Study Questions
1. How does the narrator describe the paint factory?

2. What apparently embarrassing thing does the office boy call Mr. Kimbro?

3. Where does Kimbro say the paint is destined?

4. How does Lucius Brockway respond to the news that the narrator is to be Brockway’s new assistant?

5. What does the narrator do that satisfies Brockway?

6. Who thought up the factory’s slogan about the Optic white paint?

7. Why do the men at the union meeting react so negatively to the narrator?

8. How does Brockway react when the narrator tells him about his contact with the union men?

9. Although the narrator believes at first that Brockway had cut him with a knife, what does Brockway actually do?

10. How does the narrator describe Brockway as the latter is running away?

Answers
1. The narrator describes the paint factory as a small city.

2. The office boy calls Mr. Kimbro a “slave driver,” at which Mr. Kimbro turns slightly red.

3. Kimbro tells the narrator that the paint is destined for the national monument.

4. Lucius Brockway responds with dismissive annoyance to the news that the narrator is to be his new assistant.

5. The narrator manages to satisfy Brockway by reading a pressure gauge correctly.

6. Lucius Brockway thought up the slogan “If it’s Optic White, it’s the Right White.” When the narrator hears this slogan quoted, it makes him think about a rhyme from his childhood, one that sounds similar but means something very different.

7. The men at the union meeting react negatively to the narrator because they believe him to be a spy (or “fink”) from the management.

8. When he hears that the narrator was briefly detained at a union meeting, Brockway reacts with extreme and unreasonable anger. It transpires that Brockway believes that the union is somehow trying to take his job away.

9. Far from cutting the narrator, Brockway bites him. This causes Brockway’s false teeth to fall out.

10. The narrator describes Brockway as looking “like a small boy who has thrown a brick into the air.”