Old School

The novel opens at a New England prep school. It is November of 1960. The unnamed narrator describes his classmates’ affection for Kennedy and disdain for Nixon. As a younger man, Kennedy, it seems, would have been a member of their circle. However, says the narrator, “we wouldn’t have admitted that class played any part in our liking of Kennedy” (3). They believe that their school is not “snobbish” and that students earn their success, though there is a tacit understanding that “some of the boys might get a leg up from their famous names or great wealth” (3).

Their school is known for its literary culture. The headmaster has studied with Robert Frost, and Dean Makepeace is known to be a friend of Hemingway’s. The students also believe that Dean Makepeace was the inspiration for a character in The Sun Also Rises.

Each year, a few prominent writers visit their school. Prior to each visit, the school holds a writing contest in which students submit work that is judged by the author. The winner is granted a private audience with the author, and the winning story is published in the school paper. The contest is only open to sixth formers (students in their graduating year). The narrator has been jealous of past winners, often criticizing the awarded selections. The narrator acknowledges, “I want to be anointed” (7).

Robert Frost is scheduled to visit the school soon. The narrator contemplates the type of poem he must write to be chosen by Frost. He also considers his competition; there are three students he deems the strongest contenders. The first, George Kellogg, is the editor of the school’s literary magazine, Troubadour. The narrator lost the editorship to George by a single vote, but he does consider George to be a strong worker who has earned the job. George is also a strong poet with proficiency in writing formal verse.

In the narrator’s view, George will be disadvantaged in the contest because of his own kindness. Regarding George’s writing, the narrator remarks, “For all its fluent sympathy, it [is] toothless” (10). Still, the narrator notes, “If [George] just once let a strong feeling get the better of his manners, he might land a good one. He could win” (10).

The narrator discusses his second notable contender, Bill White. Bill is the narrator’s roommate. The narrator had assumed that Bill was gentile; however, when Bill’s father visited, it became clear that they were Jewish. The narrator believes Bill intentionally deceived him about his heritage, and this deceit makes him wonder if he really knows Bill. The narrator considers Bill to be a serious contender. Bill’s strength as a writer lies in his well-crafted imagery, built on “particularity” and “exactitude.”

Jeff Purcell is also a threat. He is widely known as Little Jeff because his cousin, Big Jeff Purcell, is in the same graduating class. However, the narrator simply calls him Purcell. During editorial meetings, Purcell is the harshest critic of submitted work. The narrator considers Purcell’s work to be “lurid and overwrought […] but venomously alive” (14).

The narrator, who is attending the prep school on scholarship, discusses the social dynamics of the student body. In a school full of rich kids, he comes from a working-class family.

During the summer before arriving at prep school, he worked as a dishwasher at a YMCA camp. There, he worked for a chef, Hartmut, who was from Austria. Hartmut often whistled tunes that would become stuck in the narrator’s head. Upon starting at the prep school, the narrator is whistling one of Hartmut’s tunes when a school handyman, Gershon, becomes upset and demands the narrator’s name. The narrator tells him.

Later that day, the narrator is sent to Dean Makepeace’s office. The dean tells him to explain himself. The narrator assumes that his subpar grades are the concern. However, it becomes apparent that he has been called to the office because of his interaction with Gershon. Dean Makepeace tells him to again whistle the song. The narrator still doesn’t understand the problem and the dean tells him not to play dumb. Soon it becomes clear to Dean Makepeace that the narrator didn’t know what he was whistling. Dean Makepeace informs him that it is a Nazi marching song and that Gershon is a Jewish Holocaust survivor. The narrator begins weeping and is comforted by Dean Makepeace. The dean tells him to go apologize to Gershon.

Gershon lives in the basement of one of the student dorms. He lets in the narrator, who starts explaining himself. Gershon is unresponsive to the explanation. The narrator considers telling him that his father is Jewish, though this part of his identity had always gone unacknowledged. Rather, the narrator was raised Catholic. The narrator decides against claiming Jewish heritage and, after a final apology, exits the room.

The narrator considers how all the school’s Jewish students, even those who are popular, must feel “an air of apartness” (24). He ponders how so many other, non-Jewish students must also feel apartness and wonders if this is why so many want to become writers, as writing gives them “a power not conferred by privilege—the power to create images of the system they stood apart from, and thereby to judge it” (24).