‘I Spy’ by Graham Green Essay

1. SettingWe do-nothing theorise exactly that in all the described pointts take place in England, particularly, they happen in the eastern part of England. The stupefy of the Charlie Stowe, of the important character, was supposed to be in Norwich that darkness we know about it directly from the civilizebook (To iniquity he verbalise he would be in Norwich). Norwich is the regional administrative center and verdant town of Norfolk. Besides, unrivaled sentence tells us that place isnt off the beaten track(predicate) from water (the wind blew from the sea, and Charlie Stowe could hearthe beating of the waves) and now we bath say precisely that it is just by the North Sea that washes the shores of England. The events happen at night in the house where the family of Charlie Stowe lives, particularly, at the tobacco shops rat that was kept by his gravel. It is said in second paragraph of the text edition. It was clock cartridge clip of the origination War I.The follo wing clues help us to understand it opp atomic number 53nt airships, Zeppelin, which was a type of airship pioneered in Germany in the blood of XX century and employ widely to bombard England during the period of the World War I, more than(prenominal) features of fashion of that time as bowler hats and belt out mackintoshes, brands of scarcet joints that Charlies no frailty was selling (Gold Flake, Players, Woodbines were wide-spread that time). Moreover, in the text Huns were mentioned. It is an Offensive take in employ as a disparaging term for a German, especially, a German soldier in World War I.2. P hookCharlie Stowe, the main character, gets mocked by his schoolmates at the County school, because he has never essay a cigarette at his 12 in his life. One night he decides to get down a mourning band and sneaks to the tobacconists shop run by his return whom he doesnt love. His mother is sleeping and his stupefy isnt supposed to be at home. precisely when Charlie suffers himself at the shop he hears footfalls in the street. It is his father and two singulars. They feed a brief lambast and then leave the shop. Charlie goes upstairs, he is truly frightened but the mental attitude to his father changed. We raft get word the structure of the text. The expositions of the account statement include the interpretation of that night and Charlies family. The climax happens when his father and two strangers have a conference, particularly, on the dialect Well in that locations nothing to be done about it, and I may as well have my smokes.It was said by Charlies father and it is the most important flake of the story, because here we see concentrated kindredness between the father and the son during male childs attempt to commit a crime (to smoke a cigarette) he tries to encourage himself with grown-up and childish exhortations and what is interesting Charlie uses the alike rowing to encourage himself in the forwards paragraph and his father saying the explicate above too tries to encourage himself. Maybe he committed a crime organism a spy because two strangers seem to be policemen or secret-service agents and the father tells them that The married woman will sell out, talking about his tobacco assembly line.Also unusual behavior says to us this event his voice has an unfamiliar to Charlie note and he holds his stiff collar. It indicates that he is actually nervous and also his voice is dry as a cooky. When Mr. Stowe wants to get his coat one of the strangers would like to go with him not let him be alone. It seems that Charlies father is arrested. We buttocks do this guess-work and call up one more likeness between Charlie and his father committing a crime. The resolution happens when the father and two strangers leave the shop, frightened Charlie goes upstairs and understands how much he loves his father.3. Elements of mendThis short story abounds with conflicts. At the commencement we know that Ch arlie has never tried a cigarette in his life and gets mocked by sons at school. It is the rootage conflict the son versus schoolmates, his peers, and it end be considered as the conflict of a man and society. The second one happens between Charlie and his father which he doesnt like at the beginning. Thats why we can call Charlie protagonist, and his father antagonist. We see the third direct conflict between Charlies father and two men. The mystery is hidden in their talk. And finally there is the forth conflict the inner conflict of the boy who at his 12 wants to be an adult purifying to have a smoke against the fear and forbidding and maybe commit the hardest crime of his age.4. The theme/messageThe main root of the story is a generation gap, the relations of Fathers and Sons. It is still relevant nowdays, parents should indemnify attention to the personal manner of upbringing of their children. Lie, mistakes, carelessness and insufficiency of attention of parents would glitter on the behavior and personality of their children. The other idea is found in the conflict of Charlie and his peers. Sometimes to be respected in society we try to do what it dictates us. Children are exposed to the society influence easier, because they havent enough experience in life and their world outlook isnt finally formed. The minor idea of this story is to show how our attitude can be wrong judging people around us, even our ambient people, our relatives, and it may happen that it would be too late to say the warmest dustup to the love people and even living with our family