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4. The Great Mouse Plot
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Boy, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Authority and Hypocrisy
Beauty and Imagination
Growing Up
English Nationalism
Summary
Analysis
The next day, Roald and his friends stop by the sweet shop on the way to school. They find that it’s closed, however, and when they look through the window, they see the jar of gobstoppers broken on the floor with the dead mouse still among the scattered candies. Suddenly, the boys feel uneasy. Thwaites speculates that Mrs. Pratchett has had a heart attack and died from the shock of pulling the mouse out of the jar. He points at Roald and accuses him of killing Mrs. Pratchett. After the group arrives at school for prayers, the Headmaster—a tall and imposing man called Mr. Coombes—tells the entire student body to line up around the playground.
Again, the boys’ hasty conclusion that their prank must have killed Mrs. Pratchett underlines their youthful innocence. This detail serves for comedic effect, but it also subtly points out just how undeserving the boys are of the punishment they’re about to receive—after all, they’re so young that they don’t really know what the consequences of their actions could be. Roald’s emphasis on Mr. Coombes’s physical stature calls attention to his power. More specifically, it underlines the vast disparity in power between the adult Mr. Coombes and the small boys who should be under his protection.
Themes
Roald and his friends line up with the rest of Second Form. Afraid and nauseous, Roald worries that policemen will arrive to look for Mrs. Pratchett’s murderer. But to his surprise, Mr. Coombes arrives on the scene with Mrs. Pratchett herself. The two of them walk up and down the lines of boys, working toward the younger ones. When they come to the Second Form, Mrs. Pratchett recognizes Thwaites. Quickly thereafter, she picks out Roald and the rest of his friends in the crowd, pointing them out to the headmaster. Mrs. Pratchett and Mr. Coombes thank each other as he leads her out of the school.
Roald still thinks that he’s accidentally murdered Mrs. Pratchett, a childish assumption that nevertheless underscores Mr. Coombes and Mrs. Pratchett’s overreaction to the situation. Forcing the children to arrange themselves as if in a police lineup seems a little excessive, but Mrs. Pratchett and Mr. Coombes certainly seem to be taking the situation extremely seriously.
Themes
