Read the following passage from Katherine Mansfield's short story "The Fly" carefully. Then answer the question that follows.
‘Y’are very snug in here,’ piped old Woodifield, and he peered out of the great, red leather armchair as a baby peers out of its pram. His talk was over; it was time for him to be off. But he did not want to go. Since his stroke, the wife and the girls kept him boxed up in the house every day of the week except Tuesday. On Tuesday he was allowed to go to the City for the day and bring back the news. For the most part he sat in this office, admiring the boss's comfort, and wondering how it felt to be so rich and strong.
The boss, who was stout and rosy, and looked as though he had never had a stroke in his life, rolled in his office chair. ‘Yes, it’s comfortable enough,’ he said, and he flipped the Financial Times with a paper-knife. ‘We’ve had it done up lately. Everything new.’ He pointed to the carpet, the table, the bookcase. ‘And the heating’s been put in. No more of those old coal fires.’
Old Woodifield nodded, and his eyes wandered over the room. He felt he had something to say, something important, but it had escaped him. He sat staring at the carpet, his mouth slightly open. The boss sat watching him, not unkindly, but with a sort of patronizing pity. Woodifield was finished, he thought. A broken man.
‘There was something I wanted to tell you,’ said Woodifield, and his face brightened. ‘What was it? Ah, yes! My girls went to France last week to see our boy’s grave. They run across your boy’s, too. They said it was very neat and well looked after. All the graves are, they say.’
The boss did not answer. He sat quite still, his head bent, his hands clutching the paper-knife. The word ‘grave’ seemed to drop into the quiet room like a stone. He had not been to France; he had not seen the grave. For six years he had avoided thinking of it, or rather, he had built a wall of work and comfort to keep the memory out. And now, Woodifield's casual words had breached the wall.
‘It’s a beautiful place,’ Woodifield went on, oblivious. ‘Flowers everywhere. The girls said it was more like a garden than a graveyard.’
The boss nodded slowly. ‘Yes,’ he muttered. ‘Yes.’
Which of the following best describes how the narrative develops its line of reasoning concerning the boss’s grief over the course of the passage?
- AThe passage constructs a critique of the boss's capitalistic greed, using the physical comfort of the office to suggest that wealth inevitably insulates individuals from genuine human suffering.
- BThe passage begins by depicting the boss's resentment toward Woodifield's freedom, which leads him to boast about his newly renovated office as a form of social competition.
- The passage transitions from establishing the boss's sense of power and control through material comfort to exposing his underlying vulnerability and unresolved grief when confronted with his son's death.Answer
- DThe passage focuses on the contrast between the old coal fires and the new heating system to argue that modern technological advancements are superior to traditional methods of office design.
- EThe passage sequentially outlines Woodifield's visit, the description of the office renovations, Woodifield's forgetfulness, and the final conversation about the military cemetery in France.