Transcript for:
Character Analysis of Francis Cavant

Welcome everyone to this video analyzing the character of Francis Cavant. This video is very much made for the WJC English literature GCSE that you are probably studying very very soon and it is going to act as a revision resource. Hopefully we can take a look at some of the key quotations and we can illuminate why Francis Cassand acts the way he does and perhaps what his actions tell us about some of the wider truths in the novel. There are only three central characters in this nolla. Francis Cavant, the protagonist, is one of those three characters, meaning that he does need to dominate a fair proportion of your revision if you're to be successful in your final exams. And whether he turns up as a main character, a named character in the exam, or whether there is a theme given to you, Francis is probably going to make his way into an essay somehow. Now, in recent exams, Francis turned up in 2018, but the question wasn't as straightforward as, "Tell us everything you know about Francis." The question was posed as an argument for you to take. Francis is just an ordinary young man who makes some bad decisions that change his life forever. How far do you agree with this statement? Now, it's possible to argue this in two ways. You could argue that Francis makes some bad decisions in his life and that leads to some negative consequences later. But it is also to uh possible to argue that Francis does make bad decisions. But those bad decisions are not really in his control. Those bad decisions are due to some of the trauma that was inflicted upon him and that Francis is a victim. Francis is someone who makes bad decisions because he has been dealt a very bad hand. So, as this video progresses and we start discussing the character of Francis, at the end of the video, I will go through multiple permutations of different types of questions that Francis might turn up in just to make sure you're fully prepared for dealing with Francis in lots of different ways. In May 2015, the question that you may like to use um as as practice was a little simpler. How does Robert Cormier present sympathy for the character of Francis in Heroes? This type of question gives you a much clearer sense of direction. Now, Francis might be directly named in the question like the two on your screen or he may pe appear as a combination. He might appear as a relationship with another character. So, it's really important that you don't just focus on Francis that you do know the other characters as well. So you can see how Francis interacts with those others. As the video develops, I'm going to do my best to show how Francis's relationships develop throughout the novela. In May of 2016, Francis appeared alongside Nicole in this question. How does Robert Cormier present the relationship between Francis and Nicole in Heroes? I think a question like this, it's essential to show that you understand how that relationship develops. From the instant moment of infatuation that causes pain and suffering for Francis to seeing them fall in love with each other and to see that really heartwarming, tender, naive type of love that we see as they fall in love with each other. We'd also need to take a look at how that relationship is corrupted by the character of Larry Lassal and then how that relationship turns to one of anger and disappointment from the part of Nicole and a sense of hopelessness and a loss of duty for Francis. And then finally towards the end of the novela, how reuniting with Nicole, even though it doesn't save the relationship, the relationship is over, it does allow him to move beyond his trauma through communication and through a renewed sense of purpose. So if we're focusing on the character of Francis, it's really important to realize how he reacts with Nicole and how that relationship changes. In 2017, the question was, how does Robert Cormier present the rel changing relationship between Francis and Larry Lassal in Heroes? Equally, this question needs us to understand how at the beginning of the text, Francis feels quite lost. He doesn't really have a a father figure. His father died. His uncle Louie is quite uncommunicative. And he sees Larry as a sense of inspiration. He idolizes him and deifies Larry and Larry steps in and becomes this masculine role model. We could take a look at how that develops and how Larry grooms him. And then later in the novela, we might have a look at how Larry um corrupts Francis completely and corrupts um his relationship with Nicole. And then at the end of the text when Francis seeks revenge and Larry ends up taking his life in May 2016, this question turned up. For which character in Heroes do you have the most sympathy? Show how Robert Cormier creates sympathy for your chosen character. I think it's possible to write about a few characters here, but I think the most obvious may be Nicole or um Francis. So even though he's not mentioned in May 2018, he could very well be the focus of an essay. In June 2022, which relationship in Heroes do you think is the most interesting? Show how Cormier presents this relationship in the novel. In this question, Francis may form part of your essay perhaps with um Larry Lasal or with Nicole. And then in May 2023, how does Robert Cormier present the changing relationship between Francis and Nicole throughout the novel? That's a repetition of the uh question in 2016. In order to start analyzing the character of Francis, I think it's really important to acknowledge that Francis is quite complex. Throughout the novela, we see lots of changes to his personality. We see changes in his identity and there are lots of things that cause those. From the trauma of his childhood to the experiences that he has in the war, a lot happens to Francis. So, charting those changes, I think, is quite important. So, we do need to make sure that we understand how Francis is before he meets the character of Larry and before he falls in love with Nicole. I think it's important to see what he's like before any intervention to his character so that we can understand his starting point. After that, we could take a look at how when he meets Nicole, his identity seems to shift into that of a protector. Um, some of the quotations used like sentry or knight at night knight at her feet really show that he sees himself as a defender as part of his identity is to is to protect this girl. Now, we also need to see what he's like when he meets Larry. He has a real crisis of confidence. He doesn't feel like he's good at anything. And it's Larry who seems to draw out a sense of confidence from Francis. He notices that Francis is lacking something and and seeks to help him. When he's with Nicole, Francis has this real sense of of happiness and joy. There's still a slight awkwardness, and we see their uh relationship develop into this quite tender and quite sweet, innocent relationship. And then we see the the cataclysmic the the real climax of the of the text when we see the sexual abuse of Larry towards Nicole. Now that marks a massive shift in the character of Francis on one of the happiest days of his life. He seems to all be robbed away from him. We need also need to take a look at what he's like before he signs up for the war. So between the sexual abuse and before he signs up for war, Francis again has some some real difficult decisions that um he contemplates. We do take a look at his experiences in the war and we see the the soldiers that he has killed. We need to take a look at when he returns and those decisions that he's resolved to take. When he confronts Larry, the scene itself is very complex. And when he meets Nicole at the end of the text, the conversation he has with Nicole, I think, is pivotal to his decisions at the end of the novel, where he seems to make the decision to deal with some of the trauma that he's experienced in his life to forgive himself, to to take some of the shame and the guilt off his own shoulders, and to give a voice to to those soldiers that he met in the war that no longer have a So if you just take a look at the screen, there are lots of important details that Francis's character actually experiences. So to really understand the character, we need a a fairly detailed understanding of some of these shifts and some of these changes in who he is as a person. I went through each one of those plot points. this video would end up as a very long and com cumbersome commentary. So to streamline things and to make this perhaps a little bit more digestible, after all this is for your revision, and revision does need to be as digestible as possible. I'm going to structure this video into three clear sections. So first of all, we'll take a look at Francis's identity. This way we can take a look at the very first um lines of the text when Francis explains who he is and and um so we see that his identity is is fractured and confused and he doesn't quite know who he is and it also allows us to chart how that identity might change. Secondly, I'd like to take a look at Francis's relationship with Nicole Renard from the moment they lock eyes together to the very final pages where Nicole alleviates some of his guilt and shame and also the relationship with Larry Lasal. Hopefully, by structuring it into these three sections, it will make this a little bit easier to deal with. Let's start by taking a look at Francis's identity. One of the first details we learn about Francis in the nolla is first of all his name but secondly his physical scarring. Now whilst his facial deformity might be considered imagery of um a grotesque nature. The really short quotation I have no face I think illuminates a lot about the character of Francis. Now, the face is the part of the human body that is most um recognizable to other humans. It's the one thing that kind of um shows exactly who you are to somebody else. We're very expressionate with our face. You can it reveals a lot about our emotions and about our feelings. So, the fact that Francis has no face suggests that he has lost his identity. Now, as we read the novela, you can see exactly why he has become so lost, but the detail itself really reveals that this is someone whose identity has been taken away from him. Now, part of the reason why I feel like Francis is is a real victim is because none of this um none of the bad things that happened to him are necessarily his fault. He's a victim of the circumstances and he's a victim of um perhaps some of the things that have happened to him. Now later on in novela we see that Francis does actually have quite a strong sense of identity when he meets um Nicole for the first time. He really does feel like somebody who can protect her. Um we see lots of descriptions of vulnerable nature when it comes to Nicole. Whether she's uh made of white porcelain or her birdlike qualities, she seems vulnerable. And Francis really does see himself as a protector. He sees himself as a knight or a or a sententury. Now the fact he has no face at the start perhaps suggests that his identity was cruy taken away from him. Now of course he has no face because of what happened to him during the war. But I think it would be sensible to trace the root of those issues perhaps further back from the war and have a look to see what really put him on to this trajectory. Now the second quotation I'd like to share with you um involves dark imagery. My nostrils are like two small caves. Now, yes, his nose has been taken away from him, but the simile like two small caves, I really do think suggests a sense of emptiness, like there's something lost inside of him, and that Francis really is looking