...I spy – Graham Greene 1. Setting: Place: * England, Norwich (page 93) * In a private home, waves (sea) (page 93) Time: * Late evening * 1930 * War time: enemy airships (page 92) Charlie: * Unstable family * Afraid * Bullied * 12 years old * Doesn’t like his father Mother: * Means the world to Charlie, because she takes care of Charlie (as the only one) Father: * Owns the tobacconist shop * Push Charlie away for him * No contact * He is unreal to Charlie Links: * Spies introvert * “His father was very like himself, doing things in the dark which frightened him” (page 95, line 39-40) Pair work: 1. Where and when does the story take place? The story take place in Charlie Stowe’s privates home and in his father’s tobacconist’s shop in England under the first world war 2. What is Charlie Stowe doing at the beginning of the story? He moved with caution and tiptoed to the window, so he can steal cigarettes in his father’s shop. 3. How does he feel about what he is doing? He is frightened to be discovered. 4. Why is he doing it? He is doing it because the other boys at the school are bullying him for not smoking. 5. Why does Charlie mutter “taunts and encouragements” (p. 94, line 7)? He taunts himself, because he is embarrassed, that he does not have enough courage to lighting up a cigarette. 6. Who are the two strangers? They are police officers/...
Words: 293 - Pages: 2
...I spy The story is about a twelve year old boy, Charlie Stowe who wants to smoke a cigarette because some boys at school tease him with never having smoked a cigarette. His father owns a tobacconist store underneath the house. In that store, there is cigarettes. He sneaks into the shop to steal some cigarettes, but he hides because his father and some men are at the shop. The father offers the men cigarettes but they do not want them, because they are on duty. As the father and the men go out Charlie sneaks into his room and falls asleep. The story is properly very old and it take place in England and more precisely in an irregular house close to the sea. I can see that because Woodbine and Gold Flake are very old cigarette packs, which was very popular in England back then. Moreover, I can see that the story takes place close to the sea because he mentions the wind blew from the sea (page 1 line 4). I cannot exactly come up with a date, but it could be in the First or Second World War. I can see that when the main character uses words as “Huns” and “Zeppelins.” Huns was an old word for a German soldier and it was mostly used as slang. Zeppelins was a German airship. I think Charlie and his family live in a rich environment. I can see that because his father has a store. They have a house and Charlie goes in a county school. Charlie is twelve years old. He has a father and mother. He goes in a county School where some schoolmates tease him because he never has smoked a...
Words: 636 - Pages: 3
...I spy The story is about a twelve year old boy, Charlie Stowe who wants to smoke a cigarette because some boys at school tease him with never having smoked a cigarette. His father owns a tobacconist store underneath the house. In that store, there is cigarettes. He sneaks into the shop to steal some cigarettes, but he hides because his father and some men are at the shop. The father offers the men cigarettes but they do not want them, because they are on duty. As the father and the men go out Charlie sneaks into his room and falls asleep. The story is properly very old and it take place in England and more precisely in an irregular house close to the sea. I can see that because Woodbine and Gold Flake are very old cigarette packs, which was very popular in England back then. Moreover, I can see that the story takes place close to the sea because he mentions the wind blew from the sea (page 1 line 4). I cannot exactly come up with a date, but it could be in the First or Second World War. I can see that when the main character uses words as “Huns” and “Zeppelins.” Huns was an old word for a German soldier and it was mostly used as slang. Zeppelins was a German airship. I think Charlie and his family live in a rich environment. I can see that because his father has a store. They have a house and Charlie goes in a county school. Charlie is twelve years old. He has a father and mother. He goes in a county School where some schoolmates tease him because he never has smoked a...
Words: 636 - Pages: 3
...“I Spy” is a short story written by Graham Greene. It is about a boy, Charlie Stowe, who has never smoked a cigarette and therefore he decides to break into his father’s tobacco shop to steal a pack of cigarettes. His father comes home and along with him are two men. Charlie hides in the shop and watches his father and the two men while they talk about something Charlie does not understand. When Charlie’s father and the two men leave the house, Charlie goes back to bed and realises that he and his father are very much alike. The story is told by an omniscient third-person narrator and Charlie Stowe is the main character. He is 12 years old, lives with his mother and father and attends County School. His relationship to his father is not very good and he is unreal to him: “but he did not love his father, his father was unreal to him, a wraith, pale, thin, indefinite…” The mother’s responsibility for Charlie’s childhood makes her much more important to him and he loves her. According to Charlie, she is nice towards everyone except the “Huns”. This expression, the “Huns”, was an English word for Germans during World War 1 and with the use of this and the word “Zeppelins” I believe the story takes place during the Great War Charlie’s father is a very unreliable man who does not give any attention to Charlie, and Charlie does not care about him until he sees him along with two men in the tobacco...
