The Red Ball: Summary

Bolan is a young boy who came from Tunapuna and moved to Port of Spain because of his father’s work.

• Bolan is in the square when some boys ask for him to play with them he ignores them not wanting the nicknames to stick, 
• “Aye..Thinny Boney!...In his childish way, the boy had understood that if he answered to any of the names they coined for him, he would have to live with it forever.”
• He is sitting by himself by the fountain and admires the statue of the man thinking of it as a father figure
• One of the other children come up to him and asks his name. After a pause Bolan replies hesitantly and returns to his day dreaming
• After a while Bolan joins in with the boys. They then ask him to play tomorrow after seeing how good he is;  this shows him fitting in
• They go to eat black pudding but Bolan disappears after knowing he cannot afford it, he doesn’t want to accept a free sample because of the way he has been brought up
• When Bolan arrives home his father drunkenly interrogates him and accuses him of being selfish and ungrateful but his mother defends him
• Later his father insinuates that Bolan is the cause of them being in poverty
• The next day Bolan steals money from the savings can and uses it to buy a red ball then buys his ‘friends’ black pudding after the game; he is doing it to fit in and attempting to impress them
• His father comes to get him and drags him to the carpenter’s yard, once there then he beats him and shouts at him. His mother still defends him and stops the beating she understands the his position
• When he goes to bed he dreams that the fountain statue talks to him; the statue symbolises his father