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The text is about a nine years old girl called Bea and she’s passing an audition for the TV. She’s with her mother, Iris.
They have a very special relationship. Iris is putting a lot of pressure on Bea and she has to succeed where her mother has failed. She tried to become famous when she was younger but it didn’t work and we can feel the mother’s bitterness throughout the novel. She speaks for example that she still tries to get a role and “[...] they always promised to bear her in mind. But they never rang back”. A little further in the text she also comments : “They didn’t say “Don’t ring us” any more, a joke it had become. But she remembered when it wasn’t.”
The mother’s reaction is also interesting when she sees the other mothers and kids in the audition. She’s absolutely not objective when she describes them : “[…] a mother […] unhealthy-looking. […] The child was […] rabbity in appearance.”
She’s totally in the competition and she needs to force herself to be polite, when she smiles for example. “Iris wrinkled her lips a bit, the smile she gave to strangers.”
After that Bea came out of the audition, Iris panics because her daughter said that the man called her Leah. It shows a lot the kind of people you can find in the TV-sitcom production. Bea is just a name on a list like the others. They are all like numbers, Bea, Leah, they don’t care. It’s also the case for the assistant. We just know that she is wearing a navy-blue jumper and jeans, so she is the navy-blue jumper and jeans girl. But the man who received Bea represents the people you can find in that world, and he has a name, Roland. He’s represented with an eccentric appearance. He’s bald, has earrings, round spectacles… It’s a world where appearance is very important. A lot of people would like to appear in a TV program for many reasons. It’s sometimes their ego, they feel that they’re important people and they look for celebrity or recognition. There is also the