Going Places
by A.R Barton
About the Author
A.R Barton is a modern writer, who lives in Zurich and writes in English. In the story Going Places, Barton explores the theme of adolescent fantasizing and hero worship.
Introduction to the lesson
The story revolves around a teenage girl Sophie, her family and friends. She is a daydreamer, who is always lost in her dreams of becoming rich and sophisticated though in reality she is a worker at biscuit factory. The story suddenly twists up when Sophie make a wild imagination of meeting Danny Casey, a famous footballer. She also makes a story in front of her brother that Casey will come to meet her on a fixed day as per a promise he made to her.
Theme of the Story:
Barton explores the theme of adolescent fantasizing and hero-worship in this story through the character Sophie. The author also coveys through the story that it is natural for the adolescents to fantasize but to a certain level because there is no use of building castles in the air.
Characters
- Sophie:- a school going teenager
- Jansie:- a friend and classmate of Sophie
- Geoff:- an elder brother of Sophie
- Derek:- a younger brother of Sophie
- Danny Casey:- A young Irish football player
- Tom Finney:- A great football player
- United:- name of the football team
- Father & mother of Sophie
Going Places Summary
Sophie and Jansie are two teenagers who are coming back from school. They both work in a biscuit factory. Sophie is lost in her imaginations of owning a boutique shop and becoming famous like Mary Quaint, a fashion designer. Jansie tells her not to dream big as it requires lots of money which they don’t have. To this she replies that she will become an actress, earn a lot and then own a boutique. Jansie being a realistic person does not support her thoughts. On reaching home Sophie feels choked in that small house which is full of the stove’s steam and looks untidy because of the dirty dishes. Her father is eating and her mother is busy in the kitchen. She goes to meet her elder brother Geoff, who is a trainee mechanic and is busy repairing some motorcycle part. Geoff talks very less about his personal life which made her imagine of his personal life which she considers very interesting and wants to be part of it. She shares a secret with him that she met Danny Casey the famous footballer in a boutique. Her brother and her father do not believe her. But she tries to make them believe this. She also tells her brother about her date with Casey. Her brother does not believe her but gives her a chance to believe her story. On Saturday Sophie and her family go to watch a football match as all of them are great fans of football. Their favorite team wins due to a goal made by Casey. All of them feel so overjoyed. When Sophie returns home with her little brother Derek, Jansie questions her about the reality behind her meeting with Danny Casey. Sophie gets angry with her brother because of letting her secret out but tries to handle the situation and succeeds. She then visits a secret place near a canal to meet her hero Casey who doesn’t show up. She knows that it was just her imagination but she was so lost in his love that she doesn’t want to come out of this. In the end she returns back to her home with sadness in her heart. But when she comes across the Royce’s boutique, she again finds herself lost in her hero’s dreams.
Lesson and Explanation
“When I leave,” Sophie said, coming home from school,
“I’m going to have a boutique.”
Jansie, linking arms with her along the street; looked doubtful.
“Takes money, Soaf, something like that.”
“I’ll find it,” Sophie said, staring far down the street.
“Take you a long time to save that much.”
“Well I’ll be a manager then — yes, of course — to begin with. Till I’ve got enough. But anyway, I know just how it’s all going to look.”
“They wouldn’t make you manager straight off, Soaf.”
“I’ll be like Mary Quant,” Sophie said. “I’ll be a natural.
They’ll see it from the start. I’ll have the most amazing shop this city’s ever seen.’”
Boutique: a small shop selling fashionable clothes
Jansie, knowing they were both earmarked for the biscuit factory, became melancholy. She wished Sophie wouldn’t say these things.
When they reached Sophie’s street Jansie said, “It’s only a few months away now, Soaf, you really should be sensible. They don’t pay well for shop work; you know that, your dad would never allow it.”
“Or an actress. Now there’s real money in that. Yes, and I could maybe have the boutique on the side. Actresses don’t work full time, do they? Anyway, that or a fashion designer, you know — something a bit sophisticated”.
And she turned in through the open street door leaving Jansie standing in the rain.
“If ever I come into money I’ll buy a boutique.”
“Huh - if you ever come into money... if you ever come into money you’ll buy us a blessed decent house to live in, thank you very much.”
