The Fly – Katherine Mansfield

Woodifield, an old and rather infirm gentleman, is talking to his friend, "the boss", a well-to-do man five years
older than he is and "still going strong". The boss enjoys showing off his redecorated office to Woodifield, with
its new furniture and electric heating (with an old picture of a young man, whom we learn is his deceased son).
Woodifield wants to tell the boss something, but is struggling to remember what it was, when the boss offers
him some fine whisky. After drinking, his memory is refreshed and Woodifield talks about a recent visit that his
two daughters made to his son's grave, saying that they had come across the boss's son's grave as well. We
now come to know that the boss's son had died in the war six years ago, a loss that affected the boss heavily.
After Woodifield leaves, the boss sits down at his table to inform his clerk that he does not want to be
disturbed. He is extremely perturbed at the sudden reference to his dead son, and expects to weep but is
surprised to find that he can't. He looks at his son's photo, and thinks it bears little resemblance to his son, as
he looks stern in the photo, whereas the boss remembers him to be bright and friendly. The boss then notices
a fly struggling to get out of the inkpot on his desk. The boss helps it out of the inkpot and observes how it dries
itself. When the fly is dry and safe, the boss has an idea and starts playing with the fly by dropping ink on it. He
admires the fly's courage and continues dropping ink on it, watching it dry itself continuously. By this time, the
fly is weak and dies. The boss throws the dead fly, along with the blotting paper, into the wastepaper basket,
and asks his clerk for fresh blotting paper. He suddenly feels a wretchedness that frightens him and finds
himself bereft. He tries to remember what it was he had been thinking about before, but has no recollection of
what he was thinking about before the fly.

Characters:

 Mr. Woodifield, an old and infirm man, who has lost a son in World War I and is only allowed to leave his house
on Tuesdays. He lives with his wife and daughters.

 The boss, a well-off friend of his, who has also lost a son to World War I. (main character)

 Macey, the office clerk.

 The fly the symbol of the story

 Gertrude, Mr. Woodifield's daughter

 Reggie, Mr. Woodifield's son whom he had lost in World War I

Themes:

1. Control, 2. ignorance, 3. sacrifice, 4. responsibility and 5. war.

1. we are aware that the office has been newly decorated on the boss’ instructions. This may be important as it
suggests that the boss is in control of his environment (the office). The reader also senses that the boss, while
dropping the ink from the pen onto the fly is exerting a level of control. At first he places one or two drops of ink
on the fly before eventually adding some more. At all times he appears to be in control.

 The fly can be seen to symbolise the young men who were sent to fight in the war and who like the fly died.

Setting: “The boss”’s office.

Lamb to the Slaughter – Roald Dahl
Mary Maloney, a housewife devoted to making a sweet home for her husband, and heavily pregnant with their
first child, awaits her husband Patrick to return home from his job as a local police detective. Mary is very much
content in her marriage, and believes her husband to be as well. When he returns, Mary notices that he is
uncharacteristically aloof and assumes that he is tired from work. After having more to drink than usual, Patrick
reveals to Mary what is making him act strangely. Although it is not explicitly said, one can infer that Patrick
asked for a divorce as he states that "she will be looked after."
Seemingly in a trance, Mary fetches a large leg of lamb from the deep-freezer in the cellar to cook for their
dinner. Patrick, his back to Mary, angrily calls to her not to make him any dinner, as he is going out. While he is
looking out the window, quite suddenly, as if she is acting without thinking, Mary strikes Patrick in the back of
the head with the frozen lamb leg, killing him instantly.
Mary realises that Patrick is dead and begins, rather coldly and practically, to ponder what must happen now.
There is the baby to consider; she knows what the law does with a murderer; she will not risk the child's
sharing her fate. She owes it to the child to escape discovery if she can. She prepares the leg of lamb that she
used as a weapon and places it in the oven to somewhat destroy the evidence. Then she considers an alibi.
After practising a cheerful mask and some innocuous remarks to make in conversation, she visits the grocer
and chats blandly with him about what to make for Patrick's dinner. Upon her return to the house and to the
room where her husband lies dead on the floor, she acts surprised and meaningfully cries. Then she calls the
police.
When the police (who are all friends of her husband) arrive, they ask Mary questions and look at the scene.
Considering Mary above suspicion, the police conclude that Patrick was killed by an intruder with a large blunt
object, likely made of metal. After they made a fruitless search around the house and surrounding area, Mary is
reminded that the leg is just about done, and offers it to the policemen, pointing out that they have already
been working through and past the dinner hour and that the meat will otherwise go to waste; they hesitate,
but accept. During the meal, as Mary sits nearby but does not join them, the policemen discuss the murder
weapon's possible location. One officer, his mouth full of meat, says it is "probably right under our very noses".
Mary, overhearing, begins to giggle.

