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.

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.