SPIES (Stephen and Keith)

SPIES (Stephen and Keith)

1. Stephen

   • "doesn't quite fit in with the pigtailed Geest girls and the oil-stained Avery boys, and never will"
   • Stephen values Keith due to his possessions
     • Stresses the importance of possessions and appearance
       • Stephen describes the contents of Keith's house as opposed to the owners of the house (chapter 2)
   • "He doesn't need to open the front gate because it's open already, rotted drunkenly away from the top hinge"
   • Appearance
     • "Green and black are the colours of the wrong school"
     • "He pulls up the sagging sock, and bends down to tie the untied tennis shoe"
     • "socially colour coded for ease of reference"
     • "the one with the stick-out ears and the too-short grey flannel school shirt hanging out of the too-long grey flannel school shorts"
   • Descriptions
     • "just plain Stephen"
     • "unsatisfactory"
     • "weeny Weedy Wheatly"
   • Barbara realises that Stephen is easily led and undermines him
   • Narrator
     • Do we trust him?
       • Patchy (selective) memory
         • Not very reliable
   • Does he push himself against his social class?
     • Does this affect him as an adult?
     • Rebellious
   • Does S idolise K?
     • Can he see K's flaws?
       • At the end of the book, Stephen feels that Keith has changed. It is at this point when the relationship between the two boys ends.
         • 'His eyes look into mine. They're the eyes of a stranger.'

2. Stephen is inferior to Keith

   • "the rest of us can't even muster even one parent of interest"
   • "or rather Stephen's waiting for Keith to decide"
   • He is aware of his inferiority
     • "he was the leader and I was the led"
   • "he was only the first in a whole series of dominant figures in my life whose disciple I became"
   • "Keith's in front, of course"
   • "he's still leader of this expedition"
   • "Keith can overtake me and resume full control of the operation"
     • Stephen is actively being submissive

3. Keith

   • "A father in the secret service and a mother who's a German spy"
   • "the white wicket gate on its well oiled hinges"
   • Appearance
     • "Yellow and black are the colours of the right preparatory school"
     • "his brown leather sandals are neatly buckled"
     • "His grey socks are neatly pulled up"
     • "His shirt, though, is not too short, his shorts are not too long."
   • Towards the end of the novel, Keith starts to become like his father
     • His father is obviously a dominant figure in his life
     • He begins to look down on Stephen
       • Acts in a way that is condescending and prejudiced
   • Who is more intelligent? S or K?
     • Despite better education ("the right preparatory school"), K cant spell private
       • Ironic

4. Childhood

   • The children often misinterpret the world around them
     • "The Juice" = Jews
       • Don't judge too early: the Juice isn't sinister
     • 'x' in the diary is Keith's mother's period
   • Narrator describes childhood in different tenses
     • Stefan still seems to have a child's perspective
       • Perhaps he is just trying to be a child again
         • He grew up too quickly
           • Went through adolescent awakening
             • Smokes for the fist time
             • Experiences sexual feelings towards Barbara
   • Frayn uses the innocence and naïvety of Stephen and Keith to introduce certain ideas
     • Ideas such as the notion that Keith's mum is a German spy

5. Spying

   • Stephen and Keith obsessed with the idea that K's mother is a spy
     • Spend the majority of their time trying to prove it
   • Stephen tells Keith that his father is also a spy
     • Says this either as a joke or to compete with him
       • S's father speaks a foreign language and turns out to actually be a German spy in the end
   • In a way, Stephen, Keith and Barbara become spies themselves
     • They previously spied on Mr Gort
   • "That single x haunts my dreams"