for something to fill though that uh that emptiness inside. Now, we know his main way of perhaps filling that emptiness is suicide. Now, the reason why he went to war is that he could die in an honorable way rather than in a cowardly way. He of course contemplates suicide. Uh when he's at the top of the church, he thinks about throwing himself off um and hitting the pavement. So, one way that he seems to to look to fill that dark empty hole inside of him is through suicide. The second way is through revenge for enacting his own sort of justice. he was powerless to stop Larry Lasal when he was younger and he feels like if he can do what needs to be done now perhaps that makes up for his inaction earlier or perhaps um gives a sense of vengeance for the character of Nicole putting a right wrong that um should never have happened. Now, we know that him trying to fill that emptiness inside of him through suicide or vengeance is not what leads him to resolving that childhood trauma. What does allow him to get close to dealing with the problems from his past is conversation, is communication. Talking to Nicole at the end of this novela is what allows him and allows Nicole to start to move forward into the future. rather than to constantly dwell on the past. So for Francis, this dark emptiness inside of him symbolized by the simile like two small caves is only really resolved through talking, a sense of therapy and giving him a new purpose, a new identity. and his lack of face, his lack of identity is changed at the end of the novela when he starts to consider that perhaps he does have a role in life. Perhaps he does have a purpose and perhaps that purpose is to give a voice to other people. Perhaps to give a voice to people who are faceless across the globe. Those soldiers who died, those soldiers who suffered. So he allows his voice, his talent, his writing to give an identity to those people who perhaps the world has forgotten about. Now the third quote on your screen is when he talks about what Dr. Abraham says. Dr. Abram says that all my skin will heal with time. Now Dr. Abrahams is talking about the physical condition that Francis is um experiencing, the the lack of his skin, the lack of his face, the the wounds that he sustained. I think we can see that the real wounds that are haunting Francis are not the physical ones. They're not the surface ones, not the superficial ones. What's really haunting Francis is his psychological trauma, the pain that he's experienced, and it wasn't even necessarily in the war. Now, Dr. Abraham says that time will heal his skin. What we see is that time will not heal his psychological wounds. What does heal Francis's psychological wounds is the communication that he has with Nicole at the end of the book when he starts to forgive himself and he is also forgiven by her. The start of the novela there is constant concealment of his um identity. Now he uses this white silk scarf wrapped around his face. That's a barrier that he puts up to hide his um identity. He's constantly wearing a red socks cap that keeps the upper part upper part of his face in shadow. He also dresses himself in an old army fatigue jacket and he does that to hide his identity. Now, Francis really does want to um almost disappear, almost take himself away from the world so that he's no longer in pain or causing pain. Now, I think the Red Sox cap is quite important. The Red Sox are a um baseball uh team. They're a very famous baseball team that have been successful in the past. They generated huge amounts of heroes. People idolize um baseball uh baseball players. Now, for Francis, he doesn't see himself as a hero at all. And we'll see in just a second how he hides from the identity of who he really is, which is a a war hero. Now, the Red Sox give people a sense of identity. And if you have a look at lots of the people who live in Frenchtown Monument, they all seem to have quite strong identities. Whether it's the strangler who used to be a uh wrestler and now he's this person in this bar, that seems his identity is quite fixed. We have the soldiers who are going to identify as the next part of their lives, whether it's firemen or whether it's going to college or whether it's going to be a policeman. But we also have those people who work in the comb shops. Again, they identify with with who they are and what they are. For Francis, he doesn't know who he is. He is identity has been taken away from him. has been fractured and shattered and he is hiding his identity, hiding who he is because he doesn't know who he is himself. And when we see him walking, it says, "I walk with my head down as if I have lost money on the sidewalk and I'm looking for it." Now, I don't think any of us think that he's genuinely looking for money. We know he's got lots of money in his duffel bag. What he does seem to have lost is his identity. And through his attempts at suicide or his attempts at revenge, he really does seem to be trying to retrieve a sense of belonging or a sense of identity or a sense of purpose purposefulness. When Francis has returned to Frenchtown, he's always described with the duffel bag. This quotation I think is probably one of the most important quotations when it comes to truly understanding the character of Francis. My duffel bag which is always with me slung over my shoulder. I am like the hunchback of NRAAM. My face like a gargoyle and the duffel bag like a lump on my back. Now, if we were to replace the words duffel bag for childhood trauma, then I think this quotation makes a lot of sense. I think the duffel bag is a metaphor. It's a metaphor for him uncomfortably shouldering these horrible experiences that of his past. He can't get rid of them. He can't change them. He can't deal with them. So, instead, he has to lug them around on his back and he is crushed by the weight of them. So for me, the duffel bag really is a metaphor for the trauma that he has experienced and cannot move past. Now, the fact that the word always with me shows that he really is haunted. There's no comfort at all in Francis. In fact, at the beginning of the text, we really do see in painful detail just how difficult and painful his life is. From his nose that constantly runs to his inability to sleep properly, Francis is haunted by what's happened to him in the past. Now, where it says he is like the hunchback of NRAAM, it's another simile and it's with a second simile, my face like a gargoyle, he really does feel like someone deformed, someone misshapened, like the hunchback of NRA. Now my face like a gargoyle shows that he seems to his identity to himself is ugly. He has been tarnished. He's been destroyed some way. And there is a clear juaposition to how he used to see himself. He used to see himself as a knight. In any medieval story, the knight is normally the valiant and the um the gallant person that saves the day. The gargoyle, however, is the ugly beast. normally the one that perhaps causes pain. Now the duffel bag is described using the simile like a lump on my back. The lump there really does show that this is something uncomfortable. This is something that shouldn't be there. This is something that was given to him unfairly and now it's his burden to carry this thing around with him even though like a cancerous lump it is taking something from him. It is sapping him of his happiness and it really is um deteriorating and decaying him um quite unfairly. And we also get this description of his duffel bag with a gun hidden away in it. Now that gun, I think really does represent the two solutions that Francis has to his shattered identity. On the one hand, he can use the gun to kill the person that gave him this trauma and hurt his girlfriend. He could take revenge on Larry Lasal. On the other hand, he can make all of his pain go away by using that gun on himself. And that's his plan at the start of this novela, to kill Larry and then to kill himself. Now, that gun at the beginning of this story is his mission. A mission is something that gives you purpose. Now, it seems to be at the beginning of this story, Francis doesn't know he who he is, and he doesn't know how to deal with his problems. So what gives him a sense of purpose is by trying to find a way of that pain to go away. I think he is um making a mistake at the beginning of the text but luckily he learns um the right way of dealing with that uh trauma by his conversation with Nicole at the end of the novela. There are quite a few times in the novela where he is complimented for being a hero. Enrico Reli tells him, "You're a big hero, a silver star hero." This is something that is echoed by Arthur Rivier um in chapter 6 where they both look at Francis as what he has done to earn that level of glory. And Francis is a war hero. What he did in the war was incredibly selfless. and what he did was incredibly heroic. The problem with Francis is that he does not identify himself in the same way as others here see him. Whilst others see his actions as heroic, he sees his actions of those of cowardice. After all, he wanted to die. He wanted to commit suicide. His reason for going to war was not one of heroism, but one of cowardice. So he doesn't identify himself in the same way that others do. Whilst others see a hero, he sees nothing but the person who couldn't defend Nicole. Now, what gives him that real sense of purpose all the way through this text is um and there is a there is a constant kind of feeling of tension in that we're getting closer and closer to the day that he will be able to um to be reunited with Larry Lasal so he can um conduct his mission. This quotation this might be the day Larry Lasowl will show up and I start to close doors not real doors but doors to the future. Now I think that quotation is really important because those doors are metaphorical doors, aren't they? He is very much looking for the death of Larry Lasal to close doors. If those doors are open, it means there are unresolved issues. There are things that needed to be done that weren't done in the instant and therefore he's going back to solve those problems, to fix those issues or concerns. So him wanting to close doors very much seems to be him wanting to um finish something that perhaps he didn't finish earlier on in his life. Now he conceds that those doors are not real doors but doors to the future. Now to close doors means to create a um a situation where you can move on into the future. But the way Francis uses it is almost like these are going to be the final doors to close before he closes the door in himself as well. Now what we see at the end of the text is that he does find an opportunity to open a door into a different type of life. But all the way through the text, his motivation is to solve the problem he couldn't solve as a child and then to solve the problem of his own pain by closing the door on himself through suicide. Now, his version of closing that door at certain points in the novela is slightly different. After the rape of Nicole and after he climbs the um climbs the top of the church, he asks how long would it take to plunge towards the sidewalk? And I think this really does show that in the aftermath of the rape, just how um filled with turmoil and just how filled with um frustration and feelings of of loneliness and feelings of disappointment and that he let Nicole down and that he stood idly by when he should have protected her. that really shows that he does not know how to deal with his um feelings and as a result his his entire identity is taken away from him. Now, at the end of the text, he says, "I don't know what a hero is anymore." And he doesn't know that he is