The character of Neil is a total contrast with that of Michael. Michael is outgoing, loud and sometimes rather cheeky to his parents. On the other hand, Neil is shy, insecure and would never think of answering his mother back. Despite this, MacLaverty still makes us aware of Neil’s maturing character and he does this by making us take note of the developing interest he has of girls, especially Anne, Michael’s sister.
However, his psoriasis still has central importance in Neil’s life. MacLaverty uses words such as ‘crawling’ and ‘the skin flaking and scumming off the top’ to try give us this image of how bad this disease is and how ashamed Neil is off having it.
“Every morning he hoped that it would have miraculously disappeared”
This shows that his psoriasis is at the forefront of his mind, as it is the first thing he looks at when he wakes up. Neil is perhaps pessimistic that his disease will disappear as it is suggested he believes he will need a miracle performed in order for it to disappear. The psoriasis in a sense traps Neil, both physically and psychologically. He feels he cannot do the same things any normal teenage boy can do, incase this lets out his secrets about his condition.
Matters come to a head when Michael tries to insist that Neil goes swimming. Neil cannot face up to this and he knows this will give away his secret. Neil starts to make up excuses for this such as “I forgot my swimming trunks”. However, these excuses fail to work for Neil as Michael is so adamant that he goes onto the sea that he can borrow a pair of his trunks. Neil then uses an excuse, which seems to work for his mother.
“I’ve got my period”
This shows Neil naivety and shows that he doesn’t know about this sort of stuff, probably only because his mother hasn’t told him about it. Again we see her, Neil trying to relate back on to what his mother would say when she is under this situation. To save Neil’s embarrassment, MacLaverty creates Michael’s mum has a tactful and compassionate character, who instead of laughing at Neil brings him into the kitchen to help her do the dishes. Michael and his family at this point realise how badly Neil didn’t want to go swimming and it must be for a personal reason that he didn’t want to share. Throughout the story we see Neil longing for his mother.
“He just wanted to climb the stair and be with her
behind the closer door”
This is an important symbol in the story as it shows that both Neil and his mother are hidden away from everything – from people, from life.
Neil feels isolated around Michael’s family and feels that he can’t relate to anybody. It also shows that Neil still hold on to a part of his childhood.
MacLaverti uses the sea as a symbol of life. Just as Neil is reluctant to go into the sea, he is also reluctant to step into live and start living it, without having to worry about his psoriasis.
The story’s turning point comes with the visit to Mrs Wan, which starts the movement towards the climax. On Neil’s first encounter with Mrs Wan, he notices that she has a rather laid-back lifestyle. Neil was also quite shocked at the way in which she lived.
“He saw there was nothing clean when he looked about the place”
Mrs Wan, in contrast to Neil’s mother, cares nothing about tidiness or cleanliness and for Neil this was a whole new concept to life. This is shown through, in particular, the way in which Mrs Wan dresses. She dresses in a way in which some people would find perhaps “weird” or “outrageous”, however she doesn’t care what people think of her, she is just happy to be her own person. During his conversations with Mrs Wan, Neil still relates to what his mother would think under the situation.
“Neil knew that his mother would call her nosey but he
thought she seemed interested in all his answers”
Because of Mrs Wan’s relaxed and talkative character, Neil feels more and more at ease and feels that he can start to relate to someone, other than his mother. Neil is encouraged by this and for the first time he reveals his reasons for not going swimming.
“I can’t. I’ve got a disease”
Even after Neil's honest revelation, he doesn’t know how Mrs Wan is going to react and therefore is quite reluctant in saying anything more about it. But, when Mrs Wan shows her interest and asks him to show her his hands, he feels his anxiety disappear from him. Neil feels this as Mrs Wan reveals how she used to work with people who had leprosy, therefore someone with psoriasis has doesn’t disgust her. Neil finally opens up to her now that he knows this, and this is the part in the story where MacLaverty shows that Neil is maturing as a character. He is finally relating to someone other that his mother and in a way rejecting his mother, as he is talking about his situation to another person, which his mum was against him doing. This makes Neil more independent and the first step in starting to live his life without him worrying about his psoriasis.
The climax of the story is the moment of revelation, when Michael sees the psoriasis. Neil doesn’t feel the need to hide it anymore as he feels he could be worse off, like the lepers that Mrs wan used to care for. He has started to accept himself for what he is, and not worry about what others think about him. Neil has entered a new maturity at this point and seems to let go of both his childhood and his influences put on him by his mother. When Michael sees the psoriasis, he simply doesn’t say anything, which, in a way makes Neil feel better.
Neil reveals his transformation by suggesting they go swimming that night. The boys’ friendship also seems to improve now that Neil’s condition is out in the open. The talks and the humour that they share show that they have a new understanding of each other and show that they can now be honest and open with each other. At the end of the story, the do go swimming, however Neil feels more comfortable doing it in the darkness as he still does not feel totally comfortable showing all his body. Again the symbolism of Neil’s life and the sea come into place as Neil stays in the shallows of the water, so too are the shallow steps he has taken into life. But MacLaverty makes us establish that this is the first time Neil has ever showed any of his body and therefore we should take an understanding point of view that at least it is a start for him. Again, a contrast with Michael is developed, as he is swimming into the deep end, and MacLaverty also makes this represent his life as he is fully stepped into it, is independent of him.
Therefore, MacLaverty starts with a totally nieve, easily influenced character of Neil and transforms him into a more matured, at ease with himself character. The story left me feeling hope for the character of Neil that hopefully he will one day fully step into life and not care about how people will judge him, upon his psoriasis.
