Characterisation of the narrator
The main characters of the short story “De-Luxe Model” by Adam Thorpe are the boy-narrator, Hugh Gould, and Hugh’s parents.
The boy-narrator is the main character of the short story and the one whose perspective is followed throughout the narration.
Outer characterisation
From his outer characterisation we find out that he is eleven-years-old (l. 113), has twin brothers (l. 11), his mother is a nurse (l. 13), and his father has died in a car accident (ll. 79-81).
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Inner characterisation
In terms of inner characterisation, the first thing we find out about the boy-narrator is that he engages in childish activities together with his friend Hugh. Their interest is to find a place suitable for “racing” (l. 7) their “Dinky toys” (l. 7).
The narrator admires Hugh’s house and life, probably because the house is far more imposing than his “cramped and messy modern house” (l. 20) and because Hugh does not have to share it with siblings (as he is an only child):
My schoolfriend Hugh Gould had a big old house in Chorley Wood. I liked being invited there and to stay overnight, which happened every so often. (…) his house included a drawing room, a dining room, a kitchen, a scullery and something called a utility room, with five bedrooms above and an attic where we plotted impossible schemes. There was a posh wireless, but no television. (ll. 1-5)
At the same time, the narrator tends to analyse Hugh’s parents, with particular focus on Hugh’s father. This is probably a clue that the narrator lacks a male figure in his life (as his father died) and that he looks for it in his surroundings: “Ronald, Hugh’s father, worked there all day as a representative for a Peruvian gold-mining company. Or that’s what Hugh claimed. Ronald also had his own dressing room, which I thought was a good idea…” (ll. 9-11)
Because the narrator’s father died just two years prior to the events depicted in the story, the boy felt miserable, got bad results in school and missed his father extremely. The following fragment is an indicator of the idea that he still misses his father and the activities they did together, but also shows that he enjoys doing things that remind him of his father:
This visit was turning out to be the best yet; I needed it. Since my father’s fatal crash in our Hillman Minx two years before, I had existed in a bubble of misery disguised by a grinning mask and silly pranks at school. My marks had plummeted. Perhaps Hugh was about to show me a secret door in his shadowy tangle of a garden, a door leading to somewhere you could kick a ball around with the dead. (ll. 79-83)
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