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Lipstick Larry
A military captain at the prison camp where Sheila and Bridie are held captive during World War II. When the Australian Prime Minister sends word to the prisoners and tells them to “keep smiling,” Captain Siki relays the message, prompting the women to laugh so much that he eventually tells them “never to smile again.”
Captain Siki Quotes in The Shoe-Horn Sonata
The The Shoe-Horn Sonata quotes below are all either spoken by Captain Siki or refer to Captain Siki. 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:
).
Act Two, Scene Nine
Quotes
SHEILA: […] Just after Bridie got back on her feet, Captain Siki called a line up. He said: ‘I have good news for Australian womens. Your Emperor, Mr Curtin, sends his greetings. And orders you all to keep smiling.’ At first there was... absolute silence. And then the nurses—[Slightly puzzled]—well I thought they must be crying—because they started to wipe their eyes. But it was from laughter. They were laughing.
M. VOICE: Why? What was so funny?
SHEILA: They were skin and bone and covered in boils—and they’d just been told to ‘keep smiling’! Well they smiled all right. Then they laughed so much they couldn’t control it.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Siki slapped a few faces and they managed to stop. But all that day you could hear these giggles as the joke went right round the camp. There was even laughter after bed time—instead of the usual sobbing and quarrels. The guards would bark and shine their torches—and all would be quiet till some wit muttered ‘Keep smiling, girls!’—and we’d all crack up. We paid dearly for our fun though. The next day Siki lined us up. He made us stand in the sun for hours—and ordered us never to smile again...
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Captain Siki Quotes in The Shoe-Horn Sonata
The The Shoe-Horn Sonata quotes below are all either spoken by Captain Siki or refer to Captain Siki. 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:
).
Act Two, Scene Nine
Quotes
SHEILA: […] Just after Bridie got back on her feet, Captain Siki called a line up. He said: ‘I have good news for Australian womens. Your Emperor, Mr Curtin, sends his greetings. And orders you all to keep smiling.’ At first there was... absolute silence. And then the nurses—[Slightly puzzled]—well I thought they must be crying—because they started to wipe their eyes. But it was from laughter. They were laughing.
M. VOICE: Why? What was so funny?
SHEILA: They were skin and bone and covered in boils—and they’d just been told to ‘keep smiling’! Well they smiled all right. Then they laughed so much they couldn’t control it.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Siki slapped a few faces and they managed to stop. But all that day you could hear these giggles as the joke went right round the camp. There was even laughter after bed time—instead of the usual sobbing and quarrels. The guards would bark and shine their torches—and all would be quiet till some wit muttered ‘Keep smiling, girls!’—and we’d all crack up. We paid dearly for our fun though. The next day Siki lined us up. He made us stand in the sun for hours—and ordered us never to smile again...
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
