A Handful of Dust

“I made Beaver pay for a drink.”

At the beginning of the novel, Jock and Tony make light of Beaver’s notorious cheapness. Jock revels in making Beaver pay for a drink, yet there is an inherent foreboding in their humor. Beaver will eventually destroy Tony’s marriage and motivate Tony to leave the country. In a roundabout way, Jock and Tony’s patronizing attitude to Beaver’s frugality sets in motion a chain of events that leads to Tony’s divorce and disappearance, as well as to Jock marrying Brenda. Beaver may have paid for the drink, but Tony pays the consequences.

“I just thought it might be fun to eat someone else’s food for a bit.”

Brenda wonders about attending a party, though Tony is not a fan of socializing. Her phrasing alludes to the affair, through her desire for a change and to move beyond the conventional boundaries of their domestic situation. At the same time, the novel is alluding to the identity of the man with whom she will have an affair, as Beaver has a reputation for attending other people’s parties and eating their food while contributing nothing of his own.

“And secondly because you were using a word which people of your age and class do not use.”

From a young age, John is educated in the expectations surrounding social class. When he uses certain words or talks in a certain way, his father disciplines him. Tony is not necessarily aware of his broader function in the social maintenance of class hierarchies, yet he is innately attuned to the language and mannerisms expected of a member of his (and his son’s) social class.