How is Pinkie portrayed in chapter 2?

Chapter two of ‘Brighton Rock’ begins by introducing Pinkie Brown, one of the main characters in the
novel. Pinkie Brown is a young gangster trying to run his newly inherited mob, he is 17
years old, with brown hair and dull grey eyes. Although Pinkie is mentioned in the first
chapter, he is described in more detail in chapter 2. It is significant how Graham Greene’s first two
words starting chapter two is “The Boy”, which impacts the readers immediately due to the fact that
it suggests that the character Graham Greene is talking about here has authority. This is implicated
due to the capitalisation of the word “Boy” and also how there is the word “the” is in front of it
showing that it needs authority like a place. However it is ironic how Graham Greene carefully
chooses to name Pinkie “The Boy” instead of something more sophisticated and with more power
like “The Leader” or “The Fellow”. Furthermore the word “Boy” reminds the audience of a young,
careless and reckless child rather than an important character, suggesting that Graham Greene has
done this deliberately to show the audience that Pinkie is very wise and has a very old soul yet he is
very, very young. Graham Greene has used imagery to impact his point upon the reader, as we read
on throughout the chapter, there is a blend between a “man/boy” image of Pinkie which comes a
cross. This can be verified when Pinkie is talking to his gang, “as they stared at the Boy – like children
before his ageless eyes.” This proves the point that due to all the experience, pain and sorrow Pinkie
has gone through, it has made him wiser and his soul older. Although Pinkie is only 17, his gang
members who are full grown men seem like “children before his ageless eyes”. The word “ageless”
also again proves the fact that Pinkie is old for his age. Although Pinkie acts older to his age, he is still
innocent in the fact that he wants to eat ice-cream like a child and doesn’t drink or smoke, therefore
an image of a boy comes across here.

A specific way Pinkie acts is mentioned persistently throughout the novel, “he moved rigidly…
walking rigidly…His body was stiffly controlled”. The words “rigidly” and “stiffly” is used to describe
his movements, suggesting that Pinkie might have never experienced what elegance and grace is
due to his rough past, therefore only making him aware of an inflexible lifestyle. But I believe that
Graham Greene has used these words calculatingly to show how Pinkies emotion are stiff like his
movements and how uncaring his personality and emotions towards human actions or feelings are.
Therefore this can be proved due to the fact that Pinkie is not disgusted or emotionally guilty after
murdering someone and is ready to have a meal such as fish and chips and also offers to buy ice
creams. However Spicer, who is also a member of Pinkie’s gang is feeling terrible and isn’t in the
right state to eat anything due to what had happened. This also again shows how experienced
Pinkie is toward murders at such young age and how inexperienced Spicer is , although he is older .