Setting, Plot Structure, and Character

Teacher’s Notes and Suggestions

Students should be aware that “to give someone the axe” is slang for firing them in Britain. They
should also be aware that the 1970s, in Britain, were a time of high unemployment, strikes, and
economic crisis, during which employer/employee relationships were at an all-time low.

Identify Setting

Place Time

Setting

Economic Context Mood/atmosphere

1. How does the economic context of the story affect its plot and mood? [RL.11-12.3.1] &
[RL.11-12.4.1]
• The story is set at a time of an economic downturn, for the “Company” of the story and
also more generally. Particularly for older people like Mr. Singlebury, losing their jobs is
a disaster: he doesn’t have the flexibility and options of the younger people in the story,
such as Patel or the two girls whom the narrator also makes redundant.
• The narrator knows what a blow losing his job will be for Singlebury, but he carries out
his orders anyway. We learn that he himself is under financial pressure (he mentions
feeling grateful for the overtime work Singlebury’s departure leaves him with) and he
feels he has to keep his own job, no matter what he is asked to do.
• All of this sets a mood of desperation and degradation in the story: Singlebury is
humiliated as well as economically devastated by losing his job; the narrator feels deep
guilt and shame.

2. How does the damp in the office, to which the narrator refers repeatedly, affect the mood of
the story? [RL.11-12.4.1]

• The damp creates an unpleasant odor, to which many of the office’s employees object to,
but it seems impossible to remove, adding to the story’s atmosphere of frustration and

Level N - Core | 55