Earmarked: set aside, reserved
Melancholy: sad
Sophisticated: worldly, Cosmopolitan
Decent: adequate
Sophie’s father was scooping shepherd’s pie into his mouth as hard as he could go, his plump face still grimy and sweat — marked from the day.
“She thinks money grows on trees, doesn't she, Dad?’
said little Derek, hanging on the back of his father’s chair.
Their mother sighed. Sophie watched her back stooped over the sink and wondered at the incongruity of the delicate bow which fastened her apron strings. The delicate seeming bow and the crooked back. The evening had already blacked in the windows and the small room was steamy from the stove and cluttered with the heavy-breathing man in his vest at the table and the dirty washing piled up in the corner. Sophie felt a tightening in her throat. She went to look for her brother Geoff.
Scooping: here, eating
my: dirty, soiledSighed: breathe out
Stooped: shoulder bent forward
Incongruity: inappropriate
Crooked: bent
Cluttered: untidy, litter
He was kneeling on the floor in the next room tinkering with a part of his motorcycle over some newspaper spread on the carpet. He was three years out of school, an apprentice mechanic, travelling to his work each day to the far side of the city. He was almost grown up now, and she suspected areas of his life about which she knew nothing, about which he never spoke. He said little at all, ever, voluntarily. Words had to be prized out of him like stones out of the ground. And she was jealous of his silence. When he wasn’t speaking it was as though he was away somewhere, out there in the world in those places she had never been. Whether they were only the outlying districts of the city, or places beyond in the surrounding country — who knew? — they attained a special fascination simply because they were unknown to her and remained out of her reach.
Kneeling: be in a position in which body is supported by knees.
Tinkering: repairing
Apprentice: learner
Suspected: guess, think
Outlying: distant place
Fascination: captivation
Perhaps there were also people, exotic, interesting people of whom he never spoke — it was possible, though he was quiet and didn’t make new friends easily. She longed to know them. She wished she could be admitted more deeply into her brother’s affections and that someday he might take her with him. Though their father forbade it and Geoff had never expressed an opinion, she knew he thought her too young. And she was impatient. She was conscious of a vast world out there waiting for her and she knew instinctively that she would feel as at home there as in the city which had always been her home. It expectantly awaited her arrival. She saw herself riding there behind Geoff. He wore new, shining black leathers and she a yellow dress with a kind of cape that flew out behind. There was the sound of applause as the world rose to greet them.
Perhaps: maybe
Exotic: foreign, non native
Longed: wish
Affections: fondness, love
Forbade: ban, prohibit
Instinctively: without conscious thought
Cape: wrap, stole
Applause: clapping
He sat frowning at the oily component he cradled in his hands, as though it were a small dumb animal and he was willing it to speak.
“I met Danny Casey,” Sophie said. He looked around abruptly. “Where?”
“In the arcade—funnily enough.” “It’s never true.”
“I did too.”
“You told Dad?”
She shook her head, chastened at his unawareness that he was always the first to share her secrets. “I don’t believe it.”
“There I was looking at the clothes in Royce’s window when someone came and stood beside me, and I looked around and who should it be but Danny Casey.”
“All right, what does he look like?”
“Oh come on, you know what he looks like.”
“Close to, I mean.”
“Well — he has green eyes. Gentle eyes. And he’s not so tall as you’d think...” She wondered if she should say about his teeth, but decided against it.
Frowning: annoyed
Component: part, piece
Cradled: hold
Abruptly: suddenly
Arcade: Gallery
Chastened: subdue, humble
Their father had washed when he came in and his face and arms were shiny and pink and he smelled of soap. He switched on the television, tossed one of little Derek’s shoes from his chair onto the sofa, and sat down with a grunt.
“Sophie meet Danny Casey,” Geoff said.
Sophie wriggled where she was sitting at the table. Her father turned his head on his thick neck to look at her. His expression was one of disdains.
“It’s true,” Geoff said.
“I once knew a man who had known Tom Finney,” his father said reverently to the television.
“But that was a long time ago.”
“You told us,” Geoff said.
Grunt: a low rough noise, Wriggled: twist, turn,Disdain: scorn, disrespect,Reverently: with deep respect.
