English project

Evans tries an o level

Submitted by- Feba Mary Suresh
XIIth Commerce
Roll no 17
 Theme of the story
This is a detective fiction dealing with the
account of the jailbreak by Evans, a criminal,
who was an expert in mg from prison. The story
deals with his smartness, foresight and
planning his escape. With his meticulous
planning and keen observation, Evans
outsmarts the prison authorities. The story
deals with the clever escape Evans and the
Governor's pursuit to catch him. Evans, with his
ready wit and charm, proves at the end that
things are not what they seem to be and we
should not jump to the conclusions hastily.
Evans is a prison-breaker who is used to having the last laugh. After breaking
out of prison thrice, he is in prison for the fourth time. He decides to break
away and is again successful. He did so by desiring to have some sort of
academic qualification while serving his imprisonment. For this, he wanted to
take the O-level examination in German. A German teacher would come to
teach him for ten months in the prison. After that, the examination is
arranged in his cell itself. A person called McLeery is called to invigilate for
the exam. The Governor himself supervises all security arrangements lest the
prisoner might escape during the exam. Two prison officers were deputed to
keep an eye on him. The person left with all the papers after the exam got
over.
However, later it was discovered that Evans had escaped in the guise of the
parson. Evans had badly wounded the parson behind the prison cell.
The parson tells that he knew where Evans might be found. At once, he was sent in
a police van to catch the prisoner. Since the parson was bleeding profusely, he was
taken to a hospital on the way. Later, it was found that no wounded parson had
ever come to the hospital. Now, it was known and realized that Evans had not
escaped in the guise of the parson McLeery. He had stayed in and befooled the
entire prison staff.
The blood flowing from his head had not been his own blood. It was rather pig’s
blood that McLeery had cleverly managed to bring in. Similarly, McLeery was not
the parson. The real parson McLeery was tied by some men in his room since
morning. Towards the end of the story, the Governor got hold of Evans in a hotel
room. Handcuffed, Evans was sent away with a prison officer in the prison van.
Once again, Evans got the better of the Governor. Both the prison officer and the
prison van had been part of the plan mastered by Evans’ friends. Evans had been
able to escape from prison three times earlier also. Once again, he became a free
bird. Due to this reason, the prison officers used to call him ‘Evans the Break’.
 Main Characters
Evans
He is a pleasant young man. He has not done any violence. He is good at
imitation and had been part of Christmas concerts. He is a kleptomaniac. He
is called a prison-breaker, since he had escaped prison thrice with the help of
his couple of friends. He is sharp-witted.

The Governor
An officer of average intelligence but over-confident. Poor judge of character.

Jackson
Senior prison officer. Kind-hearted man. Not an intelligent person and is
gullible. Poor judge of character. Takes delight in ordering people around.

Reverend Me Leery
Supposed to supervise Evans German O-Level Exam.
 Character sketch
1. Governor - The Governor of HM Prison, Oxford is a proud, no-nonsense man and
the protagonist of the story. When James Evans breaks out of three prisons and is
eventually sent to Oxford Prison, the Governor is determined to outwit Evans and
keep the prisoner securely locked up. Even though the Governor thinks he will “see
to it personally” that Evans doesn’t break out of prison, he has very little personal
contact with Evans, instead delegating duties to Jackson and Stephens. This opens
up space for miscommunication, ultimately leading to crucial mistakes that work in
Evans’s favor. The Governor does, however, listen in on Evans’s German exam
through a receiver, though this method of supervising the prisoner proves
ineffectual—since Evans and McLeery’s plan was premeditated the two men don’t
have to talk as Evans wiggles into his disguise. The Governor constantly feels torn
between wanting to do everything in his power to ensure Evans is secure and
wanting to look unruffled and in control. Although he frequently worries about
being paranoid, all of his hunches prove correct, suggesting that his pride
repeatedly stood in the way of his ability to effectively carry out his duties as
Governor. The Governor redeems himself when he tracks Evans down at the Golden
Lion Hotel—seemingly without help from high-level detectives Carter and Bell—
though he is outsmarted once again when he sends Evans back to prison in a van
driven by the criminal’s two accomplices, the silent prison officer and “McLeery.”
2. Evans - Known to prison officers as “Evans the Break,” antagonist James Evans is
a “congenital kleptomaniac” who’s escaped three times from various prisons. He’s
now a prisoner at HM Prison Oxford, which is overseen by the Governor. Not the
typical criminal, Evans is known for his friendly, joking attitude and maintains an
playful, teasing relationship with the prison officers, especially Jackson. While at
Oxford Prison, Evans begins taking night classes in O-level German and is the only
student in the class; after six months of this, he asks to take the final exam. Seeing
this as strange but harmless, the Governor bends to his request and arranges the
details with the Secretary of the Examinations Board. They decide to have
Reverend S. McLeery, a parson at St Mary Mags, act as the proctor to oversee
Evans’s exam. Despite being closely watched by the Governor and many others,
Evans manages to escape in the moments following his exam by posing as the
proctor—a complicated plan made easier by the fact that Reverend McLeery is
not, in fact, the real McLeery but one of Evans’s old friends. Eventually, the
Governor catches up with Evans and manages to send him back to prison,
interacting with him light-heartedly like it’s one big game of cat-and-mouse.
Ultimately, Evans’s friendships with people outside of the prisons’ walls, along
with his penchant for deception, allow him to escape once more—perhaps this
time for good.
 Lasting impressions
1. Precaution taken-
To ensure that the German was conducted smoothly and also under
strict security Evans' razor and nail scissors were removed from the
cell. The Reverend Stuart McLeery who was the invigilator was frisked
on arrival. Police officer Stephens was deputed on duty inside the cell.
All the prison officials were also put on high alert. There were two
locked doors between Evan's cell and the yard. A microphone was
installed in the cell as a precautionary measure through which the
warden could listen to their talk by switching on the receiver. The
senior prison officer, Jackson and officer Stephens had worked round
the clock and made full proof arrangements and taken all the
necessary precautions to ensure that the exam was conducted
smoothly.
2. Evans escape-
Evans was a detainee in the Oxford Prison. He had tried to escape from the prison thrice and so in
spite of not being a typical criminal, he was kept in that jail. People even gave him the name
‘Evans the Break” for that reason. Evan was a crafty and smart prisoner. He was always into some
trick or the other to escape from prison. So people doubted his sincerity when Evans wanted to
give an exam on O-Level German and get some academic qualification. Though skeptical, still they
appointed a German teacher for him. He taught Evans for ten months. The Governor made the
arrangements for his exam. But later, they realized that it was only a ploy of Evans for the fourth
escape. He had made a master plan for that. After the completion of the exam, he impersonated
the invigilator, Mc Leery. When the Governor came to check whether Evans was in his place or
not, he found a bleeding Mc Leery who was bound in the chair Evans was sitting. He was taken to
hospital. But later on the Governor got the news that no Mc Leery was admitted in the hospital,
and that it was Evans who had deceived the Governor and escaped from his imprisonment. Soon
after that the Governor finds some clue from the correction slip, given to Evans during the
examination, about Evans’s hiding place. He catches Evans in the hotel but there the Governor did
his last mistake. He neither took enough force to nab him at the hotel nor did he take the trouble
of going with him in the prison van. Left all alone, Evans manages to make his final escape
breaking all his handcuffs.