‘Mountains of it! Clouds of it! The room will be knee-deep in flour! It would rain flour! Flour would track from the door.’
He gets the idea from outside the staff room- The Glorious Explosion! Since he has to wait three weeks, unpredictable things start to happen…
Simon learns about parental responsibilities. He is extra careful to make sure the baby isn’t dirty, wet, or attacked by Mcphearson, (Simon’s dog).
There was special about babies. ‘Babies were wonderful’. At first he never knew, but then it clicked:
‘That was the thing about babies, Simon decided. They were different from everyone else. They were special.’
From that day on, he looks at things at a different perspective. He now knew how hard it was for his mum to cope as a single parent.
Simon also had a special bond with his baby. At the worst of times, there’s always someone who will listen to him and who won’t wander away when he’s talking. That person is his flour baby, which remains nameless.
At one incident in the book, Robin Foster actually throws his baby into the canal. To reassure Simon’s own baby:
‘He hugged his own flour baby tightly to his chest.
“I don’t know much,” he told her. “But I do known this. I’d never do that to you. Never, never, never.”
This makes the reader think that there is something special going on, as if Simon’s really taken to the role of a father- but this isn’t a rehearsal. It’s as if his lousy sack of flour is an actual human!
He also sticks up for the baby at the end of the project when old Carthorse collects in the babies three days earlier than meant to be. To prevent Simon’s baby going in that cheap old black bag:
‘Simon made the save. As Mr. Cartright dropped the little sack of flour and turned away in irritation and disgust, Simon’s hands shot out and caught it.’
This gives an image of caring- unlike his measly old father, who Simon doesn’t even know!
As well as finding out about parenthood, he finds out a great deal about himself. He finds out he’s unique:
‘It struck Simon for the first time in his life that he was totally unique. In the whole history of the universe there had never been one of him and there would never be another.’
He then starts to think differently. He starts to look at himself in a different view-‘heels, elbows, belly button, inner thighs.’ These are obviously things he has never looked or taken notice of before in his life. Even people started to talk:
‘“God knows which parts of himself he stares at in private!”
“Do you suppose the poor boy’s mental?”
“It’s his mother I feel sorry for really.”’
Simon still doesn’t take any notice because he has learnt something else- the amount of pressure forced on his mum just to look after Simon!
He also remembers when his mum used to go to badminton and he used to nag her.
As for the hours devoted to him:
‘She looked after me for 122,650 hours!’
Recalling how many hours that she has watched him, he thinks more of her than a mum. He thinks of her as ‘a saint’. After all:
‘Her score was up in the hundreds of thousands already! She must be a real heroine. She must be a saint.’
The score was much, much more than his dads, who he also learns a lot about.
His dad left 1008 hours after Simon was born. Simon even finds out his father was in a good mood and was singing a song called ‘Sail Away’:
‘Unfurl the sails, lads, and let the winds find me,
Breasting the soft, sunny blue rising main,
Toss all my burdens and woes behind me,
Vow I’ll not carry those cargoes again,
Sail for a sunshine that burns with new maybes,
Farewell my loved ones and be of good cheer,
Others may settle to dandle their babies,
My heart’s a tall ship and high winds are near.’
In my opinion, this song reflects on what his dad is doing- sailing away from his marriage and his son.
Simon thinks him much more irresponsible than his mum:
‘Foster thinks that makes him 121.6765 times more of a meany than my mum.’
His dad doesn’t put any effort to bring up children a decent way, unlike his mum and his teachers-another thing added to his education.
Simon learns about the stressful amount of work teachers had to do, and he now knew why Mrs. Arnott took aspirins.
He also found out that people, including him, didn’t thank teachers for their effort:
‘Simon was appalled to think how often he (and so many others) had insulted these dedicates saints in human form by handing in such shoddy work. How could he have been so ungrateful? How could he?’
Noticing his horrid mistake, which turned into a habit, Simon vowed to make amends. He couldn’t carry on like this. After all, they’ve dedicated their lives to help children get a future they deserve. Oh, it was about time they showed some gratitude.
His friends on the other hand, are completely different. They don’t care at all about the babies. Take Sajid Mahmoud for instance. He opens his own crèche for his favourite project- to earn some money.
‘“This isn’t going to be some charity crèche, he told Simon sternly. If I’m taking responsibility, I’m making money. That’s business.”’
Because of this, you can tell Sajid doesn’t have a hunger for life. He has a hunger for money.
Still, there’s someone worse, Robin Foster. After all, he purposely kicked his baby into the canal.
‘And then, before their very own eyes, he’d drawn back his foot, let go of the sack of flour, and done it.’
How unreasonable! Not one ounce of care for his baby.
As for the rest of the class, they’re no better. They’re obviously not mature enough for a project like this? After all, this is the invitation that he gets at the mention of a female name:
‘He didn’t want to have to see the rush of arcane and dubious gestures he knew from experience greeted any female name.’
This shows how immature the group is.
In conclusion, the amounts of changes made to Simon’s life were incredible. Who knew a project could influence a young, immature boy’s life as much as it influenced Simon’s?