a hero himself. And the hero that he had as a child, um, Larry Lasal clearly isn't a hero either. So, he's become quite distrustful of the concept of heroism. When he says, "I don't know what a hero is anymore." I think there's that suggestion also that he doesn't know who he who he is either. The very end of the text, we see Francis becoming slightly more comfortable in his identity. Now, after a long conversation with Nicole, where the distance in their relationship is really obvious and and probably quite painful for the two of them, Nicole apologizes to Francis. And she says to him, "Write about it, Francis. Maybe you can find the answer that way." Now this quotation I think is what shows us how Francis reclaims some kind of identity. His identity was robbed from him by the crime of Larry Lassal. However, Nicole suggests through communication that perhaps Francis can carve out a new identity for him. Communicating with Nicole allowed him to resolve some of his feelings of guilt and shame. The word right is a way of sharing your voice. And the fact that Nicole says maybe you can find the answer that way. The suggestion is that the way for Francis to deal with his uh identity crisis and his feelings of shame and guilt and his childhood trauma is through communication and perhaps by extending his talents of writing to give a voice to those people who don't have the power to speak those who died on the battlefields of world of the world wars that maybe Francis can find a sense of purpose at the end of the text when we see him at the train station. I think the train station is a metaphor for choices. Train tracks are very much fixed in place and it's only through the switching of those um of those train tracks that you can move from one journey to another. Now, for Francis, he seems to have been on a particular trajectory all the way through this book that ended with suicide. However, at the end of the text when he feels the duffel bag on his shoulder, it says the weight is nice and comfortable. Now, this is the first time that lump on his back that made him feel like the hunchback of NRAAM is described as a little bit more bearable. Now, the adjectives nice and comfortable suggests that he seems to be a little bit happier with um the trauma that he is carrying. Now, we could infer that perhaps he's left the gun behind and that it's no longer in the bag and that's what makes it a little bit lighter to carry. But I think the main point here is metaphorically his trauma has been eased slightly. It's been eased slightly by [Music] the way that Nicole forgave him for what he did and Francis's ability to forgive himself. You know, after all, he was just a child and he wouldn't have been able to stop him. Larry Lal says that himself, the weight itself seems to be much more endurable at the end of this text, which suggests the way Francis is able to reclaim a sense of identity is through communication and through um accepting what happened, understanding that it can't be changed, not resorting to um escape through suicide or escape through revenge, but through trying to deal with that trauma um sensibly through communication and through forgiveness. And I think that's what allows Francis at the end of this text to have a little bit more of a of a more optimistic perhaps more hopeful future where maybe he can do good things, use his talents and help the lives of others. Hope that gives a little bit more clarity to Francis's broken identity at the beginning of the text and how he seems to come to terms with some of that trauma towards the end of the novela. It's now time to take a look at Francis's relationship with Nicole Renard. And I'm very much going to focus on Francis's identity throughout this relationship. I could do an entire video on how Francis's relationship with Nicole Renard changes throughout the entire text, but what I'm going to do is focus on those parts that really show us um Francis's identity and how that changes. The first main description we get of Nicole Renard when we see her for ourselves in the flashback from um Francis's memory is she is described as the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. And this tells us from the moment that Francis casts eyes on Nicole, he is instantly infatuated with her. He considers her incredibly beautiful. The word most is a superlative. The word girl there suggests this sense of innocence. This is instant infatuation from Francis. Now the way he describes her I think reveals a lot. He describes the pale purity of her skin. Pale purity. The word pale and purity both have that that innocent imagery of of purity and virginity. And this is someone that he considers almost like an angel. He considers her as this creature that is almost too good to be true. And he says that she reminded me of the statue of St. Theres. Now he sees her almost like a religious figure and his reference there to St. Theres suggests that she's almost too pure, too good, too beautiful to even exist in the same world as Francis. The fact that he describes her as a statue of St. Theres, statues are there to commemorate someone important. And for Francis, she is the most important person that has now been etched inside of his brain. And we see this, don't we, from the very uh first chapter when he talks to Enrico about how he is never going to stop thinking about Nicole. She is always going to be there like this angelic figure that seems to kind of haunt him. Now, it's really important to realize that when he first meets uh Nicole that he is kneeling on the ground like a knight at her feet. It's also important to note that he is picking up chalk. Chalk famously is white in color. Again, adding to that imagery of purity surrounding Nicole. But the fact that he is kneeling suggests he sees himself as inferior to Nicole, almost as if she is too good for him. The fact that he's kneeling down also suggests a sense of service, a sense of duty. And it's almost like he feels using the simile like a knight. Knights are people who defend. Knights are people who offer their service and their loyalty. So from the very first moment that he cast eyes on Nicole, he saw himself as a loyal soldier, as someone there who will do anything he can to protect that purity that struck him so much. He is at her feet suggesting that she is superior. He looks up to this bright shining light figure and it's almost like his life up until this point has been shrouded in darkness and as soon as Nicole enters that life is filled with light and hope and meaning. The imagery that is evoked from Francis kneeling on the ground like a knight is that of a courtly lover from medieval literature. In medieval literature we often saw stories of knights who would fall desperately in love with queens or princesses and the way to their hearts was through service and loyalty and nobility. The way to make someone fall in love with you is to be chivalous and to be gallant and to prove your love. Now, often courtly lovers would love from afar at first. They would fall madly in love with the person that they had seen. They wouldn't necessarily talk to that person, but they would have a deep sense of love that would burn in their hearts and they would um glance over at this person all of the time trying to make like eye contact, almost feeling like they're not good enough, hoping that one day that that love will be reciprocated. Now, from the very beginning, Francis seems to fall into the identity of a courtly lover. He is determined to be a good person. He's determined to show that he is in love with this person and he is determined to act nobly and chival and with chivalry. Now we could juxtapose that with Larry Lasal later in the text. Larry Lasal presents himself as a noble knight and yet underneath it all we know that he is predatory. For Francis, there is a sense of innocence in his courtly love approach to Nicole. Another feature of courtly lovers is that often when these knights would fall in love with these beautiful women, um, a beautiful woman in medieval times might be considered a Donna Angelicarta, an angelic woman. often there is a sense of pain that goes alongside that um sense of service and sense of duty. Now Nicole doesn't speak to Francis. In fact, Francis believes that she is ignoring him, but Francis is always aware of her presence. He also says, "I found it hard to glance at her, both hoping and fearing she'd return my glance and leave me blushing and wordless." For Francis, he feels deep intense love, but also deep intense embarrassment at the same time. And he finds it really difficult to balance both of those emotions. you know, the way he thinks he will be able to earn Nicole's um love is through a a noble action. And he says when he walks home after school, "I hoped that one of Nicole's books would fall to the ground, that I could rush forward and pick it up." Now, for Francis, that would be a noble act that would show Nicole that he is worthy of her love. When he's desperately trying to attack attract the attention of Nicole, he says that he was standing at the banister in an agony of love and longing like a sentry on lonely guard duty. And this continues this lexical set of defense, lexical set of soldier imagery, this lexical set of um somebody there to protect. He really does see himself as a protector. So we get this description first of all of how he was in an agony of love and longing. Those two things are are mixed up inside of him. He is feeling intense pain at the love that he feels and the desire to be with Nicole. But the simile like a sentry I think is an essential quotation for any student going into their exam. A sentry is someone who is posted to defend and protect. a soldier who stands diligently waiting for any sign of danger so that they can swiftly eradicate the danger to protect the person that they are serving. Now, we've seen that with how he kneels like a knight and we also have the the really horrible understanding that the one thing that Francis doesn't do halfway through this novel is to protect Nicole. It's the one thing he can't do. So I think it's really important to understand for the identity of Francis, he identifies as a protector and yet he sadly fails in that role that he assigned himself. Now we know why he um failed in that in that mission. He failed because he was groomed by Larry and he put Larry's um the loyalty he had for Larry and the trust he had for Larry um before his instincts of defense. Now it also tells us that he is on lonely guard duty. Again, the word guard really highlights the defense and the protection that he wants to offer to Nicole. It also presents him as quite a lonely and isolated figure perhaps someone who is suffering on his own um which creates a sense of um sadness at this part of the book. It's continued in this next quotation. I winced in an agony of embarrassment. So it's not just the love that is causing him pain. It's also the fact that he isn't the person that he wants to be himself. His embarrassment is because he doesn't know what to say. He doesn't know how to react. He has yet to form the type of identity that can make Nicole his. And we've also got the description, I never knew that love could be so agonizing. And here we've got this idea that Francis is is experiencing these emotions for the first time, and he doesn't quite know how to resolve um the problem that he seems to face. Now, one of the ways he does take action to protect Nicole is when Joey shouts across the street at um Nicole. Francis quite heroically stands up to Joey and he says, "You've got a big mouth." I told Joey in disgust. So, Francis is the type of person that will