Themes: Gender and Marriage

Mary’s pregnancy and sewing are examples of her domesticity, epitomizing the traditional roles of women as
child-bearers and domestic servants.
As a housewife, Mary is expected to stay in the private sphere of domesticity while her husband goes to work;
she has been home alone all day, with no one to talk to. Yet when her husband comes home, Mary is quick to
accommodate her husband’s desire for silence.
Mary’s attempt to get her husband to eat something is yet another example of her wifely duties as caregiver.
Her husband’s rejection of her food is also a rejection of her role within the marriage. As he mentally prepares
himself, he looks down as if ashamed, while Mary’s focus is entirely on him, as it has been for their entire
marriage.
After the murder, Mary finds the death penalty to be a “relief,” because the life she had with her husband is
already over. However, her resolution to survive suggests that her concern for her child exceeds her concern
for herself and her marriage.
Characters:
 Mary Maloney: The story’s protagonist, Mary Maloney is the wife of Patrick Maloney, a detective. A
happy and devoted housewife who is six months pregnant with her first child, Mary spends much of her
time caring for and thinking about her husband while attending to domestic tasks such as cooking and
sewing. After Patrick reveals that he is leaving her, however, Mary suddenly kills him with a frozen leg
of lamb. She then cunningly covers up the murder, using her role as an “innocent,” supposedly-foolish
housewife to trick the investigators.
 Patrick Maloney: The husband of Mary Maloney, Patrick Maloney is a police detective who cares more
about his work than his marriage. Despite Mary’s best attempts to make him comfortable and care for
him, he does not reciprocate her efforts or feeling. He callously tells Mary that he has decided to
abandon his marriage, and is then killed by Mary herself with a frozen leg of lamb.
 Jack Noonan: is a sergeant and friend of the Maloneys. Jack is one of the first officers to arrive at the
scene of the murder. Like the other officers on the case, he is sympathetic and condescending
towards Mary and does not suspect her of Patrick’s murder at all. Instead, he tries to comfort her and,
along with his colleagues, is persuaded by Mary to eat the leg of lamb, unaware that it is actually the
murder weapon.
 Sam: Sam is the grocer who unwittingly becomes Mary’s alibi. After the murder, Mary chats casually
and briefly with Sam, giving the impression that she is buying vegetables for her husband’s dinner at
Sam’s store. Later, the police confirm her story with the grocer, who, like the detectives, has been
deceived by Mary.

Symbols
In this story, the figure of the lamb takes on two roles: as both a victim and a source of violence or sacrifice.
Both Mary and her husband Patrick take on the roles of figurative lambs as they sacrifice each other.
However, while Patrick sacrifices Mary’s role as his wife by leaving the marriage, Mary sacrifices Patrick’s
life, killing him with a frozen leg of lamb. The transformation of the lamb from an object of sacrifice to a
tool of violence signals Mary’s transformation from submissive housewife to violent killer, and resonates in
the double meaning and black humor of the story’s title: whereas the Maloneys are both lambs to be
slaughtered figuratively or literally, the lamb, or rather the frozen leg of lamb, is also used as an instrument
of slaughter. Once the policemen are called to investigate Patrick’s murder, then, the lamb comes to
represent both a sacrifice for the detectives (as food) and a weapon against them (as that sacrifice as food
entails the destruction of evidence).

