The Wheatleys: appearance and reality

At the beginning of the book, when Stephen introduces Keith´s family, it is clear that he regrets having been born a Wheatley and would have liked to be a Hayward instead. Keith´s parents have a glamour his own parents don't seem to have: “I think I feel a brief pang of admiring jealousy for yet another demonstration of his unending good fortune. A father in the Secret Service and a mother who´s a German spy- when the rest of us can´t muster even one parent of interest!” As for her own mother, Stephen believes “There's something so hopelessly ordinary about her that it's difficult to take account of her existence.” As regards his father, he considers Mr Wheatley´s job was “too dull to describe”, and that his father´s appearance is as “unsatisfactory” as his own. Besides, his father uses words which are “embarrassingly private” as nobody else in the Close uses them. Stephen seems to envy even the way in which Mr Hayward punishes Keith, as he comments about his own father: “ (...) the worst punishment he could contrive was a generalised swipe at their heads, which they effortlessly ducked.”

The Haywards: Appearance and Reality

               At the beginning of the story, as described in previous posts, Stephen idealises the Haywards. In his distorted view, the Haywards are the perfect family and Stephen wishes his own family were like them. Little by little, we realise how unreliable Stephen's point of  view is and we start perceiving the conflicts and the dark truth behind the Haywards´ immaculate white walls. Stephen also realises his initial conception of Keith´s family was inadequate, but his understanding of their problems is still not complete. We- readers-. are sometimes a step ahead him in interpreting the clues provided by his close observation of this family. A good example of this difference is provided by  chapters 8 and 9.

Spies as a Coming-of-Age Novel

"Spies" can be considered a coming-of-age novel because it shows the changes brought about by Stephen's growing up process. The spying adventure helps Stephen mature and move on to adulthood.

The most noticeable change that affects Stephen is related to the way in which he understands events.

Growing up (chapters 8 and 9)

Growing up is a difficult process, and it brings about some ambivalent feelings in Stephen.

In chapter 8, Barbara is with Stephen at Braemar. She finds the cork tip of a cigarette on the floor of the hideout and suggests smoking it. As they don't have matches, Barbara wants to open the trunk where Stephen and Keith hide their secret objects, but Stephen doesn't want to betray his friend showing Barbara their hidden possessions. However, Barbara gets around Stephen to do it by seductively leaning across him . The “weight and the softness of her and the movements of her body as she pulls the padlock back and forth” seem to make Stephen forget about his oath to Keith. He describes his feelings as a kind of “vertigo”, as if “there is no firm ground anywhere.”

Lamorna

LAMORNA

Lamorna is the name of Barbara Berrill´s house, but, for Stephen, "Lamorna" means a lot of different things:

• the sweetness of Barbara and Keith's mother, (and therefore, his discovery of sexual attraction), 
• the match with which he and Barbara lit their first cigarrete (a rite of passage to adulthood)
•  the terror of the Lanes (and how he overcame it)  
• the silence under the elders (=the loneliness of Uncle Peter, and his terrible reality) 

Furthermore, the name seems to represent a concrete period and place in the narrator´s life. Stephen refers to the "Lamorna Time" and to " a distant land across the sea" The time  seems to be his transition between childhood and adulthood, and the place where that happened is the Close, in the suburbs of London.

The name is also linked to the smell of the privet in the lookout:"... And, woven somehow into the sweetness of the smell(...) L...A...M...O...R...N...A" We knew the smell was important for Stephen, as it aroused a lot of different feelings and in fact  is the catalyst of the whole story. Now we learn that the perfume of the privet and the name Lamorna are closely related, and they connote the same ideas for him. 

In conclusion, Lamorna is the  mixture of sensations, experiences, feelings  and discoveries that turned Stephen into an adult. It describes the time in which, while playing a spying game, he learnt about love, relationships and growing up, and in which he gradually abandonned the innocence of childhood.