“Casey might be that good some day.”
“Better than that even. He’s the best.”
“If he keeps his head on his shoulders. If they look after him properly. A lot of distractions for a youngster in the game these days.”
“He’ll be all right. He’s with the best team in the country.”
“He’s very young yet.”
“He’s older than I am.”
“Too young really for the first team.”
“You can’t argue with that sort of ability.”
“He’s going to buy a shop,” Sophie said from the table.
Her father grimaced. “Where’d you hear that?”
“He told me so.”
He muttered something inaudible and dragged himself round in his chair. “This another of your wild stories?”
“She met him in the arcade,” Geoff said, and told him how it had been.
“One of these days you’re going to talk yourself into a load of trouble,” her father said aggressively.
“Geoff knows it’s true, don’t you Geoff?”
“He don’t believe you-though he’d like to.”
Distractions: diversion, disturbance
Grimaced: angry
Inaudible: unheard
The table lamp cast an amber glow across her brother’s bedroom wall, and across the large poster of United’s first team squad and the row of coloured photographs beneath, three of them of the young Irish prodigy, Casey.
“Promise you’ll tell no-one?” Sophie said.
“Nothing to tell is there?”
“Promise, Geoff — Dad’d murder me.”
“Only if he thought it was true.”
“Please, Geoff.”
“Christ, Sophie, you’re still at school. Casey must have strings of girls.”
“No he doesn’t.”
“How could you know that?” he jeered.
“He told me, that’s how.”
“As if anyone would tell a girl something like that.”
“Yes he did. He isn’t like that. He’s... quiet.”
“Not as quiet as all that — apparently.”
“It was nothing like that, Geoff — it was me spoke first. When I saw who it was, I said, “Excuse me, but aren’t you Danny Casey?” And he looked sort of surprised. And he said,
“Yes, that’s right.” And I knew it must be him because he had the accent, you know, like when they interviewed him on the television. So I asked him for an autograph for little Derek, but neither of us had any paper or a pen. So then we just talked a bit. About the clothes in Royce’s window. He seemed lonely. After all, it’s a long way from the west of Ireland. And then, just as he was going, he said, if I would care to meet him next week he would give me an autograph then. Of course,
I said I would.”
“As if he’d ever show up.”
“You do believe me now, don’t you?”
He dragged his jacket, which was shiny and shapeless, from the back of the chair and pushed his arms into it. She wished he paid more attention to his appearance. Wished he cared more about clothes. He was tall with a strong dark face. Handsome, she thought.
“It’s the unlikeliest thing I ever heard,” he said.
Prodigy: a young person with exceptional qualities
Strings: here, group
Jeered: tease someone
Apparently: seemingly, evidently
Dragged: pull
Unlikeliest: unexpected, doubtful
On Saturday they made their weekly pilgrimage to watch United. Sophie and her father and little Derek went down near the goal — Geoff, as always, went with his mates higher up. United won two-nil and Casey drove in the second goal, a blend of innocence and Irish genius, going round the two big defenders on the edge of the penalty area, with her father screaming for him to pass, and beating the hesitant goalkeeper from a dozen yards. Sophie glowed with pride. Afterwards Geoff was ecstatic.
“I wish he was an Englishman,” someone said on the bus. “Ireland’ll win the World Cup,” little Derek told his mother when Sophie brought him home. Her father was gone to the pub to celebrate.
Pilgrimage: religious journey, but here their devotion towards football match
Mates: friends
Hesitant: undecided
Ecstatic: joyful excitement
“What’s this you’ve been telling?” Jansie said, next week.
“About what?”
“Your Geoff told our Frank you met Danny Casey.”
This wasn’t an inquisition, just Jansie being nosey. But Sophie was startled.
“Oh, that.”
Jansie frowned, sensing she was covering. “Yes — that.”
“Well-yes, I did.”
“You never did?” Jansie exclaimed.
Sophie glared at the ground. Damn that Geoff, this was a Geoff thing not a Jansie thing. It was meant to be something special just between them. Something secret. It wasn’t a Jansie kind of thing at all. Tell gawky Jansie something like that and the whole neighbourhood would get to know it. Damn that Geoff, was nothing sacred?