Words: 267 - Pages: 2
...Analysis and interpretation of I spy -by Graham Green The main character in the text is Charlie Stowe, who is twelve year old and from England. My guess is the Eastern shore by Norwich, because Charlie Stowe says, that he can hear the waves (page 38 line 9) and he tells us, that his father should be in Norwich these days (page 39 line 4). The other boys in school are bullying Charlie because he has never smoked a cigarette before (page 38 line 13). In 1930 smoking cigarettes was a standard practice to do. Therefore, he take the matter into his own hands and steal a cigarette from his father’s Tobacco shop, even though he knows it is wrong and illegal (page 40 line 3-5). Charlie knows it is illegal, but he think it is more important to get the cigarette than the consequences of being caught with his hands in the cookie jar (page 40 line 3-5). The other protagonist in the story is Charlie’s father, Mr. Stowe. Charlie does not really like his dad, he describes him as an “unreal wraith” (page 38 line 18). As the story continues, we find out that Mr. Stowe has been taking to charge for being a German spy. The two men who escorts Mr. Stowe have identical suits, bowlers, mackintoshes that were how the Bobbies were dressed. The Bobbies probably come from the British MI-5. Mr. Stowe has just come to his house to get his jacket before he probably will go to trial and in worst-case execution. We get a little clue about Mr. Stowe being a German spy, because he is a tobacconist and...
Words: 791 - Pages: 4
...I Spy The structure of the story is chronological time, no flashbacks and it is in medias res. The story don’t have an introduction and the action starts in the beginning of the story. This story takes place during World War. People have to make their own decisions about morality and right and wrong, and this absolutely terrifies them. This is shown in "I Spy" through the characters, imagery, and setting in the story. The main character in "I Spy" is Charlie Stowe, a twelve year old boy living in England. Charlie is teased by boys at school about never having smoked a cigarette, so one night sneaks downstairs to his father's tobacconist shop to have one. Charlie knows he is doing wrong, throughout the story he has an overbearing fear of being caught. The other main character in the story is Charlie's father who owns the shop. He is described as an 'unreal wraith,' not loved by his son. But relationship with his mother is different, he loves her , because she is very kind and plays a big role in his life. The story-setting is set in a coastal town - due to the fact that the main character can hear the wind from the sea and the beating of the waves. The coastal town could be located around the eastern seashore in England, but it is not mentioned in this short-story. The short-story takes place in the First World War, so spotlights are continually sweeping across the sea looking for German boats, and across the skies looking for enemy dirigibles. The imagery in "I Spy"...
Words: 514 - Pages: 3
...The short story takes place during WWI and deals with a twelve-year-old boy, Charlie Stowe, who wants to smoke a cigarette in the middle of the night. His father owns a tobacco shop which is placed underneath their house and from this shop he gets the cigarette. By doing so he does not only defy his parents he is also in fact stealing. This obviously makes him feel uncomfortable and throughout the story he is bouncing between being afraid and being brave. Moreover the short story is about the relationship, between Charlie Stowe and his parents, which on the one hand is very good as to his mother, however; on the other hand he barely has a relationship with his father. Theme In “I Spy” several themes can be discovered. However, the theme which our group noticed right away was the “Parent-child-relationship” and more specifically the “Father-son-relationship”. In the very beginning of the text we are told that the boy does not like his father (notice p. 534, lines 22-25) Several times in the short story it is outlined that Charlie is actually terrified of him. In contrary to this he adores his mother (see page 534, lines 25-27). Not until the father is taken away Charlie feels that he loves him (537 bottom). In our group we believe that this sudden feeling of love for the father is due to Charlie wanting his mother to himself. When talking about this with the other groups it led to a discussion whether or not this is a picture [jk4] of Freud’s Oedipus complex. Some did...
Words: 1115 - Pages: 5
...prolific and widely read English writers of the 20th century. He is famous for his novels, covering political and social issues of the time and sarcastic short stories. However, another part of ‘Greeneland’ ignored by critics: is his gripping stories of children suffering from the world around. This research is aimed at investigating the peculiarities of children’s psychology in the context of Graham Greene’s short stories and against the background of other texts. The first story to analyze is “I Spy”. The main principles are stylistic dichotomy and epiphany. In the first part of the story, we see Charlie Stowe, a 12year old immature boy. From the psychological point of view Charlie is a mother-oriented child, who possesses the Oedipus complex.[Petocz: 151] This is conveyed through the line “her noisy charity filled the world for him”. [Greene: 167] The second part begins with an epiphanic episode, expressed in the title; a homophone to the children’s game “Eye spy”, playing which you must unexpectedly open your eyes. The boy suddenly realised that while his mum was ‘boisterous and kindly, his father was very like himself, doing things in the dark’.[Greene: 169] At this very moment of epiphany he loses his innocence and eradicates his flaw. This is the only story where the loss of innocence is seen as a natural process. In two other stories “The innocent” and “Under the garden” there is a strong feeling of regret that childhood is gone. Both stories are written...