The tittle of the novel

  The title of the novel  may describe different characters. The most important spies in the story are Keith and Stephen. However, the curious thing is that they become spies because they  believe Keith´s mother is a German spy. So they spy on a spy! They start observing all her moves and following her around. They believe Mrs Haywards may be spying on neighbours in the Close and passing information to the Germans.
At the end of the story, we discover that Mrs Haywards is not a spy at all and that she behaved suspiciously due to the fact that she was having an affair with Uncle Peter, who had deserted from war and was hidden at the Barns. We also found out that the real spy in the Close was the character we least suspected from: Stephen´s father. He was a German Jew who was helping the British side with his knowledge of the German optical industry.
   

Stephen´s hypotheses

Stephen´s hypotheses change a lot along the novel. At the beginning, Stephen believed  Keith´s mother was a spy helping the Germans. Later, this first hypothesis evolves into the belief that Mrs Hayward was  having an affair with a shotdown German pilot whom she is also helping to survive. 

Everything starts when Keith tells Stephen the six words: “My mother is a German spy”. Stephen is surprised and excited about the idea of going out and investigating. The first hypothesis that comes up to his mind is “She has her eye on all of us”, and together with his friend Keith, he starts  observing her closely and following her around. They believe she is passing information about the neighbours in the Close to the Germans. They even consider the idea that she might have been responsible for the destruction of  Miss Durrant´s house.

Is it possible for Stephen to revert to childhood? (chapter 9)

In chapter 9, after handing in the basket, Stephen runs "home to Mummy". The word “mummy” suggests the wailings of a little boy who looks for the comfort of his mother´s bosom. When reading it, we have the impression that Stephen is sick of the adult world and that he is trying to escape his anguish by reverting to childhood.

What happened to the characters after the main events of the story?

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Chapter 10- Reading guide

SPIES- CHAPTER 10

A) AT THE BARNS

TRUE OR FALSE? JUSTIFY YOUR ANSWERS

1. The man has a clear German accent
2. The man calls Keith´s parents by their first names
3. Stephen is as inarticulate as usual.
4. The man asks about Milly and her mother.
5. The man links Stephen´s fears and failure to his own story
6. The man cries and explains the only thing that keeps him sane are the regular sounds of the trains.
7. Keith is still worried about germs when he crouches to give the man the food he has brought.
8. In the darkness of the pit where the man lives, Keith can spot the man´s dark tangle of hair and beard.

ANSWER

1. What does the man reveal about his relationship with Mrs Hayward?
2. What message and token does he give Stephen for Mrs Hayward?
3. Why do the man´s last words sound like a key turning on a lock for Stephen?

B) IN THE LOOKOUT

1. What is different? Who has been there?
2. What´s going on at the Haywards´?
3. What is Mrs Hayward wearing?
4. Summarise what happens when Keith goes to the lookout

C) AT STEPHEN´S HOUSE

Describe:

1. Stephen´s parents attitude to their injured son
2. Stephen´s behaviour
3. Geoff´s theory about what has happened

D) THAT NIGHT

1. Why does Stephen wake up in a panic?
2. What is strange?
3. Where does he want to hide the man´s scarf?
4. What does he see?
5. How does he feel?

The children's discoveries

As in a murder mystery,  the gradual release of information and the careful placing of clues play a crucial role in “Spies”.There's one big mystery to be solved and something new is discovered by Keith and Stephen in each chapter. In this post, I am going to summarise the children's discoveries from chapters 4 to 7.

The Landscape Beyond the Tunnel

What is there beyond the tunnel?

On the other side of the tunnel, there used to be a narrow path that was almost covered by the growth of vegetation on each side of it in the summer. Even though the path was just one, it was usually called “The Lanes”. A bit further on,  there were some tumbledown hovels that the children called “the Cottages”, ignoring the fact that it was an extremely grand name for such collapsed dwellings. All around the place, there were pieces of damaged objects,  children with ragged clothes and “misshapen dogs”. An abandoned farm was also located in “The Lanes” and it was important because it marked the frontier between the Cottages and, as Stephen called it, “no-man’s land”.

