‘The Pieces of Silver’ and ‘The Red Ball’ also show similar factors of embarrassment of poverty for the main characters. ‘The Pieces of Silver’ demonstrates how someone can be forced into embarrassment, in this case it was Clement. He was forced into embarrassment when the acting head made ‘the hapless boys the laughing-stock of their school friends’. He did this by displaying them in front of the school and drawing a large ‘X’ on their forehead to show the pupils that they were unable to contribute. The resultant laughter portrayed the embarrassment in the boys. Therefore they were forced because of the big scene made by the acting head by how he literally through embarrassment onto them. Correspondingly in ‘The Red Ball’ Bolan is discomfited by his poverty. This is made palpable because when Bolan ‘thought that the vendor was about to offer him a piece of black pudding for nothing, he moved to the back of the clique of boys’. This divulged that Bolan did not wish for any free products in front of his friend so that they would not even think that Bolan was poor; so they would not think that Bolan could not afford it at full cost. This shows us what Bolan really feels about poverty, that it is not a pleasant characteristic, something that they would both like to keep a secret.
Furthermore in these two stories we see what dissimilar varieties of troubles poverty can convey. In ‘The Pieces of Silver’ Clement had, to a certain extent, to cope with troubles poverty brought. Upon asking his father for money ‘three pence…he (the father) cackled three pence!’. This exhibits how Clement could have faced trouble from simply asking for money. The father was almost at the stage of yelling at his son to the extent that Clement’s mother had to try to calm him down so he would not bellow to his son. I realise that that there was no trouble but if this is the usual case with poverty, then it is more than likely to result in trouble in other times. However in ‘The Red Ball’ trouble is consequential. Bolan was in major trouble due to poverty, his father ended up using the ‘hundreds of switches to hit the boy and Bolan would dance up and down as the lashes rained now on his feet’ incurring tremendous pain. This expresses the amount of trouble that Bolan had to face. This was not just trouble but there was pain to follow. Because of his actions owing to poverty Bolan had to be punished in a way which could be argued as unnecessary.
Ultimately, I come towards my most decisive point. How poverty can control the human body, how it can alter the human thought and how I can amend the human mind. This is more apparent in ‘The Red Ball’ nevertheless it is still vital in both stories. In ‘The Pieces of Silver’ poverty was the cause for Clement to go carolling with his sister. He went ‘singing’ with her as a result of his poverty. Poverty forced him into doing so if he did not which for further embarrassment upon return to school the next day. He had to go Christmas carolling despite the fact that it was not Christmas and then it resulted in him carolling to his retiring head who was luckily not wearing his spectacles, therefore unable to identify Clement. Moreover, in ‘The Red Ball’ this aspect of control is more unconcealed. It seems to literally clasp Bolan by the arms and tell him what to do. ‘He is a thief…thief’. Poverty, or Bolan’s hatred of poverty make him really try and hide it away, which links back to the factor of embarrassment. He ends up stealing his family’s saving to show off in the eyes of his new found friends. It explains that poverty truly has this controlling ability as the characteristic of theft was not at all expected from Bolan, the boy left out at school and excluded from all. It has become as if he was controlled as you would control a remote controlled car.
To conclude, poverty is not a very pleasant attribute to obtain. It is generally ostracized and can control a person or place the person in trouble. In these two stories, poverty is very comparable in ways, such as the feelings people have to it and what it does. However, it if quite different in other ways, for instance; how it controls you and the troubles it brings.
