This extract from the 5th Chapter of Spies gives us an insight into how important Barbara Berrill is for Stephen development. Just before this bit of the chapter, Stephen and Keith has just discovered where Mrs Hayward has been going when she "disappears" through the tunnel and what she has been hiding from the rest of Keith’s family. Now that Stephen is alone in the ‘privet’ with Barbara Berrill, we see that Stephen is becoming more mature as he begins to realise how immature and foolish both Keith and him were: misspelling private (‘privet’), going around spying on others, and thinking that Mr and Mrs Haywood are both Spies. Throughout this extract we get access to his internal thought process and his naivety by focusing through young Stephen’s eyes. …show more content…
As soon as Barbara Berrill enters Stephan and Keith’s little hideout, the young narrator is full of shock. He is ‘so taken back by the outrage’ that ‘ [he] can’t speak.’. This may illustrate that Stephen is surprised by Barbara’s presence which makes him ultimately confused. However, the ironic thing about this phrase is that, although Stephen calls the presence of Barbara as an ‘outrage’, all the characters know about their little hiding place. This makes it amusing as the writer uses dramatic irony in order to give us knowledge which the narrator (and Keith) doesn’t know about. Furthermore, this may be accentuated by the contrast between Barbara’s confidence and Stephen’s shock. He cries ‘no one’s allowed in here! Only me an Keith!’ whereas Barbara gives a ‘big mocking smile’ and calmly ‘goes on sitting and smiling’. These distinct feelings portrays a sense of irony as they both seem childish - being overconfident and too