Questions on chapter 9

Chapter 9: Spies from “The light is on...” to the end.

True or false? Explain the true statements and correct the false ones

1. Mr Hayward sits at the kitchen table to have a conversation with Stephen.
2. He delivers a clear and continuous speech on how to behave.
3. Stephen discovers he has some things in common with Mr Hayward and that adults are not so different from children after all.
4. Mr Hayward tries to get the basket by force.
5. Stephen ends up giving him the basket.
6. When Mrs Hayward enters the room and sees that Mr Hayward has the basket, she begins crying.
7. Stephen goes out of the room and stays in Keith´s room.

Answer these questions:

1. What do you imagine happens in the garage after Stephen goes out?
2. Are Mr and Mrs Wheatley presented as loving parents? Justify your answer
3. What does Stephen notice about the moon? Why does he compare himself to it?
4. What new anxiety wakes Stephen up?
5. Stephen tries to escape from his troubles by reverting to childhood. How? Does he succeed? Why(not)?
6. How does Stephen decide to help Mrs Hayward and the man at the Barns?
7. The chapter ends in a cliffhanger. Explain.

Keith and Stephen´s relationship in chapter 6

In chapter 6, we notice Stephen gets a new awareness of the unfairness of the criticism and contempt he suffers from Keith.

 At the beginning of the chapter, we are reminded of all the secrets  Stephen is hiding from Keith : the fact that his mother told him to stop spying on her or that Barbara Berrill visited their hideout.  But, in spite of this, we see that Stephen remains completely faithful to his friend, and is determined to please him. He bravely goes out in the middle of the night to look for a piece of evidence that may prove his friend's hypothesis. Stephen explains he does this just to prove his allegiance and his value to his friend.: “One single heroic deed to lay at Keith´s feet in the morning” Moreover, when his parents question him about his night excursion to the other side of the tunnel, the only questions he answers are those which involve protecting his friend.

The caning incident (chapter 7)

The caning incident in chapter 7 sheds light on what is going on inside the Haywards’ and at the same time it gives us a new insight into Keith's character and behaviour.

When Mr. Hayward utters the word “thermos”, Keith turns red and understands he is being accused of a crime he cannot even identify. Little by little, we see how he suffers as he understands that the thermos flask is missing and his father thinks he has taken it. He can only limit himself to look at the ground, as he knows that even when he speaks the truth: “I didn´t take it”, he won't be believed. His defencelessness in this section of the novel offers a striking contrast with the leading role he takes in his relationship with Keith in other chapters.

How is suspense built up during Stephen's night excursion to the other side of the tunnel in chapter 6?

Stephen's night excursion to the other side of the tunnel  is full of suspense. Although the adventure probably didn't last  long, the meticulous description of its every detail slows its narrative pace and at the same time makes it very vivid. As a result, the reader gets engaged in the events and feels eager to find out what's going to happen next.

Mrs Hayward´s basket- chapter 9

1) Complete the following summary:

Barbara Berrill goes into --------------once more. She can´t take her eyes off -----------------.She has seen Mrs Hayward with Stephen and she has noticed she -------------------------.

She offers to help-----------------------------. As Stephen refuses to go with her or to tell her about the contents of the basket, Barbara accuses him of--------------------------------------------.

When Stephen confesses he hoped they could be friends, she stops being aggressive and shows him------------------that she has taken from-------------------------------.They smoke it together.

Barbara Berrill takes out-----------------------------------. Among them, she finds ------------------, which she wants to open. Stephen opposes the idea, but Barbara leans forward and ------------------------. Then, she takes –------------------from the trunk and slits the –--------------open.

At that moment, Stephen realises there is somebody peering through the leaves. It is –-----------------, who wants to –--------------------------and also asks him to bring-----------------.