Look back in Anger – John Osborne

Act 1
Act 1 opens on a dismal Sunday afternoon in Jimmy and Alison's cramped attic in the Midlands. Jimmy and
Cliff are attempting to read the Sunday papers, plus the radical weekly, "price ninepence, obtainable at any
bookstall" as Jimmy snaps, claiming it from Cliff. This is a reference to the New Statesman, and in the
context of the period would have instantly signalled the pair's political preference to the audience. Alison is
attempting to do the week's ironing and is only half listening as Jimmy and Cliff engage in the expository
dialogue.
It becomes apparent that there is a huge social gulf between Jimmy and Alison. Her family is upper-middle-
class military, perhaps verging on upper class, while Jimmy is decidedly working class. He had to fight hard
against her family's disapproval to win her. "Alison's mummy and I took one look at each other, and from
then on the age of chivalry was dead", he explains. We also learn that the sole family income is derived
from a sweet stall in the local market—an enterprise that is surely well beneath Jimmy's education, let
alone Alison's "station in life".
As Act 1 progresses, Jimmy becomes more and more vituperative, transferring his contempt for Alison's
family onto her personally, calling her "pusillanimous" and generally belittling her to Cliff. It is possible to
play this scene as though Jimmy thinks everything is just a joke, but most actors opt for playing it as though
he really is excoriating her. The tirade ends with some physical horseplay, resulting in the ironing board
overturning and Alison's arm getting a burn. Jimmy exits to play his trumpet off stage.
Alison and Cliff play a tender scene, during which she confides that she's accidentally pregnant and can't
quite bring herself to tell Jimmy. Cliff urges her to tell him. When Jimmy returns, Alison announces that her
actress friend Helena Charles is coming to stay, and it is entirely obvious that Jimmy despises Helena even
more than Alison. He flies into a total rage, and conflict is inevitable.
Act 2
Act 2 opens on another Sunday afternoon, with Helena and Alison making lunch. In a two-handed scene,
Alison gives a clue as to why she decided to take Jimmy on—her own minor rebellion against her upbringing
plus her admiration of Jimmy's campaigns against the dereliction of life in postwar England. She describes
Jimmy to Helena as a "knight in shining armour". Helena says, firmly, "You've got to fight him".
Jimmy enters, and the tirade continues. If his Act 1 material could be played as a joke, there's no doubt
about the intentional viciousness of his attacks on Helena. When the women put on hats and declare that
they are going to church, Jimmy's sense of betrayal peaks. When he leaves to take an urgent phone call,
Helena announces that she has forced the issue. She has sent a telegram to Alison's parents asking them to
come and "rescue" her. Alison is stunned but agrees that she will go.
After a scene break, we see Alison's father, Colonel Redfern, who has come to collect her to take her back
to her family home. The playwright allows the Colonel to come across as quite a sympathetic character,
albeit totally out of touch with the modern world (as he himself admits). "You're hurt because everything's
changed", Alison tells him, "and Jimmy's hurt because everything's stayed the same".
Helena arrives to say goodbye, intending to leave very soon herself. Alison is surprised that Helena is
staying on for another day, but she leaves, giving Cliff a note for Jimmy. Cliff in turn hands it to Helena and
leaves, saying "I hope he rams it up your nostrils". Almost immediately, Jimmy bursts in. His contempt at
finding a "goodbye" note makes him turn on Helena again, warning her to keep out of his way until she
leaves. Helena tells him that Alison is expecting a baby, and Jimmy admits grudgingly that he's taken aback.
However, his tirade continues. They first come to physical blows, and then as the Act 2 curtain falls, Jimmy
and Helena are kissing passionately and falling on the bed.
Act 3
Act 3 opens as a deliberate replay of Act 1, but this time with Helena at the ironing-board wearing Jimmy's
Act 1 red shirt. Months have passed. Jimmy is notably more pleasant to Helena than he was to Alison in
Act 1. She actually laughs at his jokes, and the three of them (Jimmy, Cliff, and Helena) get into a music
hall comedy routine that obviously is not improvised. Cliff announces that he's decided to strike out on his
own. As Jimmy leaves the room to get ready for a final night out for the three of them, he opens the door
to find Alison, looking like death. Instead of caring for her he snaps over his shoulder "Friend of yours to see
you" and abruptly leaves.
After a scene break, Alison explains to Helena that she lost the baby—one of Jimmy's cruellest speeches in
Act 1 expressed the wish that Alison would conceive a child and lose it—the two women reconcile but
Helena realises that what she's done is immoral and she in turn decides to leave. She summons Jimmy to
hear her decision and he lets her go with a sarcastic farewell.
The play ends with a sentimental reconciliation between Jimmy and Alison. They revive an old game they
used to play, pretending to be bears and squirrels, and seem to be in a state of truce.

Setting
 Time- The present, The action throughout takes place in the Porters' one-room flat in the Midlands.
 Act I
 Scene 1 – Early evening, April
 Act II
 Scene 1 – Two weeks later
 Scene 2 – The following evening
 Act III
 Scene 1 – Several months later
 Scene 2 – A few minutes later

*It focuses on the life and marital struggles of an intelligent and educated but disaffected young man
of working-class origin , Jimmy Porter, and his equally competent yet impassive upper-middle-class wife
Alison. The supporting characters include Cliff Lewis, an amiable Welsh lodger who attempts to keep the
peace, and Helena Charles, Alison's snobbish friend.

What is the significance of the title ;Look Back In Anger;?