Inquisition: questioning
Nosey: curious
Startled: sudden shock
Frowned: angry
Glared: stare angrily
Gawky: graceless
“It’s a secret — meant to be.”
“I’ll keep a secret, Soaf, you know that.”
“I wasn’t going to tell anyone. There’ll be a right old row if my dad gets to hear about it.”
Jansie blinked. “A row? I’d have thought he’d be chuffed as anything.”
She realised then that Jansie didn’t know about the date bit — Geoff hadn’t told about that. She breathed more easily. So Geoff hadn’t let her down after all. He believed in her after all. After all some things might be sacred.
“It was just a little thing really. I asked him for an autograph, but we hadn’t any paper or a pen so it was no good.” How much had Geoff said?
“Jesus, I wish I’d have been there.”
“Of course, my dad didn’t want to believe it. You know what a misery he is. But the last thing I need is queues of people round our house asking him, “What’s all this about Danny Casey?” He’d murder me. And you know how my mum gets when there’s a row.”
Jansie said, hushed, “You can trust me, Soaf, you know that.”
Row: here, so much noise, Chuffed: cheerful, Misery: discomfort, Hushed: quiet
After dark she walked by the canal, along a sheltered path lighted only by the glare of the lamps from the wharf across the water, and the unceasing drone of the city was muffled and distant. It was a place she had often played in when she was a child. There was a wooden bench beneath a solitary elm where lovers sometimes came. She sat down to wait. It was the perfect place, she had always thought so, for a meeting of this kind. For those who wished not to be observed. She knew he would approve. For some while, waiting, she imagined his coming. She watched along the canal, seeing him come out of the shadows, imagining her own consequent excitement. Not until sometime had elapsed did she begin balancing against this the idea of his not coming.
Canal: waterway
Wharf: dock
Muffed: messed up
Solitary elm: single tree (elm is a tall tree)
Elapsed: pass, go by
Here I sit, she said to herself, wishing Danny would come, wishing he would come and sensing the time passing.
I feel the pangs of doubt stirring inside me. I watch for him but still there is no sign of him. I remember Geoff saying he would never come, and how none of them believed me when I told them. I wonder what will I do, what can I tell them now if he doesn’t come? But we know how it was, Danny and me — that’s the main thing. How can you help what people choose to believe? But all the same, it makes me despondent, this knowing I’ll never be able to show them they’re wrong to doubt me. She waited, measuring in this way the changes taking place in her. Resignation was no sudden thing.
Pangs: sharp pain
Despondent: disheartened
Resignation: departure, leaving
Now I have become sad, she thought. And it is a hard burden to carry, this sadness. Sitting here waiting and knowing he will not come I can see the future and how I will have to live with this burden. They of course will doubt me, as they always doubted me, but I will have to hold up my head remembering how it was. Already I envisage the slow walk home and Geoff’s disappointed face when I tell him, “He didn’t come, that Danny.” And then he’ll fly out and slam the door. “But we know how it was,” I shall tell myself, “Danny and me.” It is a hard thing, this sadness. She climbed the crumbling steps to the street. Outside the pub she passed her father’s bicycle propped against the wall, and was glad. He would not be there when she got home.
Envisage: predict
Crumbling: broken
“Excuse me, but aren’t you Danny Casey?” Coming through the arcade she pictured him again outside Royce’s.
He turns, reddening slightly. “Yes, that’s right.”
“I watch you every week, with my dad and my brothers. We think you’re great.”
“Oh, well now — that’s very nice.”
“I wonder — would you mind signing an autograph?”
His eyes are on the same level as your own. His nose is freckled and turns upwards slightly, and when he smiles he does so shyly, exposing teeth with gaps between. His eyes are green, and when he looks straight at you they seem to shimmer. They seem gentle, almost afraid. Like a gazelle’s. And you look away. You let his eyes run over you a little.
And then you come back to find them, slightly breathless.
Reddening: blush
Freckled: pale/brown spot on skin
Exposing: uncover
Gazelle: An Asian-African antelope
And he says, “I don’t seem to have a pen at all.” You realise you haven’t either.
“My brothers will be very sorry,” you say.
