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The Happiest Day Of Your Life Essay

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“The Happiest Day of Your Life

“The Happiest Day of Your Life” is a short story, which stamps by the novel collection Children, our future and is written in 1978 by Penelope Lively.
In the story we meet a little boy sitting in a car with his parents. They are on their way to a preparatory school called St Edward’s because the boy might have to go there after summer to continue his education. When they get to the school they meet the headmasters wife, Margaret Spokes, and they start talking about where Charles’ family live while they are waiting at the headmaster. After a while the headmaster shows up and Margaret takes Charles away to show him the school and meet the students. They come to a room where there are some boys at the same age …show more content…

“And this is Charles? Hello there, Charles. His large hand rested for a moment on the child’s head, quite extinguishing the thin, dark hair. It was as though he had but to clench his fingers to crush the skull” (page 57, line 36-40). The headmasters hand on Charles head gets described like he wants to crush Charles head. That’s adding up to he’s the headmaster and soon can “brainwash” Charles if he starts the next term. The headmaster has his large hand over Charles and can play with him like he’s a puppet doll because the headmaster has the power of the …show more content…

Through the whole story it doesn’t look like Charles wants to go at the school. Already in the beginning where they are sitting in the car on their way to the school, it appears that Charles isn’t confortable in the situation. “The boy sat on the back seat of the car, a box of chocolates, unopened, beside him, and a comic, folded.” (Page 54, line 1-2). In this quote it seems like he is nervous of something. The unopened box of chocolate and the folded comic describes that there is something he’s nervous for or just uncomfortable with. Normally if a boy gets a box of chocolate, he would eat it quickly. But in this story, he doesn’t even want to taste the chocolate or read the comic. That could be a sign of that he is nervous of something or just don’t want to visit St. Edward’s. He’s also feeling very unwell when he meets the students at the school. Here he stands with shoulders humped, starring at his feet and only hear the sound of rushing water (page 58, line 19-22). He really doesn’t want to be there, but he has no choice because the parents want him to go there because of their reputation.

One of the themes in this story is the theme “growing up”, because Charles is growing up and is about to find a school where he can continue his education. When you are in this phase, you have to make your own decisions and go your own way. Charles can’t make his own decisions because his parents won’t let him. When Charles mother asks

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