9/28/08

"Landlord? Well, I suppose Charley here is in charge tonight. Why?' He indicated a large, heavy-set man whose face was a net of scars; its owner paused in the act of spreading the dirt more evenly around some glasses by means of a damp cloth, and gave Carrot and conspiratorial wink." (Gurads! 65)

This passage does, once again, a good job of giving a small amount of detail about a minor character and still giving us a great glimpse into them. This time the character is Charlie, one of the employees of the bar "The Mended Drum." The fact that he has a "net of scars" indicates a couple of possibilities, including a large amount of bar fights, or a literal net of scars which could come from an accident. Either way, it shows he's probably a skilled fighter or clumsy worker. There is also the fact that he's not taking his time to wash the dishes, he's just spreading the dirt all over them, only making them appear cleaner. This portrays (hehe) him as a lazy worker, willing to put his own comfort ahead of all of his customers welfares.
However, this plot doesn't really do much to further the plot of the story. Regardless, I can find a question or two to ask here. The first of which is: "Why are his scars described as a 'net' and how did he come to get them?" Although Charley doesn't seem to be a particularly important character, so it's unlikely it will be answered. But I can hope.