Pink Bow Tie by Paul Jennings| Detailed Analysis | Grade 11

The story opens with a 14-year-old boy (who is the narrator) sitting outside the
Principal’s office, waiting for the principal to call him in for punishment. This was the
boy’s second day at the school and the second day that he summoned. On the first
day, he was punished for making fun of an old man’s pink bow tie. He was not aware
that the man was in fact the principal of the school, Old Splodge, who always wore
that pink bow tie and was due to retire the following year but did not want to. The boy
believed that the punishment he got that day was unfair. To him, his utterances were
just a joke and did not warrant any punishment.
On this second day, as he sat outside the Principal’s office waiting and looking at his
beautiful secretary (Miss Newham) in admiration. Every boy’s crush! He dismisses any
hope of him being in love with her as she was seventeen and he was only fourteen. It
was during his conversation with the secretary that the reason he was called to the
office again is revealed. This time, he was called in for dying his hair blond, which w as
against the rules of the school.
He was finally called into the Principal’s office and asked why he dyed his her, he tells
the principal a long and unbelievable story of his way back home from school the
previous day. He starts the story by telling the Principal that he (the boy) was a very
nervous and sensitive person who is easily scared. He goes on to tell the Principal that he was in a train carriage with a teenage boy who was smoking, an older woman
who was bent over and had a walking stick and mean-looking man. When the ticket
collector told the boy to put out the cigarette, the boy took out some machine, (later on
in the story we learn that this machine is called ‘Age Rager’) and turned himself into
an older man, which left everybody amazed. The old woman takes the Age Rager,
changes herself into a pretty young girl, and gives the Age Rager to the boy. The
mean-looking man takes the Age Rager from the boy and changes himself into a baby,
then a very old man, before they knew it, dies and his body rots only the skeleton was
left.
He tells the Principal that he was so frightened by that experience to that his hair turned
white. He tried to alight the train, but the door was jammed. He eventually got off the
train and walked the remainder of the distance home. The Principal does not believe
the story and tells the boy that he (the Principal) will write a letter to the boy’s parents
to inform them of the boy’s suspension from school. Before the boy could leave the
Principal’s office, he leaves the Age Rager on the principal’s desk. After two weeks,
the Principal disappears, and Miss Newham (his secretary) gets a good-looking
boyfriend who is about eighteen years old.
The ending leaves the reader wondering if the Principal used the time Age Rager to
make himself younger and date Miss Newham. If it is true that the Principal used the
Age Rager, then the reader is bound to believe the boy’s story about the Age Rager.
#grade11 #pinkbowtie #grade11shortstories

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