take action to protect others. It's just tragic that he doesn't take action when Nicole needed him most. As we begin to witness the relationship between Nicole and Francis Blossom during the ping pong tournament, we see that Nicole touched his shoulder, her hand both tender and caressing, and my flesh burned with the echo of her tunch touch. And I think this quotation really does show the the suffering and love that um Francis has within him as he experiences this relationship with Nicole. Um as we watch it, we're supposed to see it as a very tender and a very sweet and a very innocent relationship looming right before us. Very different to the aggressive way that um Larry Lasal takes what he wants for Francis. um he really is patient, he really is dutiful and he really is chivalous. He acts like a knight whereas Larry does not. Now when we see Nicole say my champion, we really do have the fulfillment of that um chivalous role, that courtly lover type of stereotype where Francis has almost deserved this relationship and the complimentary language there of champion shows that he's earned the title of champion of the ping pong table, but he's also earned the right to be with Nicole due to his um his good intentions. After the table tennis tournament, their relationship really blossoms and Francis becomes to be a little bit more articulate. Up until this point, he was blurting his words out and he was nervous and he didn't know what to say. He asks, "Would you like to go to the movies sometime?" And he says the Earth paused in its orbit. So there you can see just how important this relationship is to Francis. It's almost like she is the center of his solar system. She is the reason why he exists. She is the light and warmth to his life. And without Nicole, there is nothing but darkness. Now when they are in the cinema, there is physical intimacy between Nicole and Francis, but the physical intimacy itself is innocent. I mean, the adjective innocent is literally used before the word kiss. Now, I think what's really important is as we see this relationship develop, it's supposed to be seen as very um adolescent and it is supposed to be very exciting and it's supposed to be very tender and very new and it's supposed to be quite an innocent way of having a relationship with someone. It's all very natural. Both of them seem to be very happy. And I think the word allowed there is really important because allowed means consent. Now we know later things are taken from Nicole without consent. But when it comes to the relationship with Francis even when it becomes slightly um slightly less innocent when he says once my hand accidentally brushed her sweater and I was surprised by the softness of my breast of her breast sorry. And he says, "My hand lingered there for a moment and she didn't protest." So even though this relationship is developing and it's become slightly more physical, we do witness this as adolescent excitement, we don't look at this as anything um untoward. It's not nefarious in any way. It's not something that we're concerned about. When we see Larry do what he does, that's where there's corruption. That's where there's pain and suffering. That's where we see a violation. But the relationship between Nicole and Francis is one of adolescent innocence. And I think it's really important to distinguish the um the way Francis acts and the way Larry acts all the way through this. You can see that um consent is is very clearly shown. The word protest and the word um allowed really shows that Nicole is comfortable with Francis. Nicole wants to be with Francis. All the way through their relationship, Francis sees himself as this protector and he seems to live up to that name. Now, we get lots of descriptions of Nicole as being quite delicate. One of the quotations I think is essential for an exam situation is for Nicole, she is described as a rare specimen, birdlike. We've got this idea of birdlike because a bird's bones are brittle, beautiful, able to fly, graceful, but brittle and fragile and easily hurt or easily destroyed. And this is continued with the description of her skin as white porcelain. We got this imagery of purity, this angel figure once more. But porcelain is brittle. Porcelain is easily broken and when broken is incredibly difficult to put back together again. And this continues when Nicole senses her own v vulnerability. Now, as Larry is leading these children through the streets in his wild snake dance and he's luring them to the place where he's going to commit this crime, Nicole senses her vulnerability. She feels uncomfortable and she doesn't want to be left alone with Larry. Clearly, she senses that Larry has the potential to hurt her. She tells Francis, "Stay close to me." Almost like she sees Francis as this nightlike figure who can defend her from the advances of Larry. And it's not the only time she requests Francis to stay. She says, "Stay and watch." She doesn't want to be left alone with Larry. She sees Francis as her guardian angel. And she says it more pleadingly, don't go towards the end of the scene and just before um Francis does leave. Now, what this suggests is that Nicole is the vulnerable party in this relationship and Francis's role, this is how he sees his identity, is to protect Nicole. And the fact that he doesn't is probably even more painful for Francis because he felt like that was his role in the relationship. Now Francis's identity of a protector, identity of a defender, of a knight, of a century is taken away from him by Larry Lasal's grooming of him. Now, this quotation, I think, is really important because it shows just how little power Francis really has. The words sounded false as I said them, and I realized they were Larry's words, not mine. Now, Francis doesn't do what he believes to be right. What he does is he places all of his trust and all of his loyalty in Larry. He almost doesn't contemplate Larry being able to do something um that's not noble. Now the imagery surrounding sounded false is a suggestion that he knows what he says is what he would not normally say. And the fact that Larry's words come out of his own mouth gives us this imagery of ventriloquism. Larry has developed such a level of control over um over Francis that it overrides his sense of morality. He does what he's told rather than what he knows what's right. And the end of this quotation is, "We always did what Larry Lasal told us to do. Always carried out his slightest wish." And this creates a really strange power imbalance between Larry and Francis. And the reason why Larry is able to perfectate these crimes is because he has developed situations where children really trust him. And for Francis, it was by developing his confidence, allowing him to win the table tennis tournament. Larry has done this deliberately. And Francis, and I think it's important we look at it like this, Francis is also a victim of Larry Lasal. Just because Nicole is the one who is sexually abused by him, Francis is also groomed and abused by Larry. And I think it's really important to realize that Francis's inaction isn't necessarily because he didn't want to help Nicole. It's because he was trying to show his loyalty to Larry and his trust in him. As the scene where Larry abuses Nicole develops, Francis is placed in an awful position. Now he has loyalty towards Larry. um trusts Larry completely and believes Larry is a good person. On the other hand, he knows that he's there to protect Nicole, too. Now, when Nicole is inside the dance hall and he is standing outside, he doesn't go home straight away because he wants to be there and he wants to show Nicole that he would never abandon her. And he says, "I stood in agony. I would tell Nicole that I had not left, that I had stayed, would never desert her, that she was more important to me than Larry Lasal. Unfortunately for Francis, his standing outside and waiting patiently and determined not to leave Nicole was perhaps the wrong decision. He wasn't there to protect her. Now when Nicole exits and you can see that her um you can see the pain and suffering on her face and you can see that her her purity has been tarnished, her white blouse has been ripped and her identity has been taken away from her. Um what Francis says is it's amazing that the heart makes no naz makes no noise when it cracks. Now, I think that line is supposed to be deliberately ambiguous. Ambiguous means we're not entirely sure which character he's referring to. Whether that's Nicole's heart that has now been completely cracked and her identity shattered or whether that heart cracking is his own. If it is his own, then that adds to this idea that this was the moment when Francis really lost his identity. This is the moment when that trauma really starts. And this is the catalyst for all of the pain and suffering that he goes through in his life. And it's the same for Nicole. This is the moment that shatters her identity. And this is what leads her to trying to find her own identity. um or a new identity for herself later on in the novela. Now, the word crack there, I think, is deliberately important to show this is where the fracturing really starts. When Francis is able to finally catch up with Nicole after the incident, one of the accusations that Nicole places at towards him is, "You didn't do anything." Now that quite direct and quite cutting and quite accusatory tone really hits Francis hard because he felt his identity his role in life was to do something was to protect. He saw himself as this protector this knight this century century and yet you didn't do anything highlights his inactivity and I think that's the one thing that Francis finds really difficult. it was his duty to take action. And yet instead he stayed silent and motionless. And I think that is a real dagger to Francis who thought that his role was to protect this girl. Now Nicole says, "No, I'm not all right. I hurt. I hurt all over." Now, that physical pain that Nicole is experiencing is worse for Francis because he had the potential to stop that pain from happening in the first place. And that's what haunts him. That's what hurts him so much, the fact that he could have protected this girl, but he didn't. We know later on in the text that he couldn't really have stopped it. As Larry Lassal says, he was just a child who couldn't stop me anyway. But for Francis, he is haunted by that feeling of he should have protected, but he didn't. We see how Nicole deals with this trauma that she's experienced. Now, she began to stay at home, didn't come out of the house except for the 5:30 morning mass, the nuns mass, a hermit. Then she was gone. Her and her family left Frenchtown without telling anybody. Now Nicole's way of dealing with this trauma is to run from it. Is to hide from it. Is to move somewhere else where maybe she'll be able to move on from it. Francis does not have that initial reaction. His is perhaps through suicide and then through dying noly on a on a battlefield. But you can see that Nicole as a victim seeks to escape. And she does this through becoming a hermit, someone who locks themsself away. She doesn't come out during the day. She only goes to church at 5:30 in the morning when nobody else is there. She's developed such a level of distrust that she just wants to abandon the place that has hurt her so she can maybe find some happiness somewhere else. the end of the text when Francis and Nicole are reunited temporarily. Francis doesn't recognize Nola at first because Nicole has changed physically quite a lot. I guess Francis has also changed a lot too. Now, the description of Nicole's hair cut short clearly shows that