Klaus

Outer characterisation

Klaus is the narrator’s childhood friend and a secondary character in the short story “The German Boy” by Ron Butlin.

Klaus is the same age as the narrator (p. 92, ll. 14-15), and for a while, they attend the same school, which is a public school (p. 93, p. 21). In Britain, this refers to an expensive private school generally attended by children from the upper classes. He and the narrator also communicate in Latin.

As a child, he has “long arms” (p. 91, l. 34), “fair hair, very pale skin and was quite tall” (p. 91, ll. 33-34). He wears a jacket (p. 92, l. 23) and is dressed like the rest of the children in his classroom (p. 91, l. 30), so he is most likely wearing a uniform.

The narrator’s aunt states that Klaus is “a different class to the rest of the boys” (p. 92, l. 13). The fact that the narrator comes from a rich family (p. 93, l. 20) and the children in his classroom were “all of one class in both senses of the word” (p. 92, ll. 9-10) suggests that Klaus’ biological family were probably not wealthy (although possibly his step-father is as he can now be sent to an expensive school).

Inner characterisation

Klaus is a foreigner. He is born and raised in Germany by German parents (p. 93, ll. 7-8). He is unfamiliar with British culture, as he moved to the narrator’s town only one...