The title refers to the characters' attitudes towards their lives in general, but Jimmy's in particular. There is
a sense that life is passing them by, that they are growing older without things getting better, that their
relationships had possibilities at the beginning that they don't have now, and so on. All of these generate a
generalize resentment/anger in the play.
Jimmy’s anger: the fundamental character of a generation.
The cause why Jimmy is angry is to a great extent rooted in his background. As a young boy he watched his
dying father and learned more about love-death and betrayal than people like Helena would know all their
lives. He recalls the experience with bitterness and says that every time he had sat near his father’s bed and
listen to his father’s talk he had to fight back his tears. He says he had become a ”veteran after his
experience of remaining by his father’s bed side for twelve months. He also suffers for Mrs. Tanner, Augh’s
mother who according to him went “through the sordid process of dying.”
Social disparity between his working class origin and the uppper middle class to which his wife belongs is
also a reason for Jimmy’s anger. He wages an unending battle against the upper middle class whom he
holds in contempt and treats Alison as a “hostage”. He constantly bullies his wife and provokes her to
retaliate Alison’s silence.
*The upper-class woman in Look Back in Anger is Alison, the hero of the lower class Jimmy Porter. Jimmy
wants to bring Alison to his animal level: she has to face the death of a loved one to become a „real human
being‟. After Jimmy and Alison had broken up, Alison‟s best friend Helena started a relationship with
Jimmy. At the end of the play Helena leaves because she is ashamed about having interrupted her best
friend‟s marriage. When Jimmy discovers that Alison‟s attitude changed after she had a miscarriage, they
reconcile.
Jimmy‟s confidant Cliff is another important character. He shares a shabby flat with Jimmy and Alison and
is “a personification of the working classes” (Skovmand 87). Alison‟s father, Colonel Redfern, is the fifth
character in the play. He fought on the foreign front in India. When he came back to Britain he felt like he
did not conform to the changed society
Characters:
Helena Charles
Helena is Alison’s friend, a very proper middle-class woman. She is an actress who comes to stay with the
Porters while she performs in a play at the local theatre. Jimmy has long despised her, as he considers her a
member of the Establishment. When she contacts Alison’s father and asks him to take Alison home, Helena
seems genuinely concerned about Alison. However, she seduces Jimmy and replaces Alison in the
household. When Alison returns, Helena realizes that her affair with Jimmy is wrong and decides to leave.
Cliff Lewis
Cliff is Jimmy’s friend and partner in the candy stall business and shares the Porters’ flat, although he has
his own bedroom across the hall. Cliff is a poorly educated, working class man of Welsh heritage. He is
warm, loving, and humorous. He genuinely loves Alison but adjusts when she leaves and Helena moves in.
Cliff’s first allegiance is to Jimmy. Nevertheless, ultimately he decides to go out on his own.
Alison Porter
Alison has been married to Jimmy for three years. She comes from the solid upper-middle-class
Establishment. Her father was a colonel in the colonial Service and the family lived very comfortably in India
until 1947. Her brother Nigel attended Sandhurst, the British equivalent of West Point, and is a Member of
Parliament. She married Jimmy partly as a rebellion against the proper, predictable, stultifying precepts of
her class. However, she has been molded by her upbringing and it is her “fence sitting,” her lack of total
emotional commitment, that provokes Jimmy’s attacks. Alison is warm and open with Cliff without ever
harboring a sexual attraction to him. When Helena takes charge and arranges for Alison to leave Jimmy,
Alison does not protest and does indeed return to her parents, their values, and the security they offer.
Alison is drawn back to Jimmy at the end after she has suffered the pain and loss brought by the
miscarriage of her child.
Jimmy Porter
Jimmy Porter is a character of immense psychological complexity and interest. He dominates the play
through the power of his anger and language. He unleashes his invective on what he calls the Establishment
(those “born” to power and privilege), the church as part of the Establishment, and his loved ones. Osborne
describes him as “a disconcerting mixture of sincerity and cheerful malice, of tenderness and freebooting
cruelty; restless, importunate, full of pride, a combination which alienates the sensitive and insensitive
alike.” Although Jimmy has graduated from a university — albeit one with no prestige — he works with Cliff
as owner/proprietor of a candy stall in an outdoor market. In spite of his tendency to sometimes cruelly
insult Cliff, Jimmy genuinely likes him. His assaults on Alison are nasty and sometimes savage. He seems to
be trying to force her to have a genuine response, something coming from her that is not colored by her
class and up-bringing. He says she is not real because she has not suffered real pain and degradation. When
she leaves he is hurt but quickly adjusts. Jimmy has hated Helena for the same reasons he hated Alison,
namely her social class and “proper” upbringing. While Jimmy apparently hates Alison’s mother, he seems
to like Colonel Redfern because he can feel sorry for him.
Colonel Redfern
Colonel Redfern, Alison’s father, is a retired army officer who served in India from 1913 to 1947. During
that time he seldom spent any time in England. He represents the values and beliefs of another period, a
time of British Empire. His values are those of duty, honor, and loyalty to one’s country and one’s class. His
world ended with the independence of India. He is a reasonable man somewhat bemused by the post-
World War II England. He does not approve of Jimmy, but he does find things to admire in him and even
agrees with Jimmy in some instances. He does not hesitate to help Alison and does not attempt to control
her.

