- We can see that peekay is a very humble person because of the way he acts when he starts school. He talks about his smarts as an “unfair advantage” instead of thinking that he is actually smarter than anyone in his class, and has to be persuaded by Doc not to hide it. “to be smart is not a sin. But to be smart and not use it, that, Peekay, is a sin, absoloodle.”
- Peekay discovers that Doc is an alcoholic very quickly, he first notices Doc’s drinking problem when he names the rooms in Doc’s house, “Doc’s cottage had 3 rooms and a lean-to kitchen. The 3 rooms were called the music room, the book room and the whisky room.” Peekay then goes on to explain the purpose of each room and describes the whisky room as the room dedicated to Doc drinking himself to sleep. While Peekay might not know it yet, Doc likely has some personal issue that he tries to drown out by drinking and whatever it is, it must have happened a long time ago because even though Doc is an avid drinker he is never drunk.
- The metaphor “the wolves were howling in my head last night” refers to something big that happened in Doc’s past and is most likely the cause of his drinking problem. It is probably linked to music somehow because he is definitely a talented musician (as he is a professor of music) but never showcases his skill ever and doesn’t seem to teach anyone except Peekay to play the piano.
- The title in the Goldfields News “NOT A SPY BUT STILL GERMAN” represents the towns way of thinking, they don’t see past the surface of Doc because because they created obstacles and barricades, Doc was a German and therefore not to be trusted. Doc and Peekay think very differently, they don’t create excuses to not know someone or to bully someone. To Peekay, the fact that Doc was a German was irrelevant and of no consequence, and to Doc, that fact that Peekay was seven also was irrelevant.
Recent Comments