we cannot notice the likeness or super C things that connect us. We should be more attentive, more sensitive and appealing and keep in mind that our children would somehow look like us.5. accountThe type of narration is entrusted narrative. The story is told from the point of view of Charlie who uses the 3d person. It is an wise point of view.6. Fiction elements/StructureThe author entrus ts the main character relation back us the story. Thats why we can consider this story as an interior monologue. In the text we also encounter with protagonists inner dialog and the dialog between the antagonist and two strangers. It is a kind of blend of dialogs and monologue destination. It makes us imagine more shiny the situation and keeps us in tension. On the whole the structure of the text is chronological. Only the second paragraph is a weensy bit destitute telling about Charlies family and his conflicts with boys from County school and his father. The story starts at the beginning and moves through time.7. Style level of complexityThe structure of the text is rattling complex. There are a lot of commas, semi-colons and conjunctions. Also inclusion of the dialogs tells us about it. Equally with conjunctions such stylistic fraud as asyndeton is used many times in the text. Abrupt changes from long sentences to short ones and vice versa create a really strong effect of tension and hesitancy for they serve to arrange a nervous, ragged rhythm of the comments. Also rattling short sentences produce a very strong emphatic impact. In the text we can notice loose, periodic and balanced sentences, it also says to us about very sophisticated structure of the text. We can encounter with apokoinu constructions erupt burning, chin cupped in his hands, made him grab, croak of several men walking rapidly, quick steps way out away, dont let me be caught. Apokoinu constructions are in general used in the entrusted narrative. We can find also a lot of attachments, particularly, in dialogs (In vernacular of Charlies father), in the 5th paragraph ( belt mackintoshes. They were strangers.)The story abounds with literary spoken language as it should be with the fiction. The author chose very colored words such as banks of cloud, thin fog, stale smoke, boisterous, spasmodically, wraith, despair, lurked, held his tip, dare not to move, cowered and etc. Dialo gs are very colloquial, a lot of phrasal verbs are used (sell out, to be off, put off). What is very interesting in the text you can find some proverbs. Firstly, in the inner dialog of the boy (May as well be hung for a sheep, but it isnt full, we can consider it as ellipsis) and secondly in the speech of Charlies father, not finished as well (while theres life, the continuation is there is hope) and a stitch in time (also isnt finished (continuation saves nine)), and wrenched proverb Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow.The latter(prenominal) is said with a touch of sarcasm. The usage of proverbs also is a cat valium characteristic of the boy and his father. Elipsises reflect the natural omissions characterizing oral colloquial speech and the main function is to achieve the authenticity and plausibility of fictious dialog. When Charlie wants to encourage himself he says Cowardy, cowardy custard. It is a very interesting expression and is a taunt used by schoolchildren in the UK equivalent to scaredy cat in the U.S. By the way it is one more clue in support of the story happens in England. It means one who is excessively fearful. The word Cowardy is made with the help of bantamsuffix y, it underlines additional emotional coloring. The descriptions in the story are very detailed, author uses a lot of epithets (boisterous, wraith, stale, noisy and etc.).Figurative language is traced through the whole story. We can find metaphors such as a searchlightprobing the dark deep spaces (we can also call it personification), surprise and awe kept himawake, the tobacconists shopdrew him on, personification familiar photograph had stepped from the mould to reproach him with neglect, similis such as dry as biscuit, but his fathers affection and dislike were as ambiguous as his movements, disguised simili can be find in the mentioned phrase Cowardy, cowardy custard, periphrasis the packets were piled twelve deep below instead of there were 12 packets of ciga rettes which conveys a purely individual perception of the described object, onomatopoeia when they cracked if we talk about stairs and stresss the reigning tension.Talking again about the phrase Cowardy, cowardy custard author from Charlies point of view describes it as childish exhortation. We can notice one more morphological gismo, suffix ish. It deepens the coloring of the utterance expressing some contempt. In the second and in the utmost paragraphs we can find antithesises the first one in the description of Charlies father who is contrary to his mother and the second one while his mother was boisterous and kindly, his father was very like himself doing things in the dark which frightened him. Through this device we can understand the real attitude of Charlie to his parents. In the last antithesis there is also a comparison of the boy and his father. In the text we can also find dont you constructions, the first of which was used to emphasize sarcasm of one of the strange rs (Dont you want to speak to your wife? and another one is an inversion Dont you worry to much. Mr. Stowe used it to produce sarcasm as well. Talking about dialogs we can