2) Which three objects are not in the basket?

Chapter 9 (up to "L...a...m...o....r...n...a...")

True or false? Justify your answer with detail from the text.

1. The beginning of this chapter brings us back to the narrative present, and to the old narrator´s walk along The Close.
2. The old narrator reflects on the young Stephen´s change of roles.
3. Mrs Hayward looks different. (Explain in what ways and account for the changes)
4. She is compared to a beggar. (Why?)
5. Mrs Haywards explains who the man in the Barns is.
6. Mrs Haywards gives some new information about the man.
7. She asks Stephen to go under the piece of corrugated iron to check if the man needs anything else.
8. Mrs Haywards starts crying.
9. Stephen thinks Auntie Dee was the first one to fall for the man, and that, later, Mrs Hayward took him away from her.
10. Stephen feels responsible for what is going on.
11. Stephen discovers adulthood and childhood are not that different after all.
12. Mrs Haywards has to leave Stephen because Keith is calling her.
13. She makes a comment on the perfume of the privets before she leaves.
14. The privets have become linked to “Lamorna” in Stephen´s imagination.

Stephen´s changes in chapter 6

We notice a change in Stephen in chapter 6. Even though he still depends a lot on his friend Keith  and considers him as a leader, Stephen becomes bolder, more independent and more aggressive in this chapter.

At the beginning of the chapter, we are reminded of how Stephen is hiding some information from Keith. He hasn't told his friend about Barbara Berrill´s intrusion in their hideout or her comments on the Haywards sisters and he cannot tell him about his conversation with Mrs Hayward. Even though he feels uncomfortable and guilty about not sharing all this information with his friend, this is a first step towards a more autonomous behaviour. He has information Keith hasn´t got, so he can interpret events in a different way than his friend.

Stephen´s hypotheses on what is going on in chapters 4 and 5

         All along the novel, Keith and Stephen create different hypotheses about the adult world and all the events they can´t understand. Sometimes, these hypotheses can be illogical and childish, but they can also help us construct our own theories of what is going on. As in a real investigation, the children gradually gather new pieces of information, which make their hypotheses transform. The evolution of these changes can be clearly seen in chapters 4 and 5.

Questions on chapter 8-section 3

Chapter 8 (from "Nothing to stop her" to "Between us we´ve destroyed the evidence")

Answer the following questions:

1. How has Barbara´s mother discovered the peeping Tom?
2. What do Barbara and Stephen know about their siblings´ joint activities ?
3. What does Stephen brag about?
4. What do they find on the ground of Mrs Durrant´s house? Whose do they think it is?
5. How does Barbara get around Stephen to open his secret trunk?
6. What do they use the matches for? Comment on the roles of the children in this new experience and the reasons they want to try it.
7. Spies draws on the tradition of coming-of-age novels. Why? How is the growing up process described in this chapter?
8. How is Stephen and Barbara´s relationship changing?
9. Whose cigarette does Stephen suddenly realise it might be?

Questions on chapter 8- second section

Spies- Chapter 8 (from “`Can I see inside your secret box thing?´” to “Nothing to stop her”)

TRUE OR FALSE? CORRECT THE FALSE STATEMENTS.

1. The following day, all the children of the street are outside Auntie Dee´s because Uncle Peter has returned.
2. Auntie Dee´s ever-smiling face looks worried this time.
3. The next house the policeman visits is Trewinnick
4. When the policeman emerges to the street again, Stephen regrets his own inaction. He´s done nothing either to help or to stop Keith´s mother.

AS YOU READ THIS SECTION, UNDERLINE QUOTATIONS THAT SHOW THE CHANGES IN STEPHEN´S RELATIONSHIP WITH KEITH AND WITH BARBARA BERRILL.

Quick revision on chapter 8- first section

SPIES- Chapter 8 (up to “`Can I see inside your secret box thing?´”)

TRUE OR FALSE?