Nicole has changed her appearance and she is trying to find a new identity for her. She's trying different hairstyles. She's wearing different clothing and she's trying to figure out who she can be. And this is essentially what Francis is also going to try and do. For a long time, he's been frozen, refusing to try and find a new identity for himself, locked into this identity of of hatred and uh revenge for Larry Lasal. But Nicole has started to deal with the trauma that she has faced, and she encourages Francis to do the same thing. Now, an essential plot point is when Nicole apologizes for what she did. She says, "I'm sorry about one thing, what I did to you that day." She realizes by blaming Francis, she made Francis's life very difficult. She added to his sense of guilt and shame. And what she does is she absolves him for that guilt. Because after all, it isn't Francis that committed that sin, that committed that crime. That was entirely Larry's fault. So the fact that Nicole is able to absolve some of that guilt allows Francis to forgive himself, too. Cole is able to absolve him of his guilt, but she does something perhaps a little bit more. She says, "Still moist." Referring to Francis's hands, she says, tenderness in her voice, my good Francis, my table tennis champion, my silver silver star hero. What Nicole is able to do is to remind Francis that he is still the person he used to be. He is still Francis. He is still that person that has earned the title of table tennis champion. and he is worthy of that silver star that was given to him. What she does is she grants him a reprieve from this feeling of shame and guilt and she reminds him that he is a good person and that he also is a victim of Larry Lassal and she still sees him as a hero. She still sees him as that defender, as that person that could protect her. Now the final thing, one of the final things she says to Francis is write about it Francis. Maybe you can find the answer that way. Now that I think is absolutely essential for Nicole because what she is suggesting is that the way for Francis to deal with his trauma is through to communicate. Communicating with Nicole does him an awful lot of good. and her encouraging him to continue to communicate this time through writing is her way of showing him a path to dealing with that trauma and perhaps moving on to the next stage of his life instead of seeking to end his life entirely. So that final conversation with Nicole allows Francis to perhaps remember who he is and to find a way to walk forward into the future. Okay, now that we've taken a look at Francis's identity crisis, his relationship with Nicole, it's now time to take a look at Francis's relationship with Larry Lasal. The relationship is complex and it develops throughout the text from the beginning when he idolizes Larry Lasal. He's almost presented like this godlike character that Francis looks up to as this hero, this idol, this patriarchal figure, perhaps a father figure that Francis doesn't have after the death of his own parents all the way through to the end of the text where the relationship breaks down entirely and all of Larry's sins are exposed to Francis and Francis can see Larry for the monster that he really is. We're going to take a look at that relationship. We'll start at the beginning and we'll end at the end of the text. And hopefully by the end of this section, you can see how Francis's relationship with Larry develops. From the moment Francis and all of the other children at the rec center see Larry Lasal. And in some cases also the reader. When we first meet Larry Lasal, we could quite easily be blinded by his good looks and his um celebrity characteristics. and we could fall prey to not seeing perhaps what's beneath that very superficial veneer. The first quotation and probably one of the most important quotations for Larry Lasal is the fact that his smile is described as dazzling movie star teeth. The word dazzling really shows the blinding quality of his charisma. He seems to possess such an aura that the children can't see anything beneath the way he looks. He is a heroike figure. He is a godlike figure and they don't doubt him for a second and they're blinded by his glamour. Now, movie star really shows that this person is of very high quality. This person is a celebrity himself and this person is possessing of such an effortless talent that everyone seems to be completely aruck when they meet him. They really are starruck when they meet Larry to the point where they'd never question any of the dark rumors or any of the things perhaps Larry Lal has done in the past. And I think the word teeth is quite important too. Now the teeth obviously is referring to his very pearly white teeth, his smile. He's charismatic. Um people are drawn towards him because he seems to be friendly and charming. But teeth also has connotations of being dangerous, capable of causing pain to hurt. So I think what cormier does is provides us with a superficial veneer that it would be quite easy to be seduced by. But there does seem to be a little bit of foreshadowing, a little bit of a hint that perhaps this character is slightly more sinister than he appears at first glance. Now, what's really important because this section is about Francis's relationship is that Francis is completely seduced by the glamour and he doesn't question anything beyond what he sees. And what he sees is this angelic character that he can look up to almost like a father figure. And this is continued in the quote, "A lock of blonde hair tumbling over his forehead." Now, we've got this description of almost like a celebrity with perfect hair. The blonde here gives this this imagery almost of of a golden colored hair, and gold of course is valuable and attractive. and the fact that it's tumbling over his forehead. He seems to be this very glamorous, very attractive celebrity um who everyone looks up to and everyone revert a touch of Fred a stair in his walk, his feet barely touching the floor. The fact that he's constantly referred to as almost like Fred a shows he has this talent um this effortless talent um and it almost seems to be part of him. He seems to ooze that charisma and talent and flare. But the end of this quotation, his feet barely touching the floor. Of course, that suggests that he is graceful and he is elegant in the way that he moves and the way that he dances, but it also gives us this almost religious imagery. And I guess that links into the the blonde hair previously, which is almost like an angel, almost something that doesn't belong in this earth, almost something too good. And the fact that he barely touches the floor might suggest that Francis looks up to this character almost like he is an angel or a godlike or perhaps even a Jesuslike um figure. The touching the floor suggests that he has deified deified means almost turned into a god. He's deified Larry into this perfect character that can do no wrong. And yet we do get this idea that perhaps he is too good to be true. This angelic figure that turns up out of nowhere to solve all of the problems of all of these children. Now Larry is described as a masculine character. A masculine character who also has the narrow hips of the dancer. And the description is he has broad shoulders of an athlete. He swung the bat with authority. Now, I think all of those quotes combine to present Larry not as an effeminate dancer, but as a masculine character who is able to inspire the young boys of Frenchtown. Now, what I think is really important is that Francis doesn't have a father of his own. So, we see this masculine character who seems to possess all of the skills that Francis looks up to. And it almost presents Larry Lasal as a surrogate father figure. And for Francis, he probably sees Larry Lasal as the closest thing he has to a paternal figure. And I think that's another reason why perhaps Francis was so keen to get to know Larry and trusted him so much and was later um kind of seduced by his power and manipulated into doing something that seemed counterproductive to him. Beneath this imagery of masculine perfection, there was always a suggestion that Larry perhaps was not as perfect as he was presenting himself to be. Now, when it says that Larry can tap dance with machine gun speed, of course, that shows how talented and how effortless he is in the way that he dances, high levels of skill, but machine guns have the potential to cause huge amounts of pain and suffering. Now, that imagery there of that weapon, the perhaps lexical set of a more militaristic type of language really shows that like a machine gun, Larry is capable of causing pain and suffering. At this stage, perhaps hidden within the talent and energy of Larry, but nevertheless, Machine Gun is there and it possesses this sinister quality of the pain that he can cause. And that links in perfectly with the fact that the children are aware that there are dark rumors that surround Larry, especially his time in the city, but none of them question it. Now, the dark imagery here really shows that there is a mysterious, hidden, sinister, perhaps ominous um aura that surrounds that surrounds Larry. But it seems to have been completely washed away by all of the light that oozes out from this character. And again, it is repeated that Larry was dazzled by his talent and his energy. None of us dwelt on the rumors. So Larry is able to hide his secrets through his charming and through his um impressive facade. He has this look. He's able to um charm people. And we'll come back to the word charm later on. As a result, it blinds people from the reality of Larry. So that first time that Francis sees Larry, we then have a much more intimate encounter between him and this this hero of his. Now, when Francis is unhappy because he feels completely talentless, he can't talk to Nicole and he is suffering from really low self-esteem and really low levels of confidence. Larry sits next to Francis and he offers Francis a way of perhaps building and developing his confidence. Now, we've seen this quite a lot from some of the work that he does at the rec center. for example, he's very good at changing something that is entirely useless into something much more um useful. So, for example, earlier on we saw that he would encourage children to change useless pieces of leather and will turn them into much more useful key rings. He's very good at changing something from something undesirable into something desirable. And he does that not only with the schoolyard bully or the girls who um don't feel like they have enough confidence to perform. He does this with Francis too. He takes him from a character who is suffering with low self-esteem and turns him into someone that Francis is proud to be. And when he is sitting next to Francis, he says, "I've been watching you, Francis, during calisthenics. You have outstanding reflexes. You have a natural athletic gate." Now, there are a couple of things worth mentioning here. First of all, the fact that Larry has been watching Francis. Now, that doesn't necessarily have to be sinister. As a teacher, I'm sure he was looking out for opportunities to help his students or help the children that he works with, but watching does definitely contain a slightly predatory feeling. Now, at this stage, it seems to be innocent, but later on it does become much more predatory. And he says that you have outstanding reflexes and you have a natural athletic gate. Now what I want to pay your attention to here is outstanding and natural and athletic. This is all language of a of a complimentary nature. There is flattery when it comes to Francis. He's