ABSTRACT
Punishment is a prime metaphor for the adult world of stricture and control. When the adults disappear, the boys are free to behave as they wish; but when invited to punish, their assumption of power and invulnerability, hitherto strictly the domain of adults, is a heady cocktail. In their imaginations, they can do anything. But those over whom they have power have no power themselves, perhaps adopting the erstwhile role of the boys themselves with regard to the adult world. The boys make short, punchy contributions. Instead of any one boy having his own story to tell or theme to pursue, they actively work together and it is only by considering the whole that the import is realised. What the boys say is tightly constructed through repeated words and phrases and recurrent themes so that it has a truly dramatic structure and impact.
