Saturday 21 May 2016

Keith's Spelling

Keith had a lot of spelling mistakes in comparison with Stephen. Although Keith went to the "right" school and Stephen to the "wrong one", Keith's spelling was far from perfect.

There are many examples of these mistakes in chapter 3. When Keith and Stephen found the exercise book that they were going to use to record their investigations, Keith wrote on its cover: "LOGBOOK -SECRIT" meaning secret. One of the first entries in that logbook was  Keith's mother conversation with Mr. Hucknall, the butcher: "1053 hrs. Phones. Asks for 8087. Mr. Hucknall. 3 muten chops. Not to fat", meaning "mutton" and "too" Another example of Keith's spelling mistakes was when he wrote "Privet" on a tile at the entrance of the passageway. He didn't want to refer to the plant, what he really meant was "private".

These mistakes clearly show that Keith is not superior to Stephen in all aspects, as Stephen believes, As we have said in other posts, that is Stephen´s opinion, but he is not a reliable narrator as -among other reasons- his point of view is tainted by his low self-esteem. 
Stephen knew the spelling of these words was wrong but he preferred to keep it to himself because he felt inferior. He was used to being "the led" and to accepting anything Keith said. He never dared to question the leader. Keith is like a god to Stephen and he admires him and he thinks that whatever he does is right and should be humbly accepted.


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