1. Stephen feels shut out of the Haywards´world.
2. He decides to tell what´s going on to an adult
3. Barbara Berrill intrudes in the hideout again
4. Keith is the one who does the shopping for his mother and his aunt now.
5. Compared to Stephen, Barbara seems to have a greater understanding of what is going on at the Haywards'
6. Mr Hayward seems to guard his wife closely now. (Justify your answer explaining what the children see from Braemar.)
7. Mrs Haywards refrains from asking  for Stephen´s help because she sees he is with Barbara.

SUMMARISE BARBARA BERRILL´S HYPOTHESIS ABOUT WHO THE “PEEPING TOM” IS

Stephen´s inarticulacy

In spite of his vivid imagination and the rich workings of his mind, Stephen seems to become inarticulate  when he has to interact with most of the other characters in the book.

Stephen´s difficulty with expression can be clearly seen when Mrs Hayward comes to Braemar to talk to him in chapter 5 .

Spies- Chapter 7

True or false? Underline a quotation in the book that justifies your answer

1. The narrator wonders about the way in which he understood what was happening at the time the events took place.
2. Stephen didn´t dare go to the Haywards'
3. Stephen and Keith only played together at Braemar now
4. The old Stephen stares at a pot of geraniums that stand today at the same spot where his former self used to sit in the lookout.
5. The narrator imagines how a boy who is looking out of the window interprets his behaviour.
6. This boy interprets the narrator´s intentions correctly, showing that children can see through adult´s inner conflicts perfectly well.
7. Stephen realised he had betrayed Mrs Hayward´s trust
8. However, he thought he had done nothing wrong
9. He had the impression things in the world were more complex than he had supposed.
10. It was easier for Stephen to order his thoughts when he was far away from Keith´s influence.
11. Stephen realised Mrs Hayward was behaving as suspiciously as a spy
12. He was firmly convinced she was a German
13. He believed the hidden man was a German
14. He believed the hidden man was a tramp
15. He believed the hidden man was an old German tramp
16. He believed the hidden man was Auntie Dee´s boyfriend
17. He believed the hidden man was Mrs Hayward´s lover

Answer these questions:

1. When Stephen steps into the Haywards´hall, he feels “the old familiar order recomposes itself (...)” “everything is back to what it was”. Does this prove true when he enters Keith´s room? How is Keith´s behaviour different? How does Stephen interpret his behaviour? In your opinion, what other reasons may he have for not wanting to continue their investigation?
2. How would you describe Mr Haywards´s behaviour? Look for a simile in the text. Pay attention to the way he speaks, to his words and his gestures.
3. How does Keith behave? Do you feel sympathy for him? What clue(s) are there that this kind of canning is usual practice at the Haywards´?
4. How does Stephen want to help Keith?
5. How far do you agree with Stephen´s view: “The game´s not over. It´s simply become a more terrible kind of game.”
6. Why is the sharpening of the bayonet such a frightening event?
7. In what ways is Stephen´s decision to look for Mrs Hayward similar/different to his previous behaviour?
8. What do the last two lines of the chapter show about Mrs Hayward´s behaviour?

Chapter 6 (from “We hurry forward” to the end)- Guiding questions

They follow Mrs Hayward´s up the Lanes, past the Cottages until the path ends. That place is called “-------------------”, although there are no ------------ to be seen, “only a desolation of overgrown brick footings and collapsed sheets of black corrugated iron”. They remember there was –------------------ living there somewhere.

1. What do they start doing out of boredom?
2. What do they discover?
3. What do they do to the piece of corrugated iron?
4. Do they have any response from the tramp?
5. What are their feelings once they´ve stopped? What do they do?

When they get to Keith´s house, Mr Haywards is worried because--------------------------------------------------------------.

