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Charlotte Westaway
Francis is the narrator of the fifth chapter. He is Kip and Connie’s brother, Jean’s son, and Charlotte and Stanzi’s uncle. In the week after Francis’s father dies, Francis joins a gang for one day, looking for the chance to belong to something. However, when the gang tries and fails to rob an old woman’s house, they blame their failure on Francis and beat him up, leaving him behind. Even so, Francis secretly smuggles a valuable amethyst pendant he finds under the woman’s mattress, which comes to be passed around to other characters throughout the story. The guilt that Francis feels over this incident compels him to be studious and serious so as to take care of his family, but within a year this turns him haughty and arrogant, and he looks down on Connie for her dream of becoming a professional photographer and Kip for dropping out of school. Whereas Kip is artistic, Francis is practical and serious to a fault. When they are of age, rather than fight in the war like Kip, Francis becomes a lawyer and stays in Australia. He dates Annabel for six months and nearly asks her to marry him, giving her the amethyst pendant he stole but making up a noble story about it being a reward for his selfless service. However, when Annabel tells their friends Francis’s story about the pendant, his lie is exposed and he is publicly humiliated. He angrily lashes out at Annabel, insulting both her gender and her poverty until Kip intervenes and steals her away. As a result, Francis spends his entire life a bachelor without a wife or children, and spends his last years living in a retirement village with Kip and Annabel.
Francis Westaway / Uncle Frank Quotes in Nine Days
The Nine Days quotes below are all either spoken by Francis Westaway / Uncle Frank or refer to Francis Westaway / Uncle Frank. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3: Jack
Quotes
“A girl photographer.” [Francis] raises his arms and pulls on the clothesline, which explains its condition. “That’s stupid.”
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Chapter 5: Francis
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I’ve got one second to make up my mind and all I can think about is Dad but then I think about Kip walking out of school and I’m not walking away from anything so I run after them and I jump on too.
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If I get out of this alive, I will shoulder the responsibility for this family. I will work hard at school. I will be the most serious, most studious, most hard-working boy and I’ll do whatever Ma says and I’ll never do another naughty thing, not ever, not if I live to be a hundred.
Chapter 6: Annabel
Quotes
“I couldn’t go while Ma was alive.” Kip looks Jos square in the face when he says it. “After Connie died, after the inquest and having it in all the newspapers. Having our business picked over by strangers. Most of the women in Richmond would cross the street when they saw Ma coming. Got so she wouldn’t go out the front gate and then so she wouldn’t get out of bed. I couldn’t leave her.”
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Chapter 9: Connie
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The secret to happiness is to be grateful. I think about Ma [Jean], widowed with three children, and Nan who was a slave all her life, first in domestic service and then to Pop, then back to the ironing factory when she was widowed. I have a wonderful job. I have my mother and Francis, and I have Kip my darling Kip.
And here is the most wonderful thing of all. I have had one night with the man of my heart and, just this once, I have had something that I wanted.
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Francis Westaway / Uncle Frank Quotes in Nine Days
The Nine Days quotes below are all either spoken by Francis Westaway / Uncle Frank or refer to Francis Westaway / Uncle Frank. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 3: Jack
Quotes
“A girl photographer.” [Francis] raises his arms and pulls on the clothesline, which explains its condition. “That’s stupid.”
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Chapter 5: Francis
Quotes
I’ve got one second to make up my mind and all I can think about is Dad but then I think about Kip walking out of school and I’m not walking away from anything so I run after them and I jump on too.
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If I get out of this alive, I will shoulder the responsibility for this family. I will work hard at school. I will be the most serious, most studious, most hard-working boy and I’ll do whatever Ma says and I’ll never do another naughty thing, not ever, not if I live to be a hundred.
Chapter 6: Annabel
Quotes
“I couldn’t go while Ma was alive.” Kip looks Jos square in the face when he says it. “After Connie died, after the inquest and having it in all the newspapers. Having our business picked over by strangers. Most of the women in Richmond would cross the street when they saw Ma coming. Got so she wouldn’t go out the front gate and then so she wouldn’t get out of bed. I couldn’t leave her.”
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Chapter 9: Connie
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The secret to happiness is to be grateful. I think about Ma [Jean], widowed with three children, and Nan who was a slave all her life, first in domestic service and then to Pop, then back to the ironing factory when she was widowed. I have a wonderful job. I have my mother and Francis, and I have Kip my darling Kip.
And here is the most wonderful thing of all. I have had one night with the man of my heart and, just this once, I have had something that I wanted.
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