The Compass and Torch is a short story written by the English writer Elizabeth Baines in 2003 and published in the book ‘'Balancing on the Edge of the World'', which contains several stories about power: children without it and adults trying to get or keep it. This short story reveals many of these themes, but the essence here, is the son's desperate wish for regaining a relation to the father and getting his approval.
The short story ‘’ Compass and Torch’’ describes a little boy setting out on a camping trip with the father, he hardly sees now because his parents are divorced. The father swings a gate open to a moorland and the boy has brought his torch with him on this camping expedition.
The story switches to an earlier time in that day. The boy just found his torch, and overhear his mother complaining about his father to her live-in boyfriend. - We learn that his parents are separated, and we get Jim introduced, the boy’s step-father. Jim shows a kindly interest in the boy’s torch and admires it.
Back on the moorland, in original time, both father and son are a little uncertain of one another. The boy tries to win his father’s approval by chattering about his torch.
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