The Disgrace of Jim Scarfedale Summary

The narrator tells us that Jim Scarfedale is a man who held on to his mother's apron-strings for too long, and that's probably what led to his disgrace. As for the narrator, he is not going to make the same mistake, and has already plotted a course through England when he's old enough to leave home. