Friendships In Chapter Five

Many friendships throughout the novel are explored, with the central character within them being Stephen. He forms a bond with Keith Hayward along with the one between Barbara Berrill, something that proves to be hard for the protagonist. Frayn structures the novel in short and large chapters to show that his childhood, when compared to the present day, was far more momentous.
Frayn presents hostility entering the one sided friendship between Stephen and Keith through the use of different paralinguistic and prosodic features which contradicts that they are friends who play together. The younger Hayward dominates the relationship due to his arrogant ways of feeling superior. In chapter five where the two boys make a pact to conceal their plans, …show more content…
Keith’s aggressive paralinguistic features such as “He snatches them away from me” and the imitation of his father when he calls him “old bean”, emphasises the hostility due to his nature. This also depicts that he has little respect for Stephen and has learned to control and punish him through the emulation of the prosodic features of his father when he is being punished. He continues to be aggressive to ensure he stays loyal: “Or so help me god, cut my throat and hope to die”. The hyperbole is used to intimidate him and again is used to ensure he remains loyal. The exaggeration makes the situation more dramatic and makes his friend fear and respect him. Throughout the conversations they have, to the readers it is in fact Stephen who is the more intellectual of the two. Despite this, he idolises Keith. Stephen is subservient, something that the older protagonist realises upon his visit to his childhood. “He was the leader and I was the led”, as he has the desirable life of the two. The protagonist recognises upon reflection that “He was only the first in a whole series of dominant figures whose disciple I became.” The use of the word “disciple” is interesting as it is a term used to describe a loyal follower; this is juxtaposed by the betrayal of telling Barbara Berrill of their …show more content…
For example he unconsciously notices the fact Mrs Hayward’s eyes “are brown like Barbara’s”. The unconscious act of thinking about Barbara allows the reader to infer that Stephen is maturing and developing via the friendship of the girl. Before their friendship began, Babara cleverly extracts information about Stephen and Keith’s secret games, but we also see she would like to replace Keith. He is questioned by her and sets the friendship in motion. “Why do you like him when he’s so horrible?” She recognises the details Stephen doesn’t showing already that she is more knowledgeable and therefore would like to teach him. “Didn’t you know about people having boyfriends and girlfriends?” This is where Stephen starts to realise that Barbara Berrill is no longer beneath his notice. Frayn presents the friendship here to be of high importance as it reinvigorates the protagonist and allows him to develop and learn about what is to