Monday 20 September 2010

Chapter 11 Frank and Basie- Holly Rathbone

This is the first part of the book where a significant character comes in the the book- Basie. He is an american sailor, stranded with his partner in Shanghai awaiting for when they get enough money to catch a sampan (a boat) to Chungking. They are were homeless, however living in a shack and eating simple things like rice. Jim latched onto Frank who then leads him to Basie who takes him in. It maybe the familiar English language that entices jim in the frist place more than anything or that he was just so hungry that every chance he got to confront someone he would with the slight hope of finding his parents or food. He also stuck with Frank and Basie because these were the first people to not push him away or hurt him.
At the start of the chapter Ballard describes Jim's surroundings in Frank and Basie's shack. The first thing he describes is the 'charcoal stove burning softly in the centre of the cabin', he may be describing this first as this is the frist warm, homely or reassuring thing that Jim has seen in a while. The floor is scattered with oily parts and tools, and Frank, who is quite impatient and easily wound up (this is the readers first impressions of him), says that he is getting annoyed with Jim already and stared at him 'gloomily'. Basie, who shows himself as we progress more through the book as more of a fatherly figure and someone to look up to towards Jim, invites him in to ly down. The reader also realises however that he also maybe doing this to aggravate Frank futher. It is clear that they do not have much money as Frank says that merchants cost 10 dollar for one bag of rice. They feed Jim rice and he gives Basie the last of his liquer chocolates, Frank looses his temper and syas that the Japanese will come for them as Jim had been sitting on the pier for two days. We then learn that Basie maybe also keeping Jim for the purpose of learnin things from him as we know he finds that Jim goes to a very good school and that he has fairly important parents. Through Jims eyes we can see that he finds Basie 'curiously reassuring' and that he has an attentive manner that mkes jim feel safe. They eat the rice that Frank cooks on the stove and Basie gives Jim advice that he has to put aside one new word every day as you could never know when they become useful. This shows that Basie does find Jim interesting. Ballard then points out that boys like Jim would have been brought up to never meet people like Basie and Frank, but the war had changed everything. this shows a turning point in the story where Jim had a very privaledged upbringing and had a lot of curtesy to his life with Basie where he slowly become more rough around the edges but still keeps his intelligence. When Jim finds Basie this gives him a chance to be a child again as he is not looking affter himself all the time and has someone to rely on. This part of the story is symbolic for hope for Jim as he is not his own anymore or isolated from everyone else. The imapct on the reader is great in this particular chapter as things are looking up for Jim and some of the worry that was there at first for him has disappeared.
Holly Rathbone 11B

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