The Cone Gatherers: Video playlist

Neil and Calum sit in the beach house, sheltering from the rain. They inspect some abandoned toys and discuss how attitudes towards them differ between the classes. Calum wants to take home and repair a broken doll but Neil sees this as stealing. Lady Runcie Campbell arrives and demands that they leave.

Ask the students to identify another theme here (class structure) and ask them to identify where society division is highlighted (Neil’s observation about the toy, and Lady Runcie Campbell wishing to distance herself from the lower-class boys). How do the characters’ posture and tone reveal their (class) attitudes to each other? What is symbolic about the doll being broken? (It is representative of innocence being destroyed.) Note how Neil had predicted to himself that it would be the broken doll that Calum would pick. What does that reveal about Neil’s character in respect to his brother (understanding, protective, aware). Ask students to think about why Calum likes the doll (he is child-like and is drawn to innocence). Note how he also wants to mend the toy. What does that reveal about his character? (longing to help, empathetic) However, here again, Calum is an outsider as he does not fit into the rules of society, which would see his actions as ‘stealing’. Encourage the class to explore the theme of class division in the book, and in British society at the time.