trying to build his confidence. But flattery can also be used very persuasively to get people to do things that you want them to do. At the end of that particular page, we move very quickly from Francis feeling completely worthless to Larry declaring, "You're going to be a champion." Now, when we first look at this, it sounds like Francis is going to be developed into a champion. But later, we find out that Francis isn't just developed to be into a champion. He's he's controlled to be into a champion. He's manipulated to be into a champion. Because after all, Larry could defeat Francis quite easily, but chooses not to. So, it is entirely within Larry's control as to the level of success that Francis does actually attain. He could take it all away from him at any moment. He doesn't just do this to Francis. He has done this to many people in the past. This quotation, I think, is very important to show Larry's ability to help students to be better, but also to change people in terms of their personality. Just as he had lured awkward girls into ballet classes and ball players and bullies into being singers and dancers, so too did he bring a sudden importance to table tennis. Now, we can take a look at this quotation and consider how inspiring he can be to change people from people with flaws or people with concerns, awkward girls or bullies, and turn them into something much more desirable, much more impressive, and much more skillful. I think the word lured really stands out in this quotation because to lure doesn't necessarily mean in a bad way. lure can be moving someone towards something more positive but the predatory nature is definitely developed through the word lure. Now, as a teacher, as a person that is admired by Francis, he's tireless in the way that he gives lessons. And he gives lessons here to teach, to develop, to change Francis into something better. And later, he uses some of that power to perhaps get Francis to to do what he's told without questioning. Francis is completely starruck by Larry. He seems to be completely in awe of him. He idolizes him. He looks up to him as this authorative figure that shouldn't be questioned. And this can be exemplified when Francis is stood spellbound by his words. Now, I think the word spellbound becomes increasingly important because to be spellbound also means to be mesmerized, to be hypnotized. And as we take a look at the next quotations, you'll see there is almost a spell, a magical quality that surrounds Larry. And it seems to ens snare these children to capture their imagination to capture their loyalty almost like he has charmed them. He has controlled them with his magical powers. Now he very much focuses on Nicole and Francis and calls them special to me. He admits that he's not supposed to have favorites. And yet he has marked out Nicole and Francis as particular favorites. And when Nicole is dancing and when the shows are happening, it is said that Larry manipulated the spotlight. Now, a number of different words could have been used instead of the word manipulated, but I think Robert Cormier deliberately uses the word manipulated to show that underneath Larry and all of the wonderful things he does and everything that he does to help these children, he is very much a puppet master. He does seem to be this ventriloquist. He seems to he seems to pull the strings. What Larry wants to happen happens. So if Nicole is to have the attention, Larry will make that happen. If Francis is to be champion, Larry will make him the champion. And there is an element that if he chooses who does get attention, then necessarily he must also choose who doesn't. You know, what remains dark, what remains hidden. Now towards the end of the um the battle of pim ping pong where he and Francis are playing for the real championship, Francis, it dawns on him that he realized he was letting me win, was guiding the game with such skill that no one but me realized what he was doing. Now the word guided is much softer than the word manipulated we looked at just now. But the word guided also means manipulated. It also means controlling. And I think what's really important in this quotation is that Larry is able to control and manipulate, but also go unnoticed. There's not a hint of suspicion from anyone else. Now, this tells us that Larry is very, very good at controlling things, very good at grooming people, but most importantly is incredibly good at doing it in a way where nobody can see what he's doing. He's very good at remaining hidden. His true intentions seem to be hidden behind his dazzling teeth and his blonde hair. And it's only Francis that is aware that Larry is actually orchestrating this win and he's controlling it and he's manipulating it. Wonderful for Francis, but it also takes part of the win away from Francis too. When Larry Lasal returns from war, we see the crowd made up not only of children but also of their parents. And it says their parents who knew that Larry Lasal had been a bright pied piper for their children. Now parents are people who are supposed to keep children incredibly safe. They're supposed to know their children really well and they're supposed to be able to spot dangers. None of the parents who knew Larry Lasal had any inkling at all that Larry was capable of hurting their children. Now the really important part of this quotation are the terms bright pied piper. Now, the word bright again linking in with the idea of um being dazzled with this bright light, with this thing that is incredibly shiny and makes people see what they want to see, not see what's really there. And the word pied means colorful. Again, this character seems to always be um surrounded by a superficial facade. this this very um very colorful, very attractive um look about him. And it refers to the Pied Piper from the children's story, The Pied Piper of Hamlin. I'm sure you know the story already, but the Pied Piper of Hamlin was employed to remove rats from a town. Now, he does so. He is able to charm the town's rats, and he's able to take them away to be drowned in a river. And he does it through a magic flute that he has. So he charms these rats, takes them away, um kills all of the rats, and yet the town's people refused to pay pay him. So as revenge, the pi piper returned and this time charmed all of the children from the town and he ens snared them with his magic and he marched all of the children or made the children follow him out of the town never to be seen again. Now, the Pied Piper, whilst he sounds like someone who's very good with children or someone who's able to inspire children that children look up to, the Pied Piper is actually a very sinister character who took children away from their places of safety as revenge for not being paid. Now, Larry Lasowl, whilst being an excellent children's entertainer or children's teacher, also has the sinister qualities of being able to hurt those children that he inspires. So, I think the term pied piper is really important to remember for your exam. And this links in to the description of his clothing when he returns from war. The word respplendant means almost to be shining with color to be endor uh to be adorned with very colorful clothing. Respplendant in the green uniform with the lieutenants bars on his shoulder and the ribbons and medals on his chest. The word respplendant shows that he is again hidden behind a very attractive facade. And this time he's adorned with uh lieutenants bars and ribbons and medals. It seems to be that everyone is incredibly impressed with the way he looks and the respect that he's managed to um gain and no one is able to see beyond the thing that they are presented with. For example, nobody questions why he was promoted. They assume it's simply because he's a great leader. Nobody questions where those ribbons or medals come from. We could probably infer that in order to be granted these medals and ribbons, he probably had to kill people. He probably had to do things that most people wouldn't be proud of. And yet the parents and the children are all blinded by the way he looks. They don't see what's happening beneath the surface, beneath the veneer. Now, when he talks, he says things that seem to be to impress people. And it almost feels like Larry Lasal is saying the types of things that you're supposed to say, not the types of things that really he wants to say. So he says things like, "We have to keep the world safe for these young people. They are our future." Now, this does link in with his personality of being a great teacher and a great um inspirer of children. But also we can see the irony of someone like Larry saying that we should keep the world safe for the children who are the future and yet we know what awful things he has done to children in the past. So there's an irony here. There's a definite difference between the way Larry is presented on the outside and perhaps the true character that is lurking beneath that surface. Whilst the ball is happening in honor of Larry, Larry is able to orchestrate a situation where he takes all of the children away from the protective figures of the party and he's able to take them to isolate them at the rec center away from those protective figures. Now, he does this by lining them up and they began a wild snake dance through Monument Square. And as they do so, as they move through Monument Square, they also go past statues of generals and the Civil War cannon. And those also are symbols of protection. Those statues of generals, those generals are there to protect the nation. And yet Larry is able to go past those statues of generals completely unnoticed once more as he orchestrates this opportunity to do awful things. Now, if you take a look at the words, he lined us up, there really does seem to be this this manipulative quality, this controlling quality where he's able to make these children do exactly what he wants them to do. Now, he also is described as a wild snake dance. Now, we can picture the the image, can't we? All of the children holding on to each other, creating this enormous snake through the town, everyone laughing and dancing together. But the wild snake dance I think is really important. Now snakes, you'll have seen images of snakes that are charmed perhaps in baskets and they're almost hypnotized by snake charmers. And I think that imagery translates really well to how he has charmed these children. Now wild snakes are supposed to be dangerous. And yet Larry is able to calm and to charm the the wild snake into doing exactly what he wants it to do. Now the real snake- like figure, the real predatory figure is Larry himself. Now as he's moving these children through the um the streets of the town, Francis says it's as if we were all drunk without having taken a sip of liquor. Now here that drunk quality, it seems to be the the mesmerizing charm or the mesmerizing spell that has been placed upon him. Now there's a name for that. It's it's the grooming. It's the the control. It's the manipulation of Larry. So, the fact that they all feel like they're drunk and they haven't tasted any alcohol at all, it really shows that they're under the power. They're under the spell of Larry. Larry is in complete control and these children are doing what they want. Now, it also makes me feel quite uncomfortable that we've got this lexical set of of quite adult language, drunk and liquor, something that no child is supposed to experience. And yet Larry is able to taint these children with these adult type experiences. And that translates quite horribly to Nicole who is also forced to engage in adult type experiences before she's ready and