SECRETS

BY-
BERNARD MCLAVERTY
 SHORT SUMMARY
This story utilizes the method of flashback first

As we proceed through the story, we are introduced to Aunt Mary and ‘the boy’, the
protagonists.

In the beginning of the short story, there is an ill-suffering Aunty Mary and a boy, who
has been at his girlfriend’s home for a while , preparing for “A Levels”, when she is
dying.

His pricking conscience is making him guilty.The flashback tells us the events behind
the aunt’s and boy’s hostility ,coldness against each other. It also tells us that the
central characters were hardly on the same page, though they used to have a very
nurtured bond.

After Aunt Mary passed away, the boy reminisced/remembered their close moments
during childhood he spent with Aunt Mary, how he misplaced her trust by reading her
personal letters sent by her love and how Aunt Mary never forgive him and forget
about it due to his boyish curiosity.
 CHARACTERS

There are altogether 4

characters, 2 round characters
and 2 flat characters.
character 1-the Boy

The nephew is one of the main characters in the story. The story goes into flashback
and comes into present day again and the boy’s character really grows in the story
that’s why he is a round character. He is a very inquisitive person he asks a lot of
questions and he wants to know everything in the story he asks his Aunt Mary many
questions about her personal life and the Aunt her self calls him too inquisitive in the
book which is repeated many times (page 291 17th line, page 293 6th line).He is a
stubborn character even though his Aunt Mary told him clearly not to read those
letters he still went and read the letters, he was very sly as soon as his Aunt left to
church he sneaked into her room and started reading the letters. He is also a very
sensitive character who has a lot of feelings if you look at page 296 last
paragraph,he feels so bad after reading the letters when he was not told to and how
much he regrets it because now he can’t even say sorry because she is dead.
 character 2- Aunt Mary

Aunt Mary is a round character and the story revolves around her. The author has
described her in a lot of detail from her dressing style to her feelings. ( Page 291 1st
paragraph) Describes the way she dresses and how she looks at her present day but
on page 292 4th paragraph the nephew looks at a picture where his Aunt Mary was a
young beautiful girl and is not able to recognize her and that’s where the author
showed how the character grew in the story. The Aunt loved books she read all
different types of books to her nephew and had her own bookcase shelf she was a
very organized Lady who kept all her things organized from letters to postcard
stamps to books. Aunt Mary was a very strict lady for example in the book she
warned him not to read the letters and when he did she got very angry at him and
wished to never talk to him till she died. Even though she is strict she also has a very
sensitive side to her which the author described through letters and the letters were
from her boyfriend who was in the army and he described her as beautiful, gentle,
shy which shows that she is sensitive. I think that in the end the Aunt is a very strong
character and tried he best not to make her emotions come in the way.
 character 3- John

John is the boyfriend of Aunt Mary. He is an army officer who is

fighting in war. He writes letters to Aunt Mary and expressed his
feelings to her about how much he misses her and that he loves
her a lot and thinks about her all the time. He also describes
the war in few letters about how he see’s people dying
everyday. He Is a flat character because he doesn’t grow in the
story but he can be an important character because if he didn’t
write the letters then there would be no story.
 character4- Great Aunt Mary

There is nothing much given about the

mother but she is a flat character because
she doesn’t grow in the book. The only thing
she did in the whole book was house hold
chores which most of the mothers do. In the
story she comes and she goes with just a
little part to play so if you removed her from
the story the story wouldn’t make a
difference as she is not a very important
character.
 THEMES

SECRECY

LOSS

SORROW
 VOCABULARY
1.Threshold - A piece of wood or stone placed beneath a
door; a doorsill.
2.Crucifix - A cross with the figure of Jesus crucified upon
it.
3.Guttural - Harsh; throaty.
4.Irises - Any plant of the genus Iris, having showy
flowers and sword-shaped leaves.
5.Inquisitive - Very curious or asks a lot of questions.
6.Devotions - An act of religious observance or prayer.
7.Nape - The back of the neck.
STORY ANALYSIS
1.Explain the title.In what way is it suitable
to the story ?

The story’s title is suitable as we seen the whole story is a

secret!We do not know the name of a protagonist,the boy. The
reader is unable to find out why the aunt does not want to
reveal her love life.

A secret which no one would ever find out was that,did the aunt
forgive The Boy for reading her personal letters and the answer
also dies with her.
2.WHAT IS THE PREDOMINANT ELEMENT OF
THE STORY-PLOT, CHARACTER & SETTING

We think that the characters are the

predominant element of the story because
there are 2 very strong characters in the
story The Aunt Mary and her nephew they
both share a very strong bond and without
them the story wouldn’t be strong and the
characters are the one thing that brings out
the story very strongly if you remove the
characters the story wouldn’t make sense.
 3.WHO DOES THIS STORY CENTRE ?

