Spies By Michael Frayn Essay

Tracking a Text: Spies by Michael Frayn 1: Chapter One: pages 3 – 6 The narrator (Stephen) is disturbed by the smell of a certain shrub every June. It triggers his memory and makes him think of the past. Particularly, he thinks of Keith and Keith’s mother. He remembers Keith’s mother, her eyes sparkling and her laughter. Then he remembers her crying and he not knowing what to do. He remembers that the whole thing started with six words spoken by Keith. He resolves to go back

Spies Coursework Essay Michael Frayn’s method of shifting between past and present while narrating the novel Spies makes the story more engaging and more moving for the reader. He is able to effectively portray the innocence of childhood through narrating as an old man looking back at himself growing up in WWII and as a young boy living at the time. Frayn also uses shifts between past and present to better employ certain key themes such as withholding information, which is able to enhance how engaging

Michael Frayn’s method of shifting between past and present while narrating the novel Spies makes the story more engaging and more moving for the reader. He is able to effectively portray the innocence of childhood through narrating as an old man looking back at himself growing up in WWII and as a young boy living at the time. Frayn also uses shifts between past and present to better employ certain key themes such as withholding information, which is able to enhance how engaging and dramatic the

How does the author Michael Frayn discuss the theme of growing up? The theme of growing up is just one of many in the novel Spies. Frayn shows us Keith and Stephen?s coming of age throughout the book. There are numerous ways in which Frayn chooses to illustrate how the two young boys mature within their sexuality, maturity and general understanding in various ways. The reader is given a deep insight on the hardships, excitement and incomprehensions of childhood and how the boys mature to conquer

How is the character of Mrs Hayward developed throughout the opening 3 chapter of Frayn’s ‘Spies’? Mrs Hayward is a contradictory character who is established through Stephen’s fragmented memory to be both a character of smiling perfection and a broken woman, sitting in the dust weeping. She is both the embodiment of a perfect British wartime wife and a character of suspicion; a spy, a traitor, the epitome of deceit and the focus of two young boys’ overzealous imagination. When the reader

Michael Frayn wrote the partly autobiographical novel “Spies” in 2002. During the 1940s, there were fixed ideas about masculinity. Masculinity concludes that men should be audacious, independent and assertive. During World War II, men felt emasculated even more if they could not go out and brawl. Perhaps Mr. Hayward is a comment on the dangers of masculinity and social expectation; he feels he needs to overcompensate by always completing physical tasks and asserts more control over his household

Compare how Atonement and Spies explore the journey from innocence to experience. Both Atonement and Spies are bildungsroman where the protagonists are reminiscing about events in their childhoods which impose on them in their adult lives. In Atonement, Briony is narrating throughout the text; however the reader only finds this out at the end and in Spies Stephen is narrating with his older and younger self through duel narration with slippage between the two. Both text were published within a year

in the United States. Spies (by Michael Frayn) was published in 2002 and mainly set during World War II. George Milton and Lennie Small from Of Mice and Men are migrant workers who travel around California looking for work. These characters are unusual because the majority of migrant workers at this time were loners whereas these characters are best friends. They are also so different from each other which also makes them unusual. Stephen Wheatley and Keith Hayward from Spies also maintained a friendship

‘Spies’ by Michael Frayn is a compelling novel, set in world war II about a boy called Stephan and his friend Keith suspecting that Keith’s mum, Mrs.Hayward is actually a german spy. We follow Stephan life as he and Keith unveil many mysteries within the close. Stephan and Keith are two lonely boys who are only friend with each other until Barbara Berrill tries to befriend Stephan. Barbara is an observant and somewhat nosey girl who lives in the close with them. Frayn uses minor characters such as

the book. Stephen, the narrator, refers to him as “the leader”, which suggests that he is the one in charge. In addition, he also uses the adjective “dominant” when describing him, which once again implies that he is the one who makes decisions. Michael Frayn uses verbs and adverbs with negative connotations such as “orders”; “snatches them away” and “coldly” when describing his actions to give us further insight into his personality. The word “orders” links back to the idea of Keith being the leader