The Destructors – Graham Greene

Set in the mid-1950s, the story is about the "Wormsley Common Gang", a boys' gang named after the place
where they live. The protagonist Trevor, or "T.", devises a plan to destroy a beautiful two-hundred-year-old
house that survived The Blitz*. The gang accepts the plan by T., their new leader, and executes it when the
owner of the house, Mr. Thomas (whom the gang call "Old Misery"), is away during a bank
holiday* weekend. Their plan is to destroy the house from inside, then tear down the remaining outer
structure. Mr. Thomas returns home early, however, and the gang locks him in the outhouse. T. refuses to
stop until the destruction job is complete, because even the facade is valuable and could be reused. Inside,
they find a mattress filled with money—which they burn. The final destruction of the house occurs when
a lorry pulls away a support pole from the side of the house. Mr. Thomas is released from the outhouse by
the lorry driver to see the rubble of what once was his home. When the driver finds the situation funny Mr.
Thomas is incensed, but he is still unable to stop laughing.
*The Blitz, from the German word Blitzkrieg meaning 'lightning war', was the name used by the British
press to describe the heavy air raids carried out over Britain in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World
War.
*A bank holiday is a public holiday in the United Kingdom, some Commonwealth countries, other European
countries, and a colloquialism for a public holiday in Hong Kong and Ireland. There is no automatic right to
time off on these days, although banks close and the majority of the working population is granted time off
work or extra pay for working on these days, depending on their contract.
“The Destructors” is about a group of teenage boys who call themselves the Wormsley Common gang, after
the area where they live. They meet every day in a parking lot near a part of town that was bombed during
World War II. Almost everything in this area is destroyed although one house stands with minimal damage.
This house is owned by Mr. Thomas (whom the boys call Old Misery), an old man who lives alone. One day,
the gang’s leader, Blackie, suggests that they spend the day sneaking free bus rides. T. (whose full name is
Trevor) has another idea. He has been inside Mr. Thomas’s house and suggests that the boys take
advantage of the old man’s upcoming two-day absence to demolish the house from the inside. T. becomes
the gang’s new leader. When the boys meet at the appointed time the next morning, T. has already
organized his directions for the boys to demolish the house. By the end of the day, the house is in
shambles: the floors are torn up, the fixtures are smashed, the electrical cords are all cut, and doors are
destroyed. After everyone but Blackie has left, T. shows him “something special,” Mr. Thomas’s savings of
seventy one-pound notes. T. explains that he and Blackie will burn the notes one at a time to celebrate.
After they are finished, they go home. The next day, the boys meet again at the house to complete the
destruction. They take out the staircase, demolish the inner layers of wall, knock down the floors (it is a
multi-story house), and flood what is left. Before they are finished, one of the boys runs in and announces
that Mr. Thomas is on his way home. Mr. Thomas was not expected until the next morning, so T. locks him
in the outhouse until morning. Not wanting to physically hurt the old man, the boys give him a blanket and
food. The next morning, a driver starts up his truck, and as he pulls out of the parking lot adjacent to the
house, he hears crashing. At first he is confused, but then he realizes that his truck was tied to a support
beam of the gutted house, bringing it down. The driver lets Mr. Thomas out of the outhouse, and although
the old man is devastated, the driver cannot stop laughing. He explains that it is not personal, but he thinks
it is funny.

