Interpretation of literary

11. The Factual Information (the plot of the story). In this story the author depicts the life of a small industrial town of Braddle and its inhabitants on the eve of the first World War and the postwar years. Coppard writes the story very laconically without extra details dwelling only on' the main crucial moments in the life of the characters. He purposely composes the story in such a schematic way in order to lay bare the class contradictions and to underline the difference between the rich and the poor. Thus he contrasts two Englands: the England of workers and the England of factory-owners. The author describes the life of two families within the lifetime of 2 generations. Two honest young men Tony Vassal and Nathan Regent worked together at the spinning mills in Braddle and courted the same girl Patience who was poor and pretty. Tony Vassal married Patience arid Nathan Regent married a rich girl. Hence their lives took 2 different courses, Tony went on working at the mill in the same position but Nathan was quickly promoted. Soon children were born to Tony, but he went on working in the same position. A daughter was born to Nathan, hut by that time his wealth permitted him to buy the entire concern and he became a factory-owner.
During the war Tony Vassall and his sons lost their lives at the front and Patience died of grief but Nathan and his wife lent their money to the country, the country gave them large sums of interest and they got so rich that after the war they died of overeating.
Nothing changed in the life of the second generation. After the war Tony's daughter Nancy married a mill hand and repeated the destiny of her parents. Nathan's daughter Olive married a very grand man and continued performing the duties of her father running the factory and appealing to the workers with demagogic slogans that they must work harder than before the war, much, much harder. She thought that managing the mill was her predestination on the earth and she hypocritically believed that she performed it very nobly.

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