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All the same, we cling to our last pleasures as the tree clings to its last leaves.

This quote is significant for being the only sentence in the story where the author uses the plural pronoun, giving the sentence universal application. This unique aspect makes the sentence stand out and draws the reader's attention. The use of we makes the reader sympathetic to the struggles of the elderly Mr. Woodifield and the boss, placing the reader on equal ground with them. The sentiment of the quote also foreshadows the rest of the story’s focus on death, as it refers to both last pleasures and the beginning of winter. This quote is key to establishing both tone and theme. The juxtaposition of pleasures with endings is one of the main contrasts written into the boss’s character, and this quote illuminates why he can cling to such a nice office and remain so aware of death. There is desperation, even in what is enjoyable about life, and this tension follows throughout the plot.

It was exactly as though the earth had opened and he had seen the boy lying there with Woodifield's girls staring down at him. For it was strange. Although over six years had passed away, the boss never thought of the boy except as lying unchanged, unblemished in his uniform, asleep for ever.

The author continuously references the way the boss’s grief interacts with time passing, and this quote captures his mindset as someone stuck. The boss does not picture his son as a corpse, going as far as to call him asleep instead. The tension of the son existing in one moment and then being gone the next, in an act that the boss cannot and will not comprehend, is represented not just in this moment but also by the photograph in the office. The boss pictures his son the way he’s literally pictured, and this holds them both in stasis.

He decided to get up and have a look at the boy's photograph. But it wasn't a favourite photograph of his; the expression was unnatural. It was cold, even stern-looking. The boy had never looked like that.

The photograph of the dead son haunts the setting for the entirety of the story, serving as a permanent reminder of what (or who) the boss is missing. This quote elaborates on the boy’s appearance and how it is not representative of his true nature. It’s interesting that the boss dislikes this particular picture of his son in uniform, looking as he would have when he was buried, when he is the one who chooses to display it. The boss is attempting to properly grieve his son, but the photograph represents his alienation from him. He hasn’t seen his son in six years, and this photograph does not reconnect him to that past, nor does it match his memories of the boy. It is another reminder of how distant his son is in death and how the boss cannot ever find him again, even in the photograph of him. The son is also described as looking unnatural, which shows the break between his life in memory and his death in reality.

All the same, there was something timid and weak about its efforts now, and the boss decided that this time should be the last, as he dipped the pen deep into the inkpot. It was. The last blot fell on the soaked blotting-paper, and the draggled fly lay in it and did not stir.

The death of the fly is the resolution of the main emotional conflict of the story. The boss has become the antagonist to the fly despite wanting it to succeed. He projects his own emotions and desires onto the fly, but he ends up pushing it too far and killing it anyway. This directly parallels the boss holding himself in a state of perpetual grief and only harming himself. The death of his son is impossible for him to cope with, so he in turn gives the fly an impossible task to complete. As expected, the fly fails in the same way that the boss’s own life was shattered. The story returns to the same beat again in its resolution, reinforcing the helplessness of the situation. Death is final, and there is nothing that the boss can do to can change that.

Next section The Relentless Passage of Time

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