Genre
Fiction
Setting and Context
A suburb of London in the 1960s
Narrator and Point of View
The point of view is that of David and Harriet.
Tone and Mood
The tone is very threatening and dark. The mood is constantly overstressed and there is tension throughout the entire family.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Harriet and David are the protagonists, Ben the antagonist
Major Conflict
There is conflict between Harriet and the rest of the family because she refuses to leave Ben at the institution
Climax
Harriet and Ben move house and Ben remains with his gang of friends, totally disinterested in making any contact with his family.
Foreshadowing
Harriet's difficult and uncomfortable pregnancy foreshadows the havoc that Ben brings to the family
Understatement
Ben does not seem like the other children to Harriet, which is an understatement in that he does not even seem to be a child of this world, but something darker and more other-worldly
Allusions
No examples; in fact, what is strange about Harriet and David is that they seem cocooned in their own existence. It is the middle 1960s, life is changing and society is experiencing a great deal of turbulence; the sexual revolution is going on and there are Ban The Bomb protests - yet the couple never mention any of these things. They allude to nothing outside of their own family dynamics.
Imagery
The author describes the institution in a way that is harrowing enough for the reader to not only be able to picture it but to hear the sounds there and even imagine what it smells like; Ben is laying in a straitjacket, in a coma, on his little cot, which has the stench of urine. The reader is able to identify with Harriet's inability to leave her child in a place like that.
Paradox
Ben is completely unpopular at home and does not fit in at all but seems to be extremely popular and to have found a group he does fit with at school.
Parallelism
There is a parallel between the amount of attention that Harriet gives Ben and the way in which Paul is emotionally damaged because she is neglecting him in favor of Ben.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The family is the way in which the opinions of each of the extended family are described, instead of listing each person individually.
Personification
N/A