Themes
Innocence
The boys in “The Destructors” are in their teens, which is the age at which childish innocence is gradually
left behind in favor of worldliness and sophistication. For the boys in the story, however, their innocence is
already gone, replaced by cynicism, selfishness, and rebelliousness. When Mr. Thomas arrives home early,
T. is surprised because the old man had told him he would be gone longer. Greene writes, “He protested
with the fury of the child he had never been.” Not only have these boys grown up during the war years,
they live in an environment that serves as a constant reminder of that harrowing experience. They meet in
a parking lot near an area that was destroyed by bombs during the war, and they are seemingly unaffected
by it because it is such a normal part of their life. In reality, the war years have claimed their youthful
innocence, leaving them disillusioned and determined to create their own world order, but all they really
know is destruction. Part of innocence is surrender to the imagination. In “The Destructors,” however,
imagination takes an ugly turn. T. uses his imagination to devise the plan to destroy Mr. Thomas’s house.
Greene writes that the boys “worked with the seriousness of creators – and destruction after all is a form of
creation. A kind of imagination had seen this house as it had now become.” The imagination used to plot
the demise of the house is the opposite of the imagination used to create it. In innocence, a person’s
imagination is applied to think of a better world, but the boys have lost their innocence. They can only
imagine a worse world.
 Power
“The Destructors” is a study of shifting power. Blackie initially holds the power of leadership in the gang, and
he is a basically good leader. Although he encourages mischief, it is the kind that does not hurt anyone. In his
hands, power is the ability to lead others. When T. takes over leadership, however, the gang changes
dramatically. He gets the members to participate in a cruel plan to destroy an innocent man’s home, a home
that is a treasured piece of England’s past. In T.’s hands, power is the ability to destroy. His brand of leadership
is different; when Blackie arrives on the first morning of the destruction (the day after T. assumes leadership),
“He had at once the impression of organization, very different from the old happy-go-lucky ways under his
leadership.” When Summers arrives on the second morning, voicing his preference to do something more fun
that day, T. will not hear of it. T. knows he is more powerful than Summers is, so he reminds him that the job is
not done and that Summers himself voted in favor of the project. He succeeds in pressuring the boy to stay and
help finish the destruction. In the changing social structure of this small community, the balance of power is
shifting. The boys forcibly take power in the community, and it is executable power. They have the ability to
make changes in people’s lives and to intimidate others. Mr. Thomas, on the other hand, thinks he has power
that he no longer possesses. He believes that he has authority based on the social order of the past, in which
he, as an elder in the community, would be respected and obeyed. The shift in power seen in “The Destructors”
signals the changing social order and does not bode well for the future.
Characters
Blackie
Before T. becomes the leader of the Wormsley Common gang, Blackie is its head. He is described as a just
leader who is not jealous and wants to keep the group intact. He also distrusts anything having to do with the
upper class. As the gang’s leader, Blackie suggests such activities as seeing how many free bus rides they can
sneak and breaking into Old Misery’s house without stealing anything. When the gang sides with T. instead of
Blackie, Blackie initially feels betrayed and privately sulks. He then decides that if the gang is going to succeed
in the feat of destroying the house, he wants to be a part of it for the fame. Once he rejoins the group, he is
fully committed to T.’s leadership and to contributing to the destruction of the house. In fact, when the gang’s
confidence in T.’s leadership falters, Blackie pulls the group back together. This demonstrates that the group as
a whole is more important to him than the personal glory of being the leader.
Driver
At the end of the story, an unsuspecting driver finally brings down the house. The driver’s truck is tied to the
gutted house so that when he pulls out of the adjacent parking lot, the entire house crumbles. At first, the
driver is astonished and confused, but once he realizes what has happened, he responds with a fit of laughter.
Even when Mr. Thomas faces him and asks him how he can laugh, the driver is unable to control himself.
Joe
Joe is a member of the Wormsley Common gang. He is simply described as a “fat boy,” and he is the first to
vote in favor of T.’s plan to destroy the house.
Mike
A member of the Wormsley Common gang, Mike is the only one who is surprised when T. becomes the leader.
Mike has always been easily surprised and gullible; when he was nine, he believed someone who told him that
if he did not keep his mouth shut, he would get a frog in it.
Summers
Summers is the only member of the gang who is called by his last name. He is a thin boy who is a follower.
When, on the second day, he complains that the destruction of the house is too much like work, he is easily
talked into staying and helping.
T.
Trevor, who goes by T., is the new leader of the Wormsley Common gang. He is fifteen years old and has gray
eyes. He is a member of the gang all summer before taking leadership in August, when he suggests a dramatic
change in the gang’s activities. His father, an architect, has recently lost social ranking, and his mother has an
air of snobbery about her. If T. had seemed like an easy target to the boys, they would have teased him for
these things in the beginning. T. initially says very little when the gang meets, but as he positions himself to
take leadership, he talks more. He intrigues the gang with his plan to pull down Mr. Thomas’ house, a feat
unparalleled in the gang’s history. The unprecedented plan, coupled with the air of intrigue surrounding T.,
makes the boys in the gang eager to accept his plan. Mr. Thomas Mr. Thomas, who is called Old Misery by the
boys in the gang, is an old man who lives in one of the last standing houses in its neighborhood. He was once a
builder and decorator but now lives alone, emerging once every week to buy groceries. While he expects his
property to be respected by the boys, he is not so disagreeable that he refuses to allow the boys on his land or
to use his outdoor bathroom.

The Patriot Son – Mary Lavin

Characters: Themes:
 Matty Conerty * Nationalism
 Sean Mongon * Freedom/independence from england
 Matty’s mother * Rebelion

Setting: Ireland during the Fenian’s period (1867 – 1922)

Fenian /ˈfiːnɪən/ was an umbrella term for the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB),
fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and
early 20th centuries.

The story began when Sean Mongon, an Irish nationalist came and asked his friend, Matty Conerty if he
could display a cleaply-printed poster in his shop. That play-bill showed a woman in green and some Gaelic
letters as headline.
Matty thought that his mother wouldn’t like the idea because she always had a haberdashery. Later on, a
head Constable (porter the R.I.C.) came and said something about the Fenians, a group of irish nationalists
that fought against the English. Matty was scared because his mother didn’t know that he was going to
Gaelic classes and also about the poster.
Moreover, he knew what she thought about the Gaelic Revival (it led people backward instead of forward).
During winter Matty didn’t assist to Gaelic classes in spite of the fact that by then the gaelic league had got
itselt accepted all over the country. One day, Sean came and asked Matty why he hadn’t put the poster in
the window, Matty answered that he had been busy to do it. So that, Sean put the poster on the window
and went out. After that, Matty’s mother came and warned Matty that he had to be more careful about to
whom he was seeing talking in those times. The same day she saw the poster and put it out of the window
and cried to Matty. (They had an argument).
Four weeks later, Matty met Sean again in an old deserted castle, which was two miles outside the town
but Sean said to Matty that he should get back as fast as he could to the town. When he returned, the
shop-windows were still closed so he run as fast as he could to reach his street where he saw an old man
pushing a handcart of straw, after this he just entered to his shop to begin his dat at work.
That night, Sean came to see Matty and asked him a few paraffin oil cans. Over an hour later, Matty’s
mother found a few drums of paraffin oil that Sean had left and asked Matty what was going on outside
because there had been a lot of barracks burning.
After that, Sean came and told that all the rebellion had failed. In order to help Sean, Matty helped him to
scape across the sheds and into the next yard.
As a result, Matty got hurt by a rustin iron and Sean died. The story ended when Matty’s mother called up
to him ‘came down out of that (shed), you gom.’