Words: 996 - Pages: 4
...I Spy by Graham Greene Charlie Stowe waited until he heard his mother snore before he got out of bed. Even then he moved with caution and tiptoed to the window. The front of the house was irregular, so that it was possible to see a light burning in his mother's room. But now all the windows were dark. A searchlight passed across the sky, lighting the banks of cloud and probing the dark deep spaces between, seeking enemy airships. The wind blew from the sea, and Charlie Stowe could hear behind his mother's snores the beating of the waves. A draught through the cracks in the window-frame stirred his nightshirt. Charlie Stowe was frightened. But the thought of the tobacconist's shop which his father kept down a dozen wooden stairs drew him on. He was twelve years old, and already boys at the County School mocked him because he had never smoked a cigarette. The packets were piled twelve deep below, Gold Flake and Players, De Reszke, Abdulla, Woodbines, and the little shop lay under a thin haze of stale smoke which would completely disguise his crime. That it was a crime to steal some of his father's stock Charlie Stowe had no doubt, but he did not love his father; his father was unreal to him, a wraith, pale, thin, and indefinite, who noticed him only spasmodically and left even punishment to his mother. For his mother he felt a passionate demonstrative love; her large boisterous presence and her noisy charity filled the world for him; from her speech he judged her the friend...
Words: 1152 - Pages: 5
...Graham Greene “I Spy” The text under stylistic analysis “I Spy” is written by Graham Greene in the style of fiction. It deals with author’s feelings and emotions about relations at school, relations in the family. The main theme of the story is how main character of the story Charlie Stowe was able to steal some of his father’s stock - a packet with cigarettes from his father’s shop, with the purpose to prove his classmates that he is not a little boy. The idea of the story is that real parents should pay enough attention to their children, to bring them up properly in order that there wasn’t conflict’s in their family. So in the beginning of the story we have an exposition, where we get to know about the main character Charlie Stowe; the time of the seen is night. Charlie Stowe waited in his bedroom until he heard his mother snore. Then we got to know that it was the time of war, as ’searchlight passed across the sky,… seeking enemy airship’. Then Charlie draught the thought the cracks in the window frame. We have a detached construction in the second paragraph from the world ‘But the thought of the tobacconist’s shop…’ where author pays our attention to the fact that Charlie wanted to smth with it. then we see that he was 12 years old and that boys at “County school” nocked at him because he had never smoked a cigarette. The author uses periphrases concerning to cigarettes “The packet were piled twelve deep below”. The cigarettes were called Gold Flake and Players...
Words: 340 - Pages: 2
...I Spy by Graham Greene Charlie Stowe waited until he heard his mother snore before he got out of bed. Even then he moved with caution and tiptoed to the window. The front of the house was irregular, so that it was possible to see a light burning in his mother's room. But now all the windows were dark. A searchlight passed across the sky, lighting the banks of cloud and probing the dark deep spaces between, seeking enemy airships. The wind blew from the sea, and Charlie Stowe could hear behind his mother's snores the beating of the waves. A draught through the cracks in the window-frame stirred his nightshirt. Charlie Stowe was frightened. But the thought of the tobacconist's shop which his father kept down a dozen wooden stairs drew him on. He was twelve years old, and already boys at the County School mocked him because he had never smoked a cigarette. The packets were piled twelve deep below, Gold Flake and Players, De Reszke, Abdulla, Woodbines, and the little shop lay under a thin haze of stale smoke which would completely disguise his crime. That it was a crime to steal some of his father's stock Charlie Stowe had no doubt, but he did not love his father; his father was unreal to him, a wraith, pale, thin, and indefinite, who noticed him only spasmodically and left even punishment to his mother. For his mother he felt a passionate demonstrative love; her large boisterous presence and her noisy charity filled the world for him; from her speech he...