before she's comfortable to her detriment. inside the rec center. As we approach the um the scene where Nicole is attacked, Larry is able to manipulate Francis to such a point where Francis's words are not his words at all. They're actually Larry's words. Now, we've analyzed that previously in this video, so I won't do so again. The big thing that that Francis says that really shows the level of control and power Larry has over Francis is when Francis says, "We always did what Larry Lal told us to do. Always carried out his slightest wish." Now, the repetition of the word always there suggests that Francis doesn't even think. He simply complies with Larry Lasal's orders. Such is the level of trust and such is the level of loyalty that Larry has been able to develop in Francis. And when Francis is sent from the rec center and he's supposed to go home because Larry says that he's tired, Francis chooses not to go home. He wants to wait behind and he wants to honor his commitment to Nicole to not abandon her. Unfortunately, it takes Francis a little bit too much time to figure out what's actually happening inside of the rec center for him to adequately defend her. And what he says is that she had told me not to go and I hadn't. That she was more important to me than Larry Lasal. It's at this moment where Francis realizes that Nicole is more important to her to him than Larry Lasal is. Unfortunately, it's too late and the damage is done and Nicole can't forgive Francis until towards the end of the novel. Now, I think it really shows that up until this point, Francis has placed Larry so much trust and um so much faith in Larry Lasowl that it takes this long for Francis to realize that what he should have done was perhaps to to honor his commitment to Nicole and not to have left her. Unfortunately, the damage is done at this point. As we get to the end of the book in chapter 13, the last time we see Larry before he commits suicide, when Francis enters the room, it says that we shake hands. At the last minute, when it seems we might embrace as old friends and comrades, teacher and pupil, I pull away. And I think this is a really useful quote to show the broken relationship and how Larry's abuse of his power destroyed the type of relationship that should have been unbreakable. So the fact that he does shake hands with Larry and as Larry's starting to get close enough to give him a hug to embrace him, Francis pulls away because he doesn't want to maintain that relationship. He doesn't want to rekindle that relationship. Now, the type of relationship between old friends is the type of relationship that shouldn't really be broken. Old friends should remain friends in the same way as comrades. How fighting alongside someone is a relationship that shouldn't be broken. It's a brotherhood. And the relationship between teacher and pupil should be one of support and motivation and inspiration and trust and loyalty. And yet that relationship has entirely been broken by Larry. And as a result, Francis pulls away from that relationship because the relationship is broken. Now, as the conversation between these two develop and Francis confronts Larry with his awful crime, and Larry realizes that he's been exposed, Larry tries to take some of the guilt away from Francis. He says, "You couldn't have stopped me anyway, Francis. You were just a child." Now, this could be seen as a protective measure by Larry. He's trying to make Francis feel better about the fact that he couldn't do anything. But it could also show the level of power that Larry always had and how Francis was always this subservient character. He was always the inferior. When Francis exposes Larry's sins and shows Larry that he knows exactly what he did to Nicole, Larry is unrepentant. He seems to be completely remorseless. He understands what he did is entirely wrong. And yet he doesn't seem to be sorry for the hurt or the pain that he has caused. He says, "Everybody sins, Francis. The terrible thing is that we love our sins. We love the thing that makes us evil. I love the sweet young things." Now, the fact that he says, "Everybody sins, Francis, suggests that he doesn't feel any guilt at all because he realizes that other people do bad things and therefore he can be forgiven for the things that he has done wrong." And when he says the terrible thing is that we love our sins, it seems to be that Larry has accepted that there is a part of him that desires to cause pain, that wants to hurt people, that wants to ruin those people that he was closest to. Now, I think it's very um quite sinister when he calls the sweet young things things, not people. It's almost like he sees other people as objects to satisfy his own cravings. to serve his own pleasure. And if we link that to the way he's acted all the way through the text by manipulating other people so that he gets what he wants or by presenting himself in one way but secretly being something else, it makes him sound like a narcissistic character that sees other people as only there to fulfill his own fantasies. Now, he does say, well, the only type of regret that he seems to get is the fact that Francis now knows what he's like. And he says to Francis, "If I want one thing, it would be to have you look at me again the way you did at the rec center, when I was the big hearer you say I was." But it's too late, isn't it? Now, if we take Larry for his word here, it sounds like he regrets the fact that he's broken Francis's trust. that Francis was so loyal and Francis looked up to him as this great hero and Larry seems to fallen short from those expectations and he seems to regret that. On the other hand, there's a part of me that thinks that Larry doesn't regret Francis looking down on Larry at all. What Larry really wants is to have gone unnoticed. Don't think Larry regrets the fact that he did something to break that relationship. Larry is just frustrated that he got caught. Larry would probably hurt people again if he could. The one thing that he seems to want back is not his goodness, not his um aura of a hero. What he wants back is that cloak of anonymity, that superficial facade that he can dazzle people with and get away with whatever he wants. I think what Larry really wants back is the ability to trick Francis. And I think Larry really just wants to be able to get away with it without being exposed. That's what he really seems to regret. He regrets the fact that he got caught, not the fact that he did what he did. When Francis is just about to shoot Larry, Larry is able to take control to show Francis that he has a gun of his own. And he offers to kill himself supposedly to to save Francis. And he tells Francis, "Go, Francis. Leave me here. Leave everything here, the war, what happened at the rec center. Leave it all behind with me. Now, we could interpret this line as Larry trying to make up for the fact that he has caused so much devastation by offering to kill himself. Perhaps this is his way of saving Francis, taking the burden away from Francis. And it does seem to be from this quotation that he's trying to take any guilt or shame, any culpability from Francis, take it away from him. and to to do the deed himself to give Francis that sense of justice. Now, why he kills himself is is up to our own interpretation, but part of me believes that perhaps Larry kills himself not to save Francis, but to save his own reputation. Perhaps Larry chooses to kill himself so that people maybe don't ask questions. Why Francis? why this child who looked up to Larry um so fervently as a child, why he would decide to kill his mentor. Instead, it looks like a war hero who's come back from war, who has been psychologically traumatized and kills himself. What Larry seems to be able to do is to escape that retribution, to escape that blot against his reputation so that he can die with all of those other characters who are so respecting of him that remains intact. That would be my interpretation, I think. Now, the way Francis interprets this as he leaves is still trying to make me better than I am. Now, as he leaves, the relationship with Larry obviously is in tatters, but he does seem to suggest that Larry does this as a parting gift, just like he tried to improve the children at the rec center by turning them into dancers or turning them into actors. Seems to be that Larry gives this parting gift to Francis or that's the way he interprets it. Throughout this video, I've structured it into three sections. First of all, Francis's identity, then Francis's relationship with Nicole, and then finally, Francis's relationship with Larry. Now, a question simply on Francis, that might be a useful way to structure the essay. But when it comes to the character of Francis, I think there are lots of different ways the question could be asked. So, I'm just going to spend a little bit of time looking at different variations of questions on Francis Ready for your exam and how you might tackle them slightly differently. Let's take a look at the wording of this June 2018 unit 2 WJC exam paper. Francis is just an ordinary young man who makes some bad decisions that change his life forever. How far do you agree with this statement? Now, as we read this exam question, I really want you to consider this as an argument that you need to make. And if you're going to form an argument, you need to have something to argue in the first place. Now, the wording, Francis is just an ordinary young man who makes some bad decisions. I completely understand that statement. I agree that Francis makes bad decisions. I can name those bad decisions. I can number them. And yet, do I think Francis is a bad person who makes bad decisions? No. I think Francis is not a bad person. We saw him at the beginning of this text. He's actually a very noble and very loyal and very nice person. So, in my introduction, I would set up what my main argument is going to be. And I think my main argument for this essay question would be that Francis's bad decisions are due to his unresolved trauma. I think every bad decision that Francis makes is a consequence of being a victim either in his childhood or or what happened to him in the war. So I don't think Francis is a bad character. I think he does bad things, but I understand why he makes those bad decisions. Now, the first of those bad decisions I think I'd argue is his decision to wait outside while Nicole was being abused was due to him being manipulated and groomed by Larry. So, I think that would be my first signpoint to one of the main paragraphs I'm going to write about, that Francis made a bad decision because he was groomed as a child by Larry. Now, the second decision I would argue is a bad decision, but again, I completely understand why he makes this bad decision is his decision to go to war. Now, he goes to war because he wants to die. But again, if we ask why he wants to die in war, it's because he desires to escape his shame and guilt. He doesn't seem mo see a way for him to escape that shame and guilt by living. He considers suicide, but decides that that's not appropriate because he doesn't want to dishonor his mother and his father. So, his only solution is to go and die in the war. Now the final bad decision I think Francis makes but again completely justifiable because of the uh trauma that he faced is his decision to seek revenge and commit suicide. Now I think he decides to want to kill Larry to make up for the fact that he couldn't protect Nicole previously. So in he can't go back in time and fix that. So he thinks, "How can I serve justice?" And his version of justice would be to kill the person that hurt Nicole. His desire to