Unit 1 the Modern Novel: Michael Frayn, Spies
How does Frayn present Stephen in the first four chapters of Spies?
Reading the four chapters, you can clearly understand how Michael Frayn is presenting both adult and child Stephen. In chapter one, Frayn presents the adult Stephen with an apparent good memory. This is also the same for chapter two, with adult Stephen looking back at his childhood. In a way this can also account for the child Stephen having a vivid imagination. You can also sense Stephen is vulnerable towards Keith, and how Stephen feels about their relationship. How can you tell which Stephen, child or adult, Frayn is trying to present throughout the four chapters?
One point that needs to be seen in more depth is Stephen’s vivid imagination as a child. Why did he believe Keith’s confession about his mother, this shows he responded to it just like any other child would. “I can see all kinds of interesting new possibilities opening up, for hiding and watching in the gloaming, for wearing the moustaches and beards in Keith’s disguising kit, for examining things through Keith’s microscope.” (p.37) This shows that Stephen is a typical child, who just wants to play games. Frayn’s style of writing suggests that for Stephen and Keith, like many children of that age, the games are ‘real’. So when Keith tells Stephen about his mother being a German Spy, they see it as a joke, and they don’t take in how serious the matter is. When the bomb was dropped on Miss Durrant’s house, Stephen started to get suspicious. So when Keith dropped the bombshell Stephen started to fit things into each other. He believed that Mrs Hayward was a German spy and had been found out by Miss Durrant who threatened to turn her in. “Why did the Germans drop a bomb on the close, and why only on Miss Durrants house?” (p.39) All this talk of bombs and German spies may have set Stephens mind alight. All the spy and German thoughts consumed him, so he did actually believe that Keith’s mother was a true German spy.