Pattern of Love by Irwin Shaw

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Pattern of Love by Irwin Shaw

• A study guide

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Background Information

• Who is Irwin Shaw
• born Irwin Gilbert Shamforoff, February 27, 1913
  May 16, 1984
• Russian-Jewish parents
• Prolific American playwright, screenwriter,
  author
• Considered a masterful storyteller who creates
  memorable characters
• Compared to another American writer, Ernest
  Hemingway

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Interesting facts about Irwin

• Accused as a communist and placed on the
  Hollywood Blacklist
• Left for Europe in 1951 where he lived for 25
  years
• Some say his commercial success cost him literary
  acclaim some felt that he had sold out

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The Setting

• 1930s
• What gives you the sense that this take place
  during the good-old-days of America.
• A street could be any city in the USA --
  Perhaps Brooklyn since Shaw grew up there
• down the row of two-story houses, all alike,
  with the children playing potsy and skating and
  leaping out from behind stoops and going
  A-a-a-a-ah, pointing pistols and machine guns
  at each other. (p. 664)
• Outside Harolds apartment house

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Why do you think Shaw chose not to provide
readers with the specifics of setting?

• Feels like this could happen to anyone, anywhere
• Universal story

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Characters

• Katherine
• Catholic
• Manipulative
• Melodramatic
• Popular
• Insecure
• Harold Pursell
• Protestant/ Methodist
• Not socially popular
• Not athletic
• Wise
• Mental and spiritual strength
• Wears glasses

• Charley Lynch
• Socially popular
• Athletic
• Desperate
• Miserable
• Mentally and spiritually weak
• The Boys
• 8 of Charleys friends
• Sam Rosenberg Lieutenant

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Conflicts

• Character vs character
• Katherine vs Harold
• Charley vs Katherine
• Charley vs Harold
• Character vs Self
• Opposing forces
• What one wants vs what one can have
• Past vs present vs future
• Physical strength vs mental strength

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Literary terms

• Hyperbole
• Irony
• dialogue

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Analyze the Dialogue

• Harold and Katherine p. 661
• I think you are pretty, Harold says. I think
  youre about the prettiest girl in school.
• .
• Its hard to tell things sometimes, Harold
  said, by the way people act.
• What is revealed about Katherine?
• What is revealed about Harold and his true
  feelings?

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More dialogue

• P. 663
• O.K., Harold shouted, wishing he could punch
  the rosy, soft face, the large, coldly accusing
  blue eyes, the red quivering lips..
• I hate you! she cried, I hate you! Im going
  to retire to a nunnery.
• What does this reveal about Katherine?
• What does this reveal about Harold?

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The many faces of Charley

• You want to know what I was thinking about?
  Charley asked softly, falling in beside her.
• You werent in a hurry with Harold, Charley
  said, his eyes hot and dry, as he matched her
  step for step. You walked slow enough with him.
• Katherine walked slightly ahead of him, head up,
  pink and round and rosy-kneed, and Charley looked
  at the spot on her neck where he had kissed her
  for the first time and felt his soul drop out of
  his body.
• I was thinking about that feller, Charley said.
  that Harold what a name Harold. He went out
  for the baseball team and the coach threw him out
  the first day.
• Come to the movies with me, he whispered.
  Please, Katie, please
• What do these passages reveal about Charley?