The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger

Holden Caulfield, a teenager from New York City, describes events that took place in December 1949 from
an unspecified California institution one year later.
Holden begins his story at Pencey Preparatory Academy, an exclusive private school in
Agerstown, Pennsylvania, on the Saturday afternoon of the traditional football game with a rival school.
Holden has been expelled from Pencey due to poor work and isn't to return after Christmas break, which
begins the following Wednesday. He plans to return home on that day so that he will not be present when
his parents receive notice of his expulsion. On invitation, he goes to the home of his history teacher, Mr.
Spencer. Spencer is a well-meaning but long-winded middle-aged man. Spencer greets him and offers him
advice, but embarrasses Holden by further criticizing Holden's work in his subject in a rude manner.
Holden returns to his dorm wearing the new red hunting cap he bought in New York. His dorm neighbor
Robert Ackley is one of the few students also missing the game. Ackley, unpopular among his peers,
disturbs Holden with his impolite questioning and mannerisms. Holden, who feels sorry for Ackley,
tolerates his presence. Later, Holden agrees to write an assignment for his roommate, Ward Stradlater,
who is leaving for a date. However, Holden is distressed to learn that Stradlater's date is an old friend, Jane
Gallagher, whom Holden had a crush on and feels protective of. When Stradlater returns hours later, he
fails to appreciate the deeply personal composition Holden wrote for him about the baseball glove of
Holden's late brother Allie, and refuses to reveal whether he slept with Jane. Enraged, Holden punches him,
and Stradlater easily wins the ensuing fight. Fed up with Pencey Prep, Holden catches a train to New York
City, where he intends to stay in a hotel until he returns home on Wednesday.
In a cab, Holden inquires with the driver about whether the ducks in the Central Park lagoon migrate during
winter, a subject he brings up often, but the man barely responds. Holden checks into the dilapidated
Edmont Hotel. He spends an evening dancing with three tourist women in the hotel lounge and enjoys
dancing with one, though is disappointed that he is unable to hold a conversation with them. Following an
unpromising visit to Ernie's Nightclub in Greenwich Village, Holden agrees to have a prostitute named
Sunny visit his room. His attitude toward the girl changes the minute she enters the room; she seems about
the same age as he. Holden becomes uncomfortable with the situation, and when he tells her all he wants
 to do is talk, she becomes annoyed and leaves. Even though he still paid her the right amount for her time,
she returns with her pimp Maurice and demands more money. Holden insults Maurice, and after Sunny
takes the money from Holden's wallet, Maurice punches him in the stomach and leaves with Sunny.
The next morning, Holden, becoming increasingly depressed and in need of personal connection, calls Sally
Hayes, a familiar date, and they agree to meet that afternoon to attend a play. Holden shops for a special
record, "Little Shirley Beans", for his 10-year-old sister Phoebe. He spots a small boy singing "If a body catch
a body coming through the rye", which lifts his mood. After the play, Holden and Sally go ice skating
at Rockefeller Center. Holden impulsively invites Sally to run away with him that night to live in the
wilderness, but she is uninterested in his hastily generated plan and declines. The conversation turns sour,
and the two part ways.
Holden gets drunk at a bar, first calling an icy Sally, then walking to Central Park to investigate the ducks,
breaking Phoebe's record on the way. Nostalgically recalling the unchanging dioramas in the Museum of
Natural History that he enjoyed visiting as a child, Holden heads home to see Phoebe, exhausted and out of
money. He sneaks into his parents' apartment while they are out, and wakes up Phoebe – the only person
with whom he seems to be able to communicate his true feelings. Holden shares a selfless fantasy he has
been thinking about (based on a mishearing of Robert Burns's Comin' Through the Rye): he pictures himself
as the sole guardian of thousands of children playing in a huge rye field on the edge of a cliff. His job is to
catch the children if, in their abandon, they come close to falling off the brink; to be, in effect, the "catcher
in the rye". Because of this misinterpretation, Holden believes that to be the "catcher in the rye" means to
save children from losing their innocence.
When his parents come home, Holden slips out and visits his former and much-admired English teacher,
Mr. Antolini, who offers advice on life along with a place to sleep for the night. Holden is upset when he
wakes up in the night to find Mr. Antolini patting his head in a way that he regards as "flitty" (homosexual)
and uncomfortable. Confused and uncertain, he leaves as dawn is breaking and spends most of Monday
morning wandering the city.
Losing hope of finding belonging or companionship in the city, Holden impulsively decides that he will head
out West and live as a recluse. When he explains this plan to Phoebe on Monday at lunchtime, she wants to
go with him, even though she was looking forward to acting in a play that Friday. Holden refuses to let her
come with him, which upsets Phoebe, so Holden decides not to leave after all. He tries to cheer her up by
taking her to the Central Park Zoo, and as he watches her ride the zoo's carousel, he is filled with happiness
and joy at the sight of Phoebe riding in the rain.
In a short epilogue, Holden briefly alludes to "getting sick" and living in an institution in California near his
brother D.B., and mentions he will be attending another school in September. Holden says that he doesn't
want to tell anything more because, surprisingly, he has found himself missing his former classmates. He
warns the reader that telling others about their own experiences will lead them to miss the people who
shared them.

