Essay

The Pieces of Silver - Karl Sealy


The story: begins as the school bell is rung and the boys line up in the playing field for inspection by their teachers.

Then something unusual happens, Mr. Chase, asks for contributions to the retiring head’s present called Mr. Megahey.

The boys give their contributions, although many of them are poor. The boys who do not contribute are brought uponto the stage and humiliated by being marked with a white X on their foreheads. They are told that if they do not contribute to the collection the following day they will suffer humiliation again.

Clement, who is one of the boys singled out by Mr. Chase, goes home to his family to ask for some money. His father refuses, because they are poor and need all the money they have for themselves.Evelina is Clement’s sister; they are close and she cares for her brother like a mother. She supports him by suggesting that they go singing to raise some money. They do this and raise a decent sum of money. The last house they call at is a pretentious red brick building which turns out to be the home of the retiring headteacher, Mr. Megahey. He gives them a generous donation of sixpence, theirbiggest of the night.

The next day at school Mr. Chase eyes the boy’s bowed heads’ as they stand on the platform in anticipation of further humiliating them. To his surprise, Clement presents eight pieces of silver to him saying ‘there is one for each of us’. The final impression we are left with is one of hope and triumph.



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The action of this story covers twenty-four hours in thelife of Clement Dovecot from one morning at school to the next.




Themes:

• poverty
• family relationships
• the cruelty of officials
• unfairness
• suffering and hardship
• education/pupil/teacher relationships

Impressions of Clement’s school:
• the boys are reluctant to attend and live in fear of punishment
• the teachers are casual,self-important and badly educated themselves
• the pupils are drilled as if they are in the army
• the discipline is violent and unfair
• the teachers enjoy humiliating their pupils

Impressions of Clement’s home:
• his family has very little to eat
• their home is tiny and run down
• they have very little money to spend
• the children have to make do with what they havegot
• Evelina was unable to carry on with her schooling



Language:

• the use of contrast – different characters and settings
• irony
• simile and metaphor
• adjectives/verb phrases


Links with other stories:

• the presentation of the Headmaster in ‘Dead Men’s Path’.
• the effects of poverty on family life in ‘The Gold-Legged Frog’.

Key terms:• dialogue
• irony
• contrast
• characterisation
• dialect/non-standard English
• rhetorical questions





Characters – what are they like?

Mr. Chase:
• he is ‘stout and pompous’
• the smaller boys ‘straightened and stiffened under his cold gaze’
• when he sings he emits ‘an untrue, faltering note’
• he shows the ‘gleaming gold of his teeth’• he is ‘fierce-eyed and unsmiling’
• he threatens the boys with the ‘lash’
• he enjoys making the ‘hapless boys the laughing stock of their schoolfriends’
• he eyes their ‘bowed heads in enjoyment’

Evelina:
• she picks at her ‘coarse food’
• she has a ‘close bond of understanding and companionship’ with Clement
• Clement feels the ‘cheering warmth of herarms’
• she listens to him ‘as attentively as a mother’
• she puts her lips down to his ‘harsh curls’
• her voice is ‘clear and true’
• she lets out the laughter that has been ‘welling inside her’
• she says ‘Now I going to tell you how we’ll fix that brute, Mr. Chase.’


The plot – conflicts and twists:

Clement has to stand on the platform in assembly, with a cross...