It appears that the author's purpose in the story is to highlight the alienation a young boy can experience in a morally stifling and sterilized environment. Additionally, such an environment may unintentionally compound the dysfunction already present in his life.
In the story, the unnamed narrator is a twelve-year-old boy who attends a Catholic boarding school. It's interesting that the author never names this boy; perhaps the boy represents all boys who feel alienated from...
It appears that the author's purpose in the story is to highlight the alienation a young boy can experience in a morally stifling and sterilized environment. Additionally, such an environment may unintentionally compound the dysfunction already present in his life.
In the story, the unnamed narrator is a twelve-year-old boy who attends a Catholic boarding school. It's interesting that the author never names this boy; perhaps the boy represents all boys who feel alienated from their parents and other authority figures in their lives. The narrator in the story is obviously unhappy. There's clearly no loving, emotional connection between him and the rest of his family. When he receives cards from his brother and parents on his birthday, the narrator simply throws them away after opening them. They hold no sentimental value for him.
Later, the boy' parents arrange for him to spend a week after Easter with Nicky Carver's family. The narrator's parents never discuss the matter with him; they just assume his acquiescence as a matter of habit. It is apparent that this obvious lack of communication between them is an indication of deeper dysfunction within the family structure. This dysfunction manifests itself in the narrator's actions.
The narrator steals three exercise books and revels in his secret. He experiences an intoxicating feeling of power and invincibility because he's succeeded in stealing the books from right under his teacher's nose. His actions don't faze him, and we are led to question why. In the end, when the narrator is angry with Nicky Carver for fraudulently confessing to the theft of the exercise books, we realize the dysfunction in the narrator's life is deeper than we think. The narrator is angry because Nicky successfully diminished his sense of power and autonomy; now he can no longer claim his theft as a secret only he can savor.
Yet, the narrator's rationale causes us to question why he keeps smiling after he catches Nicky Carver's eye at the end of the story. Has the narrator switched focus? Is he now reveling in the fact that Nicky has to "pay" for a crime he didn't commit? While the author doesn't answer our questions, choosing instead to let us form our own interpretations about the story, one thing is clear: a morally stifling and emotionally barren environment can often compound the deep dysfunction already present in a young child's life. Exposing this truth may well be the author's purpose in writing this story.
No comments:
Post a Comment