Kay in T.H. White's the Sword in the Stone

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Kay: A Not So Okay Person In The Sword in the Stone, T.H. White gives success to Kay to demonstrate the character’s faults. Kay’s reactions to his own achievement of killing a griffin expose him as selfish, ungrateful, and arrogant. Although I do not consider Kay to be evil, I do believe that he proves himself to be a bad person. These claims are founded from the passage in which Kay and Wart arrive home after rescuing captives from Morgan, a suspected fairy queen (102). Before they return, Morgan’s griffin attacks the boys and is then killed by Kay's arrow to its eye (113). Although dead, the momentum of the griffin’s body continues onto Wart until there is “a cruel weight on top of him”, leaving him with a broken collarbone (113). The next day the boys and the recovered prisoners come home (115). Kay's reaction to their reception provides me with insight into young boy's character. The fist thing I notice is Kay’s selfishness. He repeatedly brags of his victory over the griffin with comments such as, ”Look what I got,” and, “I have shot a griffin and Wart is wounded” (116). He unnecessarily coun ntinues to draw attention, saying, “it is a real griffin,” and, “I shot dozens of them. Wart broke his collar-bone” (117). I infer that Kay is more concerned about his griffin-head trophy than the medical needs of Wart. Kay excitingly speaks of the griffin four times, while nonchalantly mentioning Wart's condition twice after his boasting. This pattern of self-centeredness continues into knighthood when Kay attempts to steal the crown from the unaware Wart (205). Wart does not know pulling the sword from the stone makes him the King of England so Kay goes to his father to tell him that he pulled out the blade (205). It is not until Sir Ector presses his son that Kay admits to his lie (206). After growing out of adolescence and committing to chivalry as a knight, Sir

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