity of the monster—a role that gives her power and purpose. The novel’s epigraph from Frankenstein resonates here: Vi, like Shelley’s creature, is made, not born, and she responds to her maker’s rejection by embracing her monstrosity.
The symbol of fire is central to this erasure. Vi uses Gran’s butterfly lighter to ignite the files, burning the records of her own history. Fire becomes a tool of identity destruction—it consumes the paper that defined her, and in doing so, it allows her to become something new. Later, fire recurs in the 2019 timeline, where Vi uses it to destroy the past of other girls, burning their old identities so they can be reborn.
Vi’s Later Program: Rebuilding Identities for Others
The third arc, set in 2019, shows Vi as an adult who has turned her own experience into a mission. In chapter 40, Lizzy confronts Vi in a basement room and discovers a laptop with profiles of women whose “FKA” names match missing girls. Vi explains that she rescues girls in dire situations—abused, abandoned, or on the verge of death—and gives them new identities through a network of benefactors. She tells Lizzy, “To be reborn, one must die and cut all ties.” This is a direct echo of Gran’s method, but with a crucial difference: Vi’s goal is liberation, not control. She offers these girls a second chance, a blank slate, just as Gran did for her—but Vi’s subjects are willing participants, not unwitting victims.
The character of Lauren Schumacher exemplifies this. Lauren is a girl who ran away from an abusive father; Vi gives her a new identity and a new life. In chapter 41, we learn that Lauren’s father has vanished after police found her diary documenting his abuse. Lauren’s transformation is complete—she is no longer the girl who was abused; she is someone new. Vi’s program is not without moral ambiguity, however. She demands that these girls sever all ties to their past, including family and friends. Skink, Lauren’s boyfriend, cannot tell anyone that she is safe. This erasure is both a gift and a loss, echoing the novel’s central tension: identity can be rebuilt, but at the cost of what is left behind.
The 2019 chapters also reveal that Vi herself has adopted a new identity—she is now the “Monster” who hunts other monsters, a vigilante who preys on abusers. In chapter 42, she and a girl (presumably Lauren) wait for darkness in a room where a man is strapped to a bed. The man calls the girl “Lauren,” but she is no longer Lauren; she raises a blade. Vi reflects on her bond with Lizzy, “once sisters not linked by blood,” and recalls Gran’s words about having a strong heart. This scene shows that Vi has fully embraced her constructed identity as a monster, but she has repurposed it for what she sees as justice.
Complexity and Contradiction: The Double-Edged Sword of Identity
The novel refuses to present identity construction as simply good or evil. Gran’s methods are monstrous—she experiments on children, erases their pasts, and creates obedient subjects. Yet Vi’s own program, while more ethical in intent, replicates the same pattern: she decides who deserves a new identity, she controls the process, and she demands total severance from the past. The difference lies in consent and purpose, but the mechanism is the same. Vi becomes the very thing she hated in Gran—a maker of identities, a god who decides who people are.
This contradiction is embodied in the symbol of the butterfly lighter. Gran’s lighter, with its butterfly etching, is an object of both creation and destruction. Vi uses it to burn her own past, and later to burn the pasts of others. The butterfly itself is a symbol of transformation—a creature that undergoes a complete metamorphosis, emerging as something entirely different. But the butterfly is also fragile, easily crushed. The novel suggests that identity, like a butterfly, can be beautiful and liberating, but it is also delicate and can be destroyed by the very forces that create it.
The wishing stone, another symbol, represents the desire for a different self. Vi’s childhood wish for a sister—a wish that Gran may have implanted—shows how even our deepest longings can be manufactured. The stone is a reminder that identity is often shaped by what we wish to be, not what we are.
Study Questions and Answers
1. How does Gran’s Mayflower Project illustrate the theme that identity is constructed?
Gran’s project uses surgery, drugs, hypnosis, and electroconvulsive therapy to erase a child’s original memories and implant new ones. Vi’s belief that she is Violet Hildreth, with a loving grandmother and a brother, is entirely fabricated. The files show that Gran deliberately created a “blank canvas” and then painted a new identity onto it, proving that identity is not innate but imposed.
2. What role does the epigraph from Frankenstein play in establishing the theme?
The epigraph presents a creature who is rejected and abandoned by its maker, calling itself an “abortion.” This sets up the idea that identity is something given by a creator, and that the created being may feel monstrous or unwanted. Vi, like the creature, is made by Gran and later rejects her maker, embracing her own monstrosity.
3. How does Vi’s destruction of the files and her embrace of the “monster” identity show the erasure of self?
Vi cannot recover her original identity—it is gone forever. Instead, she chooses to become a monster, a new self built from rage and defiance. By burning the files, she symbolically destroys the identity Gran gave her, but she does not replace it with a true self; she replaces it with another construction, showing that identity is always a choice or an imposition, never a fixed essence.
4. In what ways does Vi’s later program of giving girls new identities mirror Gran’s methods, and how is it different?
Both Gran and Vi use erasure and reconstruction to create new identities. Gran does so without consent, for scientific and personal gain. Vi does so with the consent of the girls she rescues, aiming to save them from abuse. However, Vi still demands total severance from the past, and she decides who is worthy of a new life, making her a creator in her own right.
5. How do the symbols of fire and the butterfly lighter reinforce the theme of identity as erasable?
Fire is used to destroy records, photographs, and physical evidence of identity. Vi burns her own files and later burns the pasts of other girls. The butterfly lighter is the tool of this destruction, and the butterfly itself symbolizes transformation—the ability to become something new. But fire also consumes, and the butterfly is fragile, suggesting that identity, once erased, cannot be fully recovered, and that the process of rebuilding is both powerful and dangerous.