underline its colloquialism also by repetition Yes, yes.8. Tone/ wittinessThe tone of the story is very tense, serious, suspenseful and sometimes in characters words sarcasm slips. Tension and fear are seen in the description of boys actions sat in despair, cowered in darkness, held his mite, clutched his nightshirt tight and prayed. In some phrases of the one stranger we can find sympathy. Also we feel sympathy both to the boywho is mocked at school and his father who seems to be arrested. In the detailed description of Charlies father we can notice that the boy is offended by him ( left wing even punishment to his mother). The mood of the story is hopeless and tense. We feel it passim the story, the setting helps us to feel it deeply as well. But in the end we feel a kind of relief for a sec when the boy unde rstands he loves his father. We say for a moment because we will never know if the father and the boy ever meet again.9. Types of charactersa) Charlie12 old age old kid, brave enough to do what is prohibited (to have a smoke). But is under impact of his schoolmates who mock at him, it is a common phenomenon of children of his age. He is smart, we can say it reading how he encourages himself with the proverb. Maybe it tells us that he is well-read. The peculiarity of children of the World War I time was that they were aged mentally, more clever than the children of the peace time. The severe environment made them like that. Charlie tries to prove his maturity, to go against the fear. He is very cautious and skillful. But one thing he forgets is matches. He was so rash in his need that make him forget a very important thing without what he cant fulfill his wish.Though Charlie loves his mother very much, we cant say he is mothers darling. He wants to be with his father, share proble ms and feelings with him, but he sees that his father isnt interested in him. That makes him frustrated. Charlie is a dynamic type of character, because he has a very strong position against his father and the attitude to him changes in the end. And he understands himself differently than at the beginning.b) Mr. StoweFrom the very beginning we know that Charlie doesnt love his father. He describes him as unreal to him, a wraith, pale, thin and indefinite, who noticed him only spasmodically and left even punishment to his mother. Tonight he had said he would be in Norwich, and yet you never knew this tells us that he lies to his family. He is fearful of bettering his crime. It is seen in the phrase told one of the strangers if you wouldnt mind being quite, gentlemen. I dont want to wake up the family.., The same we can seein his answer on the strangers question Dont you want to speak to your wife? not me. But at the same time Mr. Stowe is very polite with strangers (if you wouldn t mind, Mind if).It also emphasizes his deceitfulness. Mr. Stowe is fond of what he is doing running the tobacconists shop (Its a good little businessfor those that like it). We can notice how carefully he behaves with the packets of cigarettes (he get up a pile of Gold Flake and Players from a shelf and caressed the packets with the tips of his fingers.). He couldnt be the closest person to his own kid, but he is good at business.c) Mr. StoweCharlie opposes his father to his mother at the beginning of the story describing that her presence is boisterous and her charity is noisy. She filled the world for him, from her speech he judged her the friend of everyone, from the rectors wife to the Dear tabby cat, except the Huns. For his mother he felt a passionate illustrative love. The word demonstrative underlines the ostentation of his love opposing more strong his father to her. It seems that Charlie is very angry with his father at the beginning. Her almsgiving and boisterous pr esence are mentioned in the end of the story again, but now the boy doesnt feel her presence, it is evident in the last sentence He was alone in the house with his mother. He wants to say the warmest words not to her, but to his father. At the end Mr. Stowe becomes the dearest person to the Charlie.d) Two strangersThese two strangers seem to be secret-service agents as it was mentioned above. Their appearance (bowler hats and mackintoshes) and phrase we are on duty hint at that. One of them is polite enough thanking for the offered cigarette Thank you all the time, one of usll come with you, if you dont mind, said the stranger gently. The other one is trying to be sarcastic.10. Methods of characterization train11. SymbolismWe can compare growing of a child with the stairs. every footstep is a phase or life period. We can observe the dynamics of Charlies life, his growing, throughout the story, though it is a very little period of time. But the changes are evident. And we can imagi ne the stairs as a symbolic element. Moreover, we can find symbolism in night characterizing Charlies fears and hesitation and uncertainty.12. Stylistic devicesA lot of stylistic devices were mentioned above. But in this part of the analysis I want to discuss the championship of the story I Spy. It sounds like a kids game core Spy, where the player-spy silently selects an object that is visible to all the players and does not reveal his or her choice. The same with Charlie he wants to share his feelings, emotions and problems with the father, but doesnt do it. His father isnt interested in him, he is indefinite and the boy feels it. I Spy and Eye Spy is a stylistic device called pun, based on the play of words that sound similar.