The Broken Boot

The Broken Boot

The story is called "The Broken Boot" and it was written by John Galsworthy.

The author tells us the story of an actor called Gilbert Ceister. He lived foe 6 month without work and proper food, but then he got a role in a play. Even this role wasn’t that well-paid, but a certain jauntiness had returned to him again at last. Gilbert met the philanthropist Bryce-Greene, whom he met at camp. When they went to dinner, Bryce Green ordered expensive food and drinks He gave Gilbert a treat and spoke to him sincerely and friendly. He had no idea that Gilbert had lived poorly and ate little for a long time. Suddenly Bryce-Green noticed that Caister had a broken boot. The old friend said goodbye to Gilbert and left the restaurant, leaving Gilbert alone. Two ladies entered the restaurant where the actor was sitting and recognized him. Gilbert enjoyed the attention, but he wanted to leave the restaurant without anyone noticing his torn shoe.

This work is a short story with elements of drama. This is a realistic story that tells about the post-war years. The theme of this story is the life of a poor actor who, despite his hard life, did not lose his dignity and did not give up.

The narration is in the third person. The action took place in England after the World War I. There are two main characters in this work: Gilbert Ceister, a poor actor who recently got a job, and his old friend Bryce-Green, an art lover.

The symbol of history is a broken boot and it expresses the main idea of a story - poverty.The tone of the narrative is depressive, as it describes the people’s problems of those times.

The author uses various stylistic devices.

For example an irony in sentence: Fixing his monocle, he stopped before a fishmonger's and, with a faint smile on his face, regarded a lobster. The irony is conveyed by lexical means: the epithet "faint" and the bookish word "regard".

Also examples of irony are the metaphoric epithet "ghost" and the euphemistic metonymy "elegance": Yet he received the ghost of aesthetic pleasure from the reflected elegance of a man long fed only twice a day… "Elegance" replaces "gauntness" because Caister doesn’t like to think of himself as "gaunt".

Also, the big use of professional lexics - theatrical words like “opening”, “on tour”, “act”, “amateur”, “theatricals”, etc. Titles of plays, such as "Educating Simon", "Gotta-Campus ", etc., add to the stylistic effect.

I found this story to be quite interesting. I share the author's opinion that you should never give up and do everything possible for your well-being. I liked the author's language, a large number of dialogues gives liveliness to the story. The story itself is small, but serious.