When she finally turns up,

6. What does she tell Mr Hayward she´s been doing?
7. What does she tell Stephen at the end of the chapter?
8. What are your hypotheses about what´s going on?

Summarise what we learn in this chapter about…

• Stephen and Keith´s relationship
• Mr and Mrs Hayward´s relationship
• Mrs Haywards.

What information do Barbara Berril and Mrs Hayward provide as regards Keith's personality?

  In chapter 5, both Barbara Berrill and Mrs Hayward provide some new information as regards Keith, which throws light on his character. Up to this point, we have only learnt about him from Stephen's point of view, and according to him, Keith has a very strong personality that made him the leader of all their conjunct projects. Keith admired him blindly and  felt extremely grateful to be his only friend.  However, what the female characters comment on Keith  give us a new insight on his character.

On the one hand, Barbara Berrill says nobody likes Keith because he is very bossy and arrogant. The reason  nobody visits Keith is because he doesn't have any friends and that’s why Stephen is so welcomed at Keith's house. Therefore, we understand Stephen's gratefulness just stems from his sense of inferiority, because he shouldn´t be grateful to have to suffer Keith´s haughtiness. On the other hand, Mrs. Hayward confirms what Barbara commented about Keith:` “It's such fun for Keith,” she says “ finding a real friend, because it does get a bit lonely sometimes if you don’t have any brothers or sisters, and he doesn’t make friends easily.”´ However, her next statement about Keith astonishes Stephen completely: “But Keith’s easily led, as I’m sure you realise”. In Stephen's view, Keith is always “the instigator and commander of every enterprise”. Having a different perspective make us wonder if Stephen may have played a more active role in their adventures than the one he is convinced he has. The question arises:  What did Mrs Hayward observe and know about her son that made her get the idea that he was influenced by Stephen? Could it be that even though Keith suggests the ideas for their projects, Stephen is the one who gets carried away by them and the one who keeps them going? Could Stephen´s role be more important than what he himself realises?

In conclusion, the female character´s comments on Keith confirm the unreliability of the narrator, and make us question his perspective on the roles they played in their relationship.

Uncle Peter

Uncle Peter was Auntie Dee's husband, and as it happens with all the other members of Keith´s family, Stephen describes him in a way that shows admiration and idealization.

Uncle Peter is an absent character in the story because he was away in the war. He was a bomber pilot in the RAF. The narrator shows the admiration the young Stephen felt for him by saying : "No one had an absent relative who could compare with Uncle Peter” The fact he was a bomber pilot flying over Germany made him a hero in Stephen´s eyes. He was more prestigious than other neighbours who were also fighting (Mr. Berrill or the McAffees´son) probably because he was bombarding the Germans and in this way, taking revenge for the Blitz.

Paradoxically, even though Uncle Peter was away, his existence could yet be strongly felt inside Auntie Dee's house. (“His very absence was a kind of presence.”) There was a portrait of him  in his RAF officer's cap, in a silver frame on the mantelpiece. Around it were some trophies he had won at sports and some of his belongings.  The mantelpiece resembled a kind of altar, and the words selected to introduce him  and his wife suggest that for Stephen, they shared the sacredness of religious figures:“Auntie Dee and even the untidiness itself glowed with a sacred light like a saint and his attributes in a religious painting, because they reflected the glory of Uncle Peter”. As this quotation suggests, Uncle Peter´s presence could be felt not only on the mantelpiece of the house, but also in the untidiness and neglect of the house (because of the absence of a male figure to tend it), and in his wife, who “reflected” his glory.

The fact that Auntie Dee was bringing up Little Milly on her own with what Stephen describes as “cheerfulness” is for Stephen a consequence of the pride she felt for having such a venerable husband. The narrator expresses this idea with a pun:  “You felt his cheerful bravery in Auntie Dee´s own brave cheerfulness” This quotation shows the way in which Stephen idealised  both Uncle Peter´s attitude towards his role in the war, and Auntie Dee´s mood, and saw them as mirror images of their conjunct effort to contribute with the war.