Words: 1128 - Pages: 5
...I spy is geschreven door Graham Greene. Het verhaal gaat over een 12-jarige jongen genaamd Charlie Stowe. Als Charlie voor zijn slaapkamerraam staat, blaast de wind van de zee naar hem en hoort hij de golven. Op school wordt hij geplaagd omdat hij nog nooit een sigaret heeft gerookt. Zijn vader heeft een tabakswinkel. De relatie met zijn vader is niet goed. Hij is een bleke, dunne en schimmige man. Hij besluit in te breken in zijn vaderstabak winkel. Toen hij eenmaal in de tabakswinkel was, kan hij niks zien. Zo donker was het. Ineens scheen er een licht door het raam van de winkel. Hij hoorde de voetstappen van een politieman op de stoep. Het licht bleef maar door het raam schijnen. Hij verstopte de sigaretten bij de toonbank. Hij sprak zichzelf moet in dat als hij gevangen zou worden, hij toch gerookt had. Later hoorde hij nog meer voetstappen. Ze kwamen steeds dichterbij. Het slot van de deur werd opengedraaid. Het blijkt zijn vader te zijn samen met 2 andere mannen. De mannen praten over iets waar Charlie niks van begrijpt. De mannen praten nog wat. Charlie zat nog steeds verstopt in de Tabakswinkel. Pas toen hij de deur dicht hoorde gaan, sloop hij zachtjes naar boven. Toen Charlie eenmaal in bed lag kon hij niet slapen, hij zat te denken aan zijn vader. Opeens bedacht hij zich dat hij erg op zijn vader lijkt. Hij doet ook dingen in het donker. Het allerliefst zou hij naar beneden gaan, om tegen zijn vader te zeggen dat hij wel van hem houdt. Maar hij weet niet dat...
Words: 277 - Pages: 2
...As World War I raged about Europe, Great Britain took every measure available to ensure the war didn't spread into their own backyard. Their army was doing fine fighting elsewhere in France and Germany, but as William I proved in 1066, when you invade England, it's not the English that win. Britons lived in constant fear of a takeover by the German "huns," and this fear inspired Graham Greene to comment on morality in man in his short story, "I Spy." Greene explains, through the conflict that his protagonists suffer, that sometimes society's morals are artificially removed, for example in a time of war in which the object is to kill as many people as possible that aren't on your side. In these situations, people have to make their own decisions about morality and right and wrong, and this absolutely terrifies them. This is shown in "I Spy" through the characters, imagery, and setting in the story. The main character in "I Spy" is Charlie Stowe, a twelve year old boy living in England. Charlie is teased by boys at school about never having smoked a cigarette, so one night sneaks downstairs to his father's tobacconist shop to have one. He knows this is not only wrong but illegal, but does it anyways to try to mitigate his schoolmates' ridicule. Since Charlie knows he is doing wrong, throughout the story he has an overbearing fear of being caught. Apparently for Charlie, however, the consequences of being caught stealing cigarettes are less than the consequences of not smoking...
Words: 1072 - Pages: 5
...I Spy by Graham Greene Charlie Stowe waited until he heard his mother snore before he got out of bed. Even then he moved with caution and tiptoed to the window. The front of the house was irregular, so that it was possible to see a light burning in his mother's room. But now all the windows were dark. A searchlight passed across the sky, lighting the banks of cloud and probing the dark deep spaces between, seeking enemy airships. The wind blew from the sea, and Charlie Stowe could hear behind his mother's snores the beating of the waves. A draught through the cracks in the window-frame stirred his nightshirt. Charlie Stowe was frightened. But the thought of the tobacconist's shop which his father kept down a dozen wooden stairs drew him on. He was twelve years old, and already boys at the County School mocked him because he had never smoked a cigarette. The packets were piled twelve deep below, Gold Flake and Players, De Reszke, Abdulla, Woodbines, and the little shop lay under a thin haze of stale smoke which would completely disguise his crime. That it was a crime to steal some of his father's stock Charlie Stowe had no doubt, but he did not love his father; his father was unreal to him, a wraith, pale, thin, and indefinite, who noticed him only spasmodically and left even punishment to his mother. For his mother he felt a passionate demonstrative love; her large boisterous presence and her noisy charity filled the world for him; from her speech he judged her the...
Words: 1152 - Pages: 5
...Intertextuality is the shaping of a text meaning by another text. Intertextual figures include: allusion, quotation, calque, plagiarism, translation, pastiche and parody.[1][2][3] An example of intertextuality is an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined by poststructuralist Julia Kristeva in 1966. As philosopher William Irwin wrote, the term “has come to have almost as many meanings as users, from those faithful to Kristeva’s original vision to those who simply use it as a stylish way of talking about allusion and influence.”[4] Contents [show] Intertextuality and poststructuralism[edit] Kristeva’s coinage of “intertextuality” represents an attempt to synthesize Ferdinand de Saussure’s semiotics—his study of how signs derive their meaning within the structure of a text—with Bakhtin’s dialogism—his examination of the multiple meanings, or “heteroglossia”, in each text (especially novels) and in each word.[5] For Kristeva,[6] “the notion of intertextuality replaces the notion of intersubjectivity” when we realize that meaning is not transferred directly from writer to reader but instead is mediated through, or filtered by, “codes” imparted to the writer and reader by other texts. For example, when we read James Joyce’s Ulysses we decode it as a modernist literary experiment, or as a response to the...
Words: 1599 - Pages: 7
