Structure

The short story “Pride and Joy” by Philippa East is structured around an old woman’s life with her 48-year-old son, Billy, who has a developmental disorder. The episode narrated in the short story follows the two as they go to a diner for Billy’s birthday, where a kind waitress eventually offers to take care of Billy to help his mother out.

Title

The title of the short story refers to the words spoken by Mrs Jacks when the fat man in the café laughs and makes a rude comment about her son, Billy:

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Beginning

From the very beginning, we know that it is Billy’s birthday, but we do not know anything about Billy’s age or condition. From the way he talks, readers are likely to assume that Billy is a child:

Seven miles inland […] out along the track drove Mrs Jacks and Billy.
‘Hap birdy too-oo, hap birdy too-oo,’ sang Billy. He rubbed his palm against the window, fingers splayed. The tops were pink and shiny from where earlier she’d clipped his nails, parings bouncing into the sink. (ll. 1-4)

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Middle

In the rising action, the short story follows Billy, his mother, and the waitress, Meg, as they interact in the diner. Meg is very kind and compassionate towards Mrs Jacks, as she also has a developmentally-impaired cousin and knows what Mrs Jacks is going through: “ ‘Isn’t he sweet? I’ve a baby cousin just the same.’ She grinned. ‘I could just eat you up!’ ” (ll. 29-30).

As Billy eats his food, Mrs Jacks thinks about the past and her late husband, with whom she used to share everything:

Outside, cars were zipping up and down the road, going to and from all sorts of places. She took a sip of lemonade and one of her pills, and tried to remember the last time she’d gone away anywhere. Not since Jim died. A long while ago then. She pressed a hand to her side where the shoots of pain swam. (ll. 56-59)

An important tension point is represented by the moment when Mrs Jacks is attracted to a garden shop just outside the diner, beyond the petrol station: “As she did so, something caught her, drew her eye out beyond the petrol pumps, unfurling thoughts of the plants back home in the porch – unwatered, she realised now, for months” (ll. 62-64).

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Ending

In the falling action, Meg follows Mrs Jacks and Billy to the car, returning the lily that the woman left behind in the diner. She offers Mrs Jacks her phone number and offers to take care of Billy to help Mrs Jacks out:

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