The Golden Age: 20. The Queen Summary & Analysis

The Queen is scheduled to visit Perth in March, but her visit might be cancelled because of the rising number of polio cases. The children at the Golden Age feel vaguely guilty, as if they’re responsible for the trouble. Eventually, the visit isn’t cancelled after all, but the Queen and Duke aren’t allowed to touch or eat anything in the city and will sleep on their ship.

The children take a field trip to see the city decorated and transformed in the Queen’s honor. Everyone starts to pay more attention to the large photograph of the Queen and Duke that hangs in the hospital. She’s familiar to them because her face is everywhere, but at the same time she’s too beautiful and glamorous to seem real.

Everyone starts to improve themselves, as if in the Queen’s honor. Fabio stops wetting the bed, and Frank and Elsa walk everywhere instead of using their wheelchairs. Meanwhile, Meyer is skeptical of the obsession with the royals, especially coming from citizens of a peripheral colony. He’s permanently disillusioned with monarchism.

Susan Bennett keeps a scrapbook of the royal visit. She’s especially excited because her parents, high-ranking public servants, are going to a garden party with the Queen. When they come to visit, Susan’s parents, Rodney and Tikka, are glamorous and well-groomed, although Elsa notes that Susan’s bathing suit is even shabbier than her own. Rodney and Tikka are very excited about the upcoming party and tell Susan loudly that they thought they wouldn’t be invited, having a daughter with polio. They tell her they’ll drop by after the party and Susan waits up past her bedtime, but they don’t come until later in the week. Susan is disappointed with them.

The children go into the city to watch the Queen’s parade through the city; all they see is her gloved arm waving mechanically, and the Duke’s white smile. Even Frank is excited by the pageantry.

Meanwhile, Ida is practicing frantically for the concert she’s agreed to give at the Golden Age, as well as having a new dress made by an immigrant friend. Meyer is happy to hear her playing again, and reports to Frank that she’s very nervous, not having performed since they were living in a refugee camp in Vienna. Since his new job is flexible, Meyer visits Frank all the time now. Tanned and healthy, he looks increasingly Australian and nothing like his son. Frank thinks he looks different, and Meyer says the past seems farther away. He’s finally settling into Australian life, rather than seeing it as a temporary arrangement.

To everyone’s excitement, one of the bouquets presented to the Queen is sent, second-hand, to the Golden Age. The Queen returns to England uninfected, although a number of Perth residents contract polio in the next weeks, possibly from standing in crowds to see her. Meanwhile, the Jewish scientist Jonah Salk is gaining attention for the polio vaccination he’s developing. A year later, the vaccination will be ready for use, and summer polio epidemics will be eradicated.