Last but not least, Uncle Peter´s presence, and his wife´s love and pride for him, could also be felt in the brooch of the RAF Auntie Dee used to wear. The narrator uses another word with religious connotations to express this idea:”manifest” ”He was manifest in the little brooch that Auntie Dee had always pinned to her breast, that showed the three famous initials on a blue enamel background, with the famous wings outspread among them, and the famous crown above.” Here, the repetition of the word “famous” emphasises the prestige of Uncle Peter´s position, and the admiration Stephen felt for him.

In conclusion, Auntie Dee and Uncle Peter , as part of Keith´s family, are described in an extremely positive way. This shows how much the young Stephen idealised them.

Chapter 6 (up to "We hurry forward") - Guiding questions

Spies: Chapter 6 (up to “We hurry forward”)

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

Stephen plucks up courage and goes out in the middle of the night.

1. How is he feeling?
2. Why does he do it?
3. What does he find out?

Stephen returns to the Close

4. Who are looking for him?
5. How does he feel and behave?
6. What has he still got in his hands?

At the Haywards´...

7. Why isn't the fruit of Stephen´s night excursion celebrated by Keith?
8. What hypothesis does Stephen have in order to explain it?
9. What hypotheses does he have to discard due to the new evidence?
10. How does Stephen´s private conversation with Mrs Hayward makes him understand her words to them when they announce they are going out in a different way?

Stephen and Keith are on the other side of the tunnel discussing Stephen´s night excursion.

11. In what ways has Stephen failed (from Keith´s point of view)?
12. How does Keith taunt Stephen?
13. How does Stephen feel at his failure to earn Keith´s respect?
14. How do you feel for Stephen?

Stephen is about to go home and leave Keith when they hear footsteps in the tunnel.

15. Who do they think it is?
16. How do they both react?

When the footsteps fade, they scramble hurriedly towards the wire, and they start running in opposite directions.

17. Where do each of them head for?
18. How does Stephen feel when he realises Keith can´t go on his own?

Stephen´s and Keith´s fathers in chapter 2

Stephen, the narrator of the story, looks up to  his friend Keith and his family, and considers that they are clearly superior to himself and his own family in all aspects. This is clearly seen in the way in he contrasts his father to Keith´s.

On the one hand, Stephen's father seems to be a very inconspicuous man. His presence at home, as Stephen says, “(…) was scarcely noticeable”. His activities were not particularly interesting or attractive : ”He’d sit for hours at the dining room table, with his paper and files spread out in front of him and a pair of glasses on the end of his nose, or else collapse into one of the scuffed armchairs in the lounge and silently doze through obscure concerts on the wireless that nobody else wanted to hear.” When he wasn’t at home he  :”(…) was out at an office somewhere all day and often evening doing a job too dull to describe” In this quotation, we can see that Stephen didn’t think much of his father´s  job even though he didn't know exactly what it consisted in.

Even the description of his father´s appearance shows Stephen´s negative view of him, as it focuses on the strange looks that the inadequate distribution of hair in his body creates:  “(…) quantities of disorganized dark hair on his chest would come sprouting out of the open neck of his shirt. Then his head would sink and present the world with yet more disorganized hair, dotted in irregular tufts about the infertile landscape of his scalp. Even the back of his hands had coarse dark hair on them –even the gaps between his cuffs and his crumpled socks.” The narrator concludes that his appearance was “as unsatisfactory as Stephen`s”

Stephen´s father´s inadequacy is also highlighted by his peculiar vocabulary. Stephen confesses there was “something embarrassingly private about this”. He used words like “coodle-moodle” ( meaning “messy”) and “shnick-shnack” (meaning “nonsense”) Stephen once tried one of these words with Keith, but he realised from the disconcerted look on his friend's face that “he´d said the wrong thing”

On the other hand, Keith’s father didn´t spend the day working in some unseen office, like Stephen’s, and his job wasn't dull at all.  On the contrary, what he did was exciting and prestigious:  he was part of the Home Guard  and he had participated in the Great War. He had even won a medal for killing five Germans with a bayonet, and, according to Keith, he worked for the Secret Service.

