The Fly

“[W]e cling to our last pleasures as the tree clings to its last leaves.”

This simile describes Mr. Woodifield and, by extension, the boss. Like the boss, Mr. Woodifield has few pleasures left in life and lives a confined existence. Mr. Woodifield's only reprieve is traveling to London every Tuesday to visit his former employer. Both men survive by holding on to what little they have, which develops the theme of The Meaning of Survival.

“As a matter of fact he was proud of his room; he liked to have it admired, especially by old Woodifield. It gave him a feeling of deep, solid satisfaction to be planted there in the midst of it in full view of that frail old figure in the muffler.”

The boss is characterized as arrogant. He has created an office space for himself that showcases the image he wishes to project to the world: someone who is well-to-do and powerful. Having the frail Mr. Woodifield present in this room only heightens this sense of hierarchy and appeases his ego.

“But he did not draw old Woodifield’s attention to the photograph over the table of a grave-looking boy in uniform standing in one of those spectral photographers’ parks with photographers’ storm clouds behind him. It was not new. It had been there for over six years.”

The photograph is a motif that develops the theme of Death and Reconciling the Loss of a Son. The one anomaly in the boss’s office is a military photograph of his son. This symbolic item does not speak to his successful present but rather to a painful past. For six years he has had this photograph on display, renovating the room around it but never changing the photograph.