How Does Fayn Present Keith's Relationship In Spies

Question: How does Frayn present Stephen and Keith’s relationship at the start of the novel?

Through analysis of Michael Frayn’s 2002 novel, Spies, Stephen and Keith’s relationship plays a large factor within the plot of the novel, this is seen especially at the beginning. Frayn manages to represent this relationship in numerous ways that give different meanings depending upon what the context is. One such representation is adult Stephen’s perception of the relationship they had and how Keith acted. This perception can be seen as somewhat spiteful to the audience, which is shown in part 2 with the two paragraphs “And in the middle of it all … and our ordinary grey shorts.” These two paragraphs show amazing sight into the mind of adult Stephen. An example of this is his description of the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ schools. This small rant of his can be seen as ‘having a dig’, i.e. being satirical, about the school and class system enforced upon him and his childhood friend. The specific words ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ are
The detailed description of each and every one of these plans shows Stephen’s intrigue of the plans, and show how he was led so easily by his friend telling him tales. This passage is followed by what can be seen as a sarcastic comment by adult Stephen or a vision of hope and glory by child Stephen; “… and our messages would pass …”. Adult’s perception of Keith seems to be revolved around negative emotions, mainly stupidity and annoyance, whereas child Stephen shows how much he loves spending time with Keith rather openly. I think this is an important factor to note at the beginning of the novel as it is interesting to know how their relationship change and blossoms, and also how Stephen’s perception changes as his character and personality