SPIES (Stephen and Keith)

Stephen
1. "doesn't quite fit in with the pigtailed Geest girls and the oil-stained Avery boys, and never will"
2. Stephen values Keith due to his possessions
  1. Stresses the importance of possessions and appearance
    1. Stephen describes the contents of Keith's house as opposed to the owners of the house (chapter 2)
3. "He doesn't need to open the front gate because it's open already, rotted drunkenly away from the top hinge"
4. Appearance
  1. "Green and black are the colours of the wrong school"
  2. "He pulls up the sagging sock, and bends down to tie the untied tennis shoe"
  3. "socially colour coded for ease of reference"
  4. "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"
5. Descriptions
  1. "just plain Stephen"
  2. "unsatisfactory"
  3. "weeny Weedy Wheatly"
6. Barbara realises that Stephen is easily led and undermines him
7. Narrator
  1. Do we trust him?
    1. Patchy (selective) memory
      1. Not very reliable
8. Does he push himself against his social class?
  1. Does this affect him as an adult?
  2. Rebellious
9. Does S idolise K?
  1. Can he see K's flaws?
    1. 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.
      1. 'His eyes look into mine. They're the eyes of a stranger.'
Stephen is inferior to Keith
1. "the rest of us can't even muster even one parent of interest"
2. "or rather Stephen's waiting for Keith to decide"
3. He is aware of his inferiority
  1. "he was the leader and I was the led"
4. "he was only the first in a whole series of dominant figures in my life whose disciple I became"
5. "Keith's in front, of course"
6. "he's still leader of this expedition"
7. "Keith can overtake me and resume full control of the operation"
  1. Stephen is actively being submissive
Keith
1. "A father in the secret service and a mother who's a German spy"
2. "the white wicket gate on its well oiled hinges"
3. Appearance
  1. "Yellow and black are the colours of the right preparatory school"
  2. "his brown leather sandals are neatly buckled"
  3. "His grey socks are neatly pulled up"
  4. "His shirt, though, is not too short, his shorts are not too long."
4. Towards the end of the novel, Keith starts to become like his father
  1. His father is obviously a dominant figure in his life
  2. He begins to look down on Stephen
    1. Acts in a way that is condescending and prejudiced
5. Who is more intelligent? S or K?
  1. Despite better education ("the right preparatory school"), K cant spell private
    1. Ironic
Childhood
1. The children often misinterpret the world around them
  1. "The Juice" = Jews
    1. Don't judge too early: the Juice isn't sinister
  2. 'x' in the diary is Keith's mother's period
2. Narrator describes childhood in different tenses
  1. Stefan still seems to have a child's perspective
    1. Perhaps he is just trying to be a child again
      1. He grew up too quickly
        Went through adolescent awakening
        Smokes for the fist time
        Experiences sexual feelings towards Barbara
3. Frayn uses the innocence and naïvety of Stephen and Keith to introduce certain ideas
  1. Ideas such as the notion that Keith's mum is a German spy
Spying
1. Stephen and Keith obsessed with the idea that K's mother is a spy
  1. Spend the majority of their time trying to prove it
2. Stephen tells Keith that his father is also a spy
  1. Says this either as a joke or to compete with him
    1. S's father speaks a foreign language and turns out to actually be a German spy in the end
3. In a way, Stephen, Keith and Barbara become spies themselves
  1. They previously spied on Mr Gort
4. "That single x haunts my dreams"

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SPIES (Stephen and Keith)

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	Created by Laura Dementiev almost 9 years ago