Keith- Character analysis

Keith- Character analysis

1. Uniform

   • "His shirt, though, is not too short, his shorts are not too long"Pg15
     • As opposed to stephen who is a mess
   • "grey socks neatly pulled up... brown leather sandals neatly buckled"
   • "We're socially colour coded" Keith is the right colour yellow striped Pg15
     • Yellow and black means Keith is dangerous, implicit meaning
   • "Green's the right colour for a bicycle, just as it's the wrong one for a belt or a bus" It is the right colour because Keith does it. FID narrators opinion
   • "green frame gleams" "Chromium" "Glitters" "Cracked concrete bus stop" manichean imagery (black and white imagery) pg17 Ironic, plainly wrong.

2. House

   • "White wicket gate on it's well oiled hinges" Pg14 Opposite to Stephen
     • Almost a metaphor for the way into heaven
   • Metaphor for the boys
   • Detached, status symbol doesn't have to share anything OWN cricket bat
     • Inference : "Only semi-detached house in the close"
   • Middle Class Paradise
   • "well pointed" Pg14 Even the house is well disiplined
   • "even the chickens lead... elegant lives" "defined by rectilinear walls" Pg20 "where the smell of feed and droppings mingle tastefully" How can that mingle tastefully FID old Stephen is picking fun at his own image
   • The garage- "wonderful private kingdom"

3. Family

   • Father
     • Fought in WW1
       • Pg22 "There were other reasons Stephen's father inspired such respect"
       • "Won a medal... for killing five Germans with a bayonet...how his father had managed to attached a bayonet to the famous revolver
         • Barabra Berrill "the handles come off...looks more like a carving knife to me" Pg 165
         • Unreliable narration
     • As against Stephen, Keith makes up ideas to make his father sound interesting he doesn't work for the secret service, neither did he kill 5 germans these are just stories that Keith has made up
     • Pg21 "Headquarters" "Operation" "Permission" Semantic field of military and soldiers house run like a military operation
   • Mum
     • Soft approach towards keith
     • "would he have appreciated the grace and serenity" Pg 26
     • "I don't want to have to stop him seeing you"
     • Doesnt Know her son. Deluded Character
       • "But Keith's easily led, as i'm sure you'll realise" Pg 108
     • "She spoke softly and smilingly"
     • "Spent a lot of the day with her feet up on the sofa, or resting in her bedroom" Much more positive, not sighing but rested

4. Manichean Imagery

   • Stephen has black and white imagery. Keith is gold and full of colour riches of silver and chrome