Stone Cold

This study guide will help you analyze the novel Stone Cold by Robert Swindells. You can also find a summary of the text, as well as inspiration for interpreting it and putting it into perspective.

Presentation of the text

Title: Stone Cold (1993)

Author: Robert Swindells

Genre: Novel

Robert Swindells (b. 1939) is an English author. He has won the Carnegie Medal – a British award for outstanding English-language books for children and young adults – for his novel Stone Cold. The novel was published in 1993 and deals with homelessness in the UK. In 1997, Stone Cold was adapted for a television series produced by Andy Rowley and directed by Stephen Whittaker, which was nominated for the British Academy of Film and Television.

Extract

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Symbols

One of the most powerful symbols used in the novel is that of the “lost boys, off to the Never Never Land” (Daily Routine Orders 9, 50%). When Link and Ginger are on their way to one of Captain Hook’s boats for the homeless, they are associated with the lost boys, who are characters in the play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up by J. M. Barrie. In the play, the lost boys are the ones who fall out of their prams when they are not supervised and are sent to Neverland if they are not claimed in seven days.

In this light, Link and Ginger symbolically become the lost boys because they lose their way when the adults around them fail to protect them. We do not know Ginger’s story, but we know that link has become homeless because the adults in his life have failed him. Furthermore, just like the lost boys in the play, Link and Ginger are not saved in due time, so they are bound to remain homeless...