Setting: Holden's story takes place over only three days, from Saturday afternoon to Monday around 1pm. (It
only feels longer.)
Character List
Holden Caulfield - The protagonist and narrator of the novel, Holden is a sixteen-year-old junior who has just
been expelled for academic failure from a school called Pencey Prep. Although he is intelligent and sensitive,
Holden narrates in a cynical and jaded voice. He finds the hypocrisy and ugliness of the world around him
almost unbearable, and through his cynicism he tries to protect himself from the pain and disappointment of
the adult world. However, the criticisms that Holden aims at people around him are also aimed at himself. He is
uncomfortable with his own weaknesses, and at times displays as much phoniness, meanness, and
superficiality as anyone else in the book. As the novel opens, Holden stands poised on the cliff separating
childhood from adulthood. His inability to successfully negotiate the chasm leaves him on the verge of
emotional collapse.
Ackley - Holden’s next-door neighbor in his dorm at Pencey Prep. Ackley is a pimply, insecure boy with terrible
dental hygiene. He often barges into Holden’s room and acts completely oblivious to Holden’s hints that he
should leave. Holden believes that Ackley makes up elaborate lies about his sexual experience.
Stradlater - Holden’s roommate at Pencey Prep. Stradlater is handsome, self-satisfied, and popular, but
Holden calls him a “secret slob,” because he appears well groomed, but his toiletries, such as his razor, are
disgustingly unclean. Stradlater is sexually active and quite experienced for a prep school student, which is why
Holden also calls him a “sexy bastard.”
Jane Gallagher - A girl with whom Holden spent a lot of time one summer, when their families stayed in
neighboring summer houses in Maine. Jane never actually appears in The Catcher in the Rye, but she is
extremely important to Holden, because she is one of the few girls whom he both respects and finds attractive.
Phoebe Caulfield - Phoebe is Holden’s ten-year-old sister, whom he loves dearly. Although she is six years
younger than Holden, she listens to what he says and understands him more than most other people do.
Phoebe is intelligent, neat, and a wonderful dancer, and her childish innocence is one of Holden’s only
consistent sources of happiness throughout the novel. At times, she exhibits great maturity and even chastises
Holden for his immaturity. Like Mr. Antolini, Phoebe seems to recognize that Holden is his own worst enemy.
Allie Caulfield - Holden’s younger brother. Allie dies of leukemia three years before the start of the novel. Allie
was a brilliant, friendly, red-headed boy—according to Holden, he was the smartest of the Caulfields. Holden is
tormented by Allie’s death and carries around a baseball glove on which Allie used to write poems in green ink.
D. B. Caulfield - Holden’s older brother. D. B. wrote a volume of short stories that Holden admires very much,
but Holden feels that D. B. prostitutes his talents by writing for Hollywood movies.
Sally Hayes - A very attractive girl whom Holden has known and dated for a long time. Though Sally is well
read, Holden claims that she is “stupid,” although it is difficult to tell whether this judgment is based in reality
or merely in Holden’s ambivalence about being sexually attracted to her. She is certainly more conventional
than Holden in her tastes and manners.
Mr. Spencer - Holden’s history teacher at Pencey Prep, who unsuccessfully tries to shake Holden out of his
academic apathy.
Carl Luce - A student at Columbia who was Holden’s student advisor at the Whooton School. Luce is three
years older than Holden and has a great deal of sexual experience. At Whooton, he was a source of knowledge
about sex for the younger boys, and Holden tries to get him to talk about sex at their meeting.
Mr. Antolini - Holden’s former English teacher at the Elkton Hills School. Mr. Antolini now teaches at New
York University. He is young, clever, sympathetic, and likable, and Holden respects him. Holden sometimes
finds him a bit too clever, but he looks to him for guidance. Like many characters in the novel, he drinks heavily.
Maurice - The elevator operator at the Edmont Hotel, who procures a prostitute for Holden.
Sunny - The prostitute whom Holden hires through Maurice. She is one of a number of women in the book
with whom Holden clumsily attempts to connect.