When he was at home, his presence was noticeable, by his incessant whistling and by his constant work around the house “making perfection yet more perfect.” Stephen shows his admiration for Mr Hayward´s work in the house in the  description of the garage where he worked and kept his tools. The narrator defines this place as “the headquarters of Keith’s father´s operations”. The word “headquarters” suggests the importance Stephen assigns to this place. He also speaks of “the wonderful private kingdom inside”, and describes the care Mr Hayward put in each task he undertook, the enormous variety of tools he had, and the impressive order in which he kept them.

Mr Hayward was a man of few words, but when he spoke, he didn´t use embarrassing terms that nobody understood. On the contrary, he used fashionable forms of address: “old bean” or “old chap”, and he ascertained his paternal authority with the menace of caning. He never spoke to Stephen, only to his son, and Stephen seemed to feel so uncomfortable in the presence of such a respectable man, that he didn`t even dare look directly at him.

In conclusion Keith´s and Stephen´s fathers were completely different in all aspects. Even though Stephen seems to fear Mr Hayward, he is also very impressed by him, and, at this point of the story, he presents him as the prototype of a father.

Keith and Stephen’s Relationship

All along Chapter 3, there are many sentences that suggest that Stephen is convinced of Keith’s total superiority and that he accepts it blindly, disregarding any evidence that points to the contrary. His low self-esteem and his sense of inferiority can account for this conviction.

The narrator uses a clear metaphor to describe Keith and Stephen´s asymmetrical relationship: Keith is the “hero” whereas Stephen  is just his “sword bearer”. Therefore, Stephen`s role is limited to follow, help and obey his friend´s orders.  At times, Stephen´s subordination is shown in the way he copies his friend's words:  “‘Nothing´ says Keith. ‘Nothing’ I confirm.” But mostly, Stephen´s voice seems to be annihilated by Keith´s, as the following quotations illustrate: “One of my tasks as his sword-bearer, though, is to prompt his imagination by offering useless suggestions.” “If theories involving secret passages, rockets, time travel, and the like are to carry conviction, they have to be uttered in his voice, not mine.” Moreover, Keith seems to have the power not only to silence Stephen but also to govern his behaviour and thoughts: “(…) I humbly wait for Keith to announce what we’re to think and what we’re to do”.Evidently, their relationship seems to be more an autocracy than a democracy.

Stephen´s admiration for Keith goes so far as to speak of him as a deity: “(...) he is more than a protagonist in the events we are living through- (...) he is in some mysterious way their creator.” Like God´s in the Book of Genesis, Keith´s words have creating power: “In each case he uttered the words, and the words became so. He told the story and the story came to life” The six words “my mother is a German spy” generated a new world for the children, as well as the story of the novel. Stephen does not possess this same power. When he says his father is also a German spy, the only reaction Keith has is a faint movement of his lips in  “a slight dismissive amusement”

If Keith is a God, Stephen is his most faithful acolyte. Not only does Stephen praise Keith all the time in these chapters, but he even silences any doubt he may have about the legitimacy of his friend's  leadership: “I have private reservations about the spelling but keep them to myself, as I do any of the other small occasional reservations I have about his authority.” His low self-esteem and his inferiority complex are the two conditions for this admiration not to be shaken by any conflicting evidence. If Keith misspells a word, Stephen dismisses his doubts, and blindly accepts Keith´s spelling. In chapter 5, he is even ready to own up to his friend's mistakes as if they were his own: “I want to lie and say it was me to spare Keith´s shame (...)”.

Will Stephen´s subservience continue all along the book? Well, that is the question we will have to answer as we go on reading.