And afterwards you wait there alone in the arcade for a long while, standing where he stood, remembering the soft melodious voice, the shimmer of green eyes. No taller than you. No bolder than you. The prodigy. The innocent genius. The great Danny Casey.
And she saw it all again, last Saturday — saw him ghost past the lumbering defenders, heard the fifty thousand catch their breath as he hovered momentarily over the ball, and then the explosion of sound as he struck it crisply into the goal, the sudden thunderous eruption of exultant approbation.
Melodious: musical
Lumbering: moving in awkward way
Hovered: fly
Momentarily: briefly
Thunderous: so strong like thunder of cloud
Eruption: explosion
Exultant: overjoyed
Approbation: Approval, acceptance
MIND MAP
CHARACTER SKETCH OF IMPORTANT CHARACTERS:
Sophie:
- Teenager
- DayDreamer
- Lives in her own fantasies
- Dislikes Jansie for discouraging her to have wild thoughts.
- Is ambitious and wants to open a boutique, be an actress or a fashion designer. sensitive and innocent
- Escapes into an unrealistic world so that she could reach those places where she can never be there in real.
Geoff :
- Sophie’s elder brother
- He is an apprentice mechanic
- Lives a very private and secret life
- Did not speak much, very quiet
- His ventures in life make way for Sophie’s unrealistic ad wild thoughts.
Jansie :
- Sophie’s friend
- Sensible and practical
- Brings Sophie back to the real world by making her realize that they both are embarked to work in the biscuit factory and that her father will never allow Sophie to open a boutique.
- Nosey
- She cannot keep a secret.
- The exact opposite of Sophie.
JUSTIFICATION TO TITLE
The story presents a journey into the world of dreams. One can travel to the most remote parts of the world in dreams for it is the place where our imagination comes true. The reality is often contrary to imagination and confines us within our given space. Sophie who is a day dreamer, finds her reality quite suffocating. She belongs to a lower middle class family but hopes to own the best boutique in town. She meets Danny Casey, the sensational sports star in her dreams. She even fixes up a date with him in her imagination and actually travels to the place and waits for him to show up. Sophie is going to several places through her imagination. The title ‘Going Places’ thus, suits the story.
Going Places Question and Answers
Q1- Sophie and Jansie were class-mates and friends. What were the differences between them that show up in the story?
A1-Sophie and Jansie were totally opposite of each other though they were friends. Sophie was always lost in her dreams. She wanted to lead a life full of luxury and sophistication. She dreamt of owning a boutique, be like Mary Quaint or an actress and wanted to become rich and famous. On the other hand, Jansie was a girl who had a realistic approach towards life. She knew that they came from a poor family and were working in a small factory. Therefore, she did not involve herself in daydreams like Sophie. Rather she tried to teach her that such dreams required a lot of money and a meager salary from the factory was not enough to fulfill such dreams.
Q2- How would you describe the character and temperament of Sophie’s father?
A2-Sophie’s father is a plump and aggressive person. Sophie fears his anger. He doesn’t believe in the wild stories of his daughter but as a caring father, he reminds her not to make such stories as this could lead her to trouble. He is a football fan because he visits the football ground with his kids, every Saturday, to watch his favorite team ‘United’ play the match. He also wishes Danny Casey to become like Finney and enjoys the winning of his team by visiting the pub.
Q3- Why did Sophie like her brother Geoff more than any other person? From her perspective, what did he symbolise?
A3- Geoff was an introvert type of person and so he spoke less about himself. This made Sophie like him as she thought that he visited some secret places that were full of interesting people. So, she tried to win his affection in order to get a chance to ride with him to that special place where she would visit by wearing a beautiful yellow dress. She also imagined of being welcomed by the crowd there. Sophie wanted to live that beautiful life which was full of colours and happiness that Geoff lived but she could not.
Q4- What socio-economic background did Sophie belong to? What are the indicators of her family’s financial status?
A4- Sophie belonged to a lower middle class family. She lived in a small house with her family. When she returned home from school, she felt uncomfortable because of the steam and the untidy look of her house. Her mother was stooping because of the burden of the work she did. Her father was a labourer and her elder brother was a mechanic. She also worked in a biscuit factory in order to support her family. Such things indicated that Sophie belonged to a lower middle class family.
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