commit suicide again. He feels like he deserves to die. So therefore, he's going to fix the problem that he couldn't fix before. And then he's going to remove himself so he no longer has to feel that shame and no longer has to feel that guilt. So, I think I've listed three clear bad decisions he makes, but I'm also going to show why he makes them. So, in my introduction, if I have signposted those three bad decisions that I'm going to explore, my first main section is going to be my analysis of how Larry groomed Francis and how this led to his feelings of loyalty to override his instincts. Now, all the way through this um video, I've shown you how Francis has been groomed by Larry. So, I'd use those quotations to supply my argument with strength. So, the fact that um Francis was dazzled by the movie star teeth and the fact that Francis always does what Larry tells him to, all of those quotations can be used to support the fact that Francis was groomed by Larry. And that would make my first main section as signposted in my introduction. I then move on to the second section which would be focusing on another bad decision. In this section, I would probably analyze how Francis felt no other option but to go to war and find escape through death. And I think I'd probably explain how his entire identity as a protector was taken away from him, leaving him lost and without identity. I think in this section we can use lots of those quotations um from early on in the text when he saw himself as this sentry or this knight who was there to protect the vulnerable birdlike um rear specimen of Nicole. You can bring in all of those quotations about her pale purity. You can bring in those quotations about the porcelain. And then we can show how he decided to go to war because he failed to to meet the expectations he'd set for himself. So he looks for justice through through death instead. And that would lead me on to my final section. And in my final section, I would analyze how Francis's resolve to seek revenge is fueled by his desire to atone for his previous inaction. He cannot undo the crime, but wants to enact justice. And I would probably explain how his decision not to kill Larry might be the good decision that he needed to make in order for him to to reform his character and and to leave this text as a good character rather than a character that was um who went through trauma and then did bad things. I don't think Larry does do anything horrific in the text. The only thing he could be accused of really is being inactive while Nicole is being attacked. After those main three sections, I would probably summarize it in a conclusion. So, I would probably explain how all of Francis's bad decisions are due to the trauma he faced. And after all, that trauma was not his fault. I would explain how Francis makes good decisions in the end and he goes to seek out Nicole and he talks to her and she forgives him. And the end of this text, he seems to find a way to atone for what happened in a much more positive and a much more fruitful way. And that would be to use his talent for writing to give a voice to those who do not have one. And I think that's the the really good decision at this text. when he could have chosen suicide or revenge, he ends up, it seems, that he chooses to give a voice to the vulnerable. And I think that's probably quite admiraal admirable. So that first essay would be a way of attacking an essay on bad decisions and how um Francis makes bad decisions but yet isn't a bad character. Now, if you take a look at the wording of the May 2023 exam paper, it says, "How does Robert Cormier present the changing relationship between Francis and Nicole throughout the novel?" And I think an essay question like this splits itself nice and neatly into three clear sections once more. So, in my introduction, I would again signpost that the relationship goes through huge amounts of change. I think that would be my central argument that there is a huge amount of change that happens from the beginning of their meeting until their final parting. Now, at first those changes seem to be innocent and they seem to be quite endearing. We see the crime that happens that's awful and it seems to corrupt their relationship and means that it's irreconcilable. And then at the end of the text, the relationship between the two at the end of the novela is mutually supportive. And I think it highlights the importance of communication. Doesn't mean they can fix their relationship, but through communication, they seem to be able to deal with their own problems. So I think if the question was about Francis and Nicole's changing relationship, I would probably begin with their early relationship when they first meet and how um Francis seems to suffer. He loves her so much and then becomes her protector and they get together which is incredibly sweet and innocent and and it's not predatory at all. It seems to be much more much more charming. Then I would have how that relationship changes when the crime happens and we'd probably talk about the aftermath. And then at the end of the text when the relationship changes again when they return to each other and yet they can't fix their relationship. Those would be the three sections I would choose for this essay. We break this down once more. The first section explore the instance infatuation of Francis and how he adopts the role of a courtly lover. He seems he sees himself as a protector and he's filled with pain and suffering, but this makes way for an endearing and quite youthful relationship. the scene when they're in the cinema together that really does seem to be two people in the the first kind of flushes of of an innocent type of love. In section two, we then move on to the first major change where Francis fails to protect Nicole. So, you could mention the imagery of fragility here. You could mention how Francis is completely heartbroken. And then we've also got that coldness of Nicole um in the aftermath when they meet and the the feelings of helplessness for Francis who can't fix the situation and doesn't know what to say and then Nicole obviously um disappears, becomes a hermit, becomes a recluse and eventually leaves town. In the third section of this essay, I think the most logical thing to do is then again take a look at how the relationship evolves further. So in this section, I would explore the way Francis finds Nicole at the end of the text. How they've become completely different people. So the relationship is perhaps distant and cold and yet there's still a tenderness and a familiarity there. I would explore how Nicole maybe relieves Francis of his guilt and how she encourages him to move past his trauma through writing. And that um is probably one of the most important messages of the text, which is when faced with trauma, it's important to talk and communicate and um to share feelings rather than lock them away like Francis did for so long. Again, in the conclusion, time to summarize those key points. And in the conclusion, I would explain how the relationship seems to have been tinged with suffering from the very beginning. I'd probably explain how the relationship was really cruy corrupted by Larry, but how at the end of the text, open communication with Nicole does offer hope for Francis's future, even though it means the relationship is beyond salvation. So even though the relationship is gone, the lingering effects of that relationship become positive whilst previously they were haunting. I think that would be the way I would deal with this uh particular essay question. And the final question I'm going to quickly run through with you is the question from May 2017. How does Robert Cormier present the changing relationship between Francis and Larry Lasal in Heroes? Now, this very much gives you the argument. You're going to argue how that relationship changes. So, there's no need to formulate an argument of your own. So, in the introduction, I think I would probably briefly signpost that from the moment he set eyes on Larry, Francis was completely seduced by his glamour and celebrity. He idolize him. He deifies him. um he sees him as this kind of angelic character who's able to transform him completely. I'd probably signpost the fact that Francis saw him as a father figure and that maybe he looked up to Larry so much because he lost his own father and his own uncle, Uncle Louie is seems to be a lovely man and he's affectionate but he's quiet and not really the father figure that um he needs. And then we've probably signpost the fact that Larry abused Francis's loyalty and trust and Larry is the reason for Francis's suffering throughout his life. I think the essay splits itself naturally into a first section maybe focusing on Francis's relationship with Larry at the beginning of the text. how Larry is supportive, how Larry is the the masculine figure that Francis is able to look up to, how he idolizes him, completely idolizes him, and how Larry has the capacity to transform Francis from someone lacking self-esteem into somebody who ends up winning a competition and he is able to attain the girl of his dreams. And that seems to all be because of Larry. So in this section you could talk about the lexical set of celebrity and glamour and how um Larry is that figure who's able to to give everything to Francis, everything that he's ever wanted. In section two, I'd probably explain how the relationship changes because Larry abuses his power. So in this section we can talk about how behind that superficial veneer of perfection is the sinister predatory character. And in this section we can talk about the wild snake dance. We can talk about the the more sinister connotations of the bright pied piper. And you can really show how Larry manipulated the spotlight and he controlled the game. And you can really explain how behind all of Larry's good qualities has been this this grooming of Francis from the start. In the third section of this essay, I would probably move on quite logically to how that relationship changes again with the final confrontation with Larry. So taking a look at the chapter where Francis is resolved to kill Larry and yet at the end of the text he chooses not to. We could explore the fact that um Larry continues to act as a mental figure and takes away some of the guilt and shame from Francis. We could also talk about the fact that Larry presents himself as this figure who's taking away that guilt from Francis, but may secretly be trying to conceal his crimes even further so that he doesn't lose his reputation. Um, you could really take a look at that final confrontation between Francis and Larry. And I think that would be a sensible end to that essay. I'm not going to try and explain absolutely every permutation of how Francis might appear in the exam, but I think we've done a pretty good job of exploring the character of Francis, but also how he interacts with some of the other characters. I feel like what we've covered in this video will put you in goodstead for your final exam. And if the character of Francis does turn up, I'll feel incredibly confident that you'll do well and you'll really uh show off what you know to your examiner and hopefully leave the exam hall feeling really confident and really pleased and and proud of yourself. I'm really hoping this video has been useful. It's a long video, so hopefully you've taken lots of breaks um in between, made lots of notes, and then you'll use those notes to practice essay writing in the future. Really good luck in your final exams. I hope you do fantastically well and I will see you all in the next video that I make. Good luck.