The story is about a boy who finds out

about his aunts secretive love life. Later
on the aunt finds him going through her
lover’s letters and says she never wants to
see him again. Then on her deathbed he
keeps thinking about if she will ever
forgive him.
 4.WHAT SORT OF CONFLICT THE LEADS BETWEEN THE
CHARACTERS?

The conflict in the story is between The Aunt and Nephew. The
nephew reads the Aunts letters when he was told not too and
the aunt catches him reading the letters and that’s where the
conflict takes place. We think it is both external and Internal
conflict because it starts off as an external conflict where there
is an argument on why the nephew read the letter but then in
turns into an internal conflict because the Aunt and the nephew
stop talking and keeps their thoughts in their minds.
 5.HOW IS THE CONFLICT RESOLVED?

The conflict is resolved when the setting

changes back to the present leaving the
reader unaware of the events in the past.
 6.HOW DOES THE AUTHOR HANDLE
CHARACTERIZATION?

The author tells us about the aunt by

the actions of the little boy. We get to
know about her through the letters the
little boy opens. In this story the boy is a
flat character whereas the aunt is a round
character.
7.WHO TELLS THE STORY?WHAT POINT OF
VIEW IS USED?

The story is told by

the narrator. Third
person is used.
8.WHAT IS THE SETTING FOR THE ACTION?

It is over the period of history, with

occurring flashback, connecting to the
current events and leading to the
consequences and fallout between
Great-aunt Mary and the boy.
9.HOW DOES THE STORY GET STARTED?
WHAT IS THE INITIAL INCIDENT?

The story starts as the aunt is

dying and is laying on her deathbed.
The boy keeps thinking if his aunt is
ever going to forgive him.
10.BRIEFLY DESCRIBE THE RISING ACTION
OF THE STORY?

We think that the rising action of the

story starts of when the nephew starts
getting very inquisitive and starts asking
the aunt many questions on her personal
life and then reads the letters that he was
strictly told not to read by the Aunt . We
think that this is the rising action of the
story Secrets.
11.WHAT IS THE HIGH POINT OR CLIMAX OF
THE STORY?

The climax of the story begins when the

boy secretly goes to his aunt’s room and
starts reading her personal letters.

The entry of the aunt in the room(while

The Boy was still reading the letters)
marks the highest point in the story.
12.DISCUSS THE CLOSING ACTION OR THE
FALL OF THE STORY

The falling action is when after the boy

read his Great Aunt Mary letters, “Get
out”, she said. “Get out of my room”, and
when the boy was about to leave, ‘You are
dirt.’ She hissed and ‘will always be dirt . I
shall remember this till that day I die’
13.DOES THIS STORY CREATE A SPECIAL
MOOD?

Yes,this story does create a special mood.

All through out the reader is left on his

own imagination as only incomplete
incidents are narrated which makes the
reader a part of the unsaid secret
 14.IS THIS STORY TRUE TO REAL-LIFE?

In our opinion the story is realistic,

realizing how things in life can change
from hopeful to hopeless in an instant the
way matter turns eventually turn out for
the aunt’s and the boy relationship
between them, is a point which shows that
the story is realistic, as this type of
matters occur many times, with friends,
family, relatives, people.
 15.ARE THE EVENTS OR THE INCIDENTS IN
FLASHBACK OR IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER?

The story is a flashback as

it starts in the present
journeys back to the past
and returns to the present.
16.WHAT IS THE GENERAL THEME OF THE STORY? WHAT IS THE
UNDERLYING THEME?

We think that the general and the

most obvious theme of is a Secret
because the whole story is about a
secret and the stories name is the
secrets too. The stories that we
think that could be similar are P.S I
love you, Message in a bottle etc.
17.DOES THIS STORY CONTAIN THE ELEMNT
OF SYMBOLISM?

The ‘Boy’ symbolizes life and Aunt Mary symbolizes death as

The boy has a girlfriend whose home he has been for a while
studying with his girlfriend for “A Levels”, when his Great- Aunt
is dying. Guilty feelings pricking his conscience sparked his
mind when he smells his girlfriends hand cream on his own
bare hands and he thinks and care about her.He has his own
future ahead of him, full of promise, but the circle of life for his
aunt is just ending while his has just begun. In this way the boy
and his Aunt represent life and death.
 18.WAS THERE A VILLAIN IN THIS STORY?A HERO?A DYNAMIC
CHARACTER?

There was no villain or hero in this story

but there is a dynamic character and that
dynamic character is the Aunt because
she is a very strong character and she has
gone through a lot in the story and when
she died the nephew cried and wished
that he could have said sorry and told her
how strong she was and how much he was
going to miss her.
SECRETS REVEALED BY-

SONNY DESAI
DOMINIC WONG
RACHELLE FERNANDES
AKANKSHA BARADIYA