In Michael Frayn's Spies, the description of Keith as Stephen's "best friend" doesn't sit well with him as much as [their] "officer corps" two-man army Keith is very clearly portrayed as arrogant, bossy, dominant and tyrannical at times, always needing to be in charge, always needing "to have someone to be braver about". in these moments that we see how Keith is not a true friend to Stephen and how he behaves more like his leader than his equal Say no to plagiarism Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Games. violent video shouldn't be banned"? Get the original essay From the beginning of the novel, in chapter 2, Stephen feels like he is "lucky to be Keith's friend", which shows how much Stephen is very grateful to Keith, to the point that he is willing to let himself be pushed and led by him. During Stephen and Keith's first interaction, Keith's social status is much higher than Stephen's because he lives in a posh and immaculate house, "Number 2. Chollerton". The Haywards. And the boys are "socially color coded" since Stephen goes to a public school while Keith goes to a private school. It's also worth noting that Keith is probably the way he is because of his home life. Mr. Hayward is portrayed as apathetic, formal and has even been openly stated to be abusive to Keith. In the third chapter, as Stephen and Keith investigate Mrs. Hayward, Keith misspells words in their logbook several times. Despite this, Stephen does not call him out on it, and at the end of the novel, when Mrs. Hayward realizes that Keith has misspelled "private" as "privet," Stephen is half-willing to take responsibility in order to save to Keith the embarrassment. This shows how low Stephen is willing to lower himself for Keith, perhaps because he feels he owes him that. When Mrs Hayward visits Braemar and tells Stephen that Keith is "easily led", Stephen looks at her in disbelief, unable to do so. even imagine Keith being managed by him. He wonders how Keith manages to fool both of their mothers into believing that Stephen is the leader. This leads to sympathy with Keith for a change rather than with Stephen, as Mrs. Hayward's words imply that Keith is being pushed around at home, presumably by his father. Keith is also portrayed as a bully in various storylines as he does not recognize Stephen's attitude. courage and often undermines him, belittles him and mocks him, such as when Stephen gives Keith the sock he found in the tin box or when Stephen offers theories about the whereabouts of Mrs. Hayward. Keith ignores him and his "eyelids drop" in disapproval to show Stephen that his ideas are not worthy of recognition and that all ideas that are not Keith's are invalid. The juxtaposition between Keith and his father clearly shows the same condescending sneer and arrogant expression. Later in the story, Keith also mocks Stephen for "hiding [his] face like a little baby" when he sees the man near the tin box. The hypocrisy of this statement shines through shortly after when they hear someone approaching, and they both hide their faces in the mud. This is the first time we see the boys on an equal footing, the second being when they ran back to the Close after terrorizing the vagabond, "neither one of them led, nor the 'neither was leading'. This shows that fear is the equalizing force between the boys and it also shows that Stephen has now started to take..