“The pupil” by: Henry James

1. “The pupil” by: Henry James “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.” ― Dorothy Parker

2. Theme statement • The attention paid to classes by Pemberton and Mrs. Moreen creates a relationship based on greed that isolates Morgan and encourages his disrespectful behavior.

3. Literary elements • Tone • Euphemisms • Syntax • Point of View

4. The author uses the tone of restrained-observational • Line 9: “…a pair of soiled gants de Suéde…” • Line 12-13: “…he would have liked to hear the figure of his salary…” • Line 18: refers to Morgan as “cynical”

5. Pemberton uses “lighter” words and phrases to describe the Moreen family as a result of class differences • Line 8: Mrs. Moreen referred to as “affable” • (Affable = attempting to be likable) • Line 20: “the honour of taking his education in hand”

6. Pemberton’s thoughts are often organized into long-winded compound-complex sentences which highlights his attention to the gap between classes • Lines 20-25: “This personage reflected, somewhat grimly, that the first thing he should have to teach his little charge would be to appear to address himself to his mother when he spoke to her- especially not to make her such an improper answer as that.” • Lines 37-43: “He had known the poor child was not robust: this was the bias on which he had been invited to treat, through an English lady, an Oxford acquaintance, then at Nice, who happened to know both his needs and those of the amiable American family looking out for something really superior in the way of a resident tutor.”

7. James uses the 3rd person limited point of view in order to allow us to See how pemberton feels and reacts to the moreens without giving us an inside perspective of Mrs. Moreen and Morgan’s point of view. • Lines 47-48: “…was not quite the soft solicitation the visitor had taken for granted…” • Line 54-57: “…and the chance that his small scholar might prove cleverer than himself had quite figured, to his nervousness, among the dangers of an untried experiment.” • Lines 57-61: “He reflected, however, that these were the risks one had to run when one accepted a position, as it was called, in a private family; when as yet one’s University honours had, pecuniarily speaking, remained barren.”

8. The use of extensive sentences and compound-complex sentences play into the hesitation exhibited by Pemberton concerning the subject of payment. • Lines 61-66: “At any rate, when Mrs. Moreen got up as if to intimate that, since it was understood he would enter upon his duties within the week she would let him off now, he succeeded, in spite of the presence of the child, in squeezing out a phrase about the rate of payment.” • Lines 53-57: “Pemberton was modest- he was even timid; and the chance that his small scholar might prove cleverer than himself had quite figured, to his nervousness, among the dangers of an untried experiment.”

9. How Kevin can relate • 1st Job= Babysitter • Parent offers LESS money than you asked for • Asking for money is the most awkward thing to ever exist

10. How Jayme can relate • Had the opposite situation occur. • Tutored a kid=> got paid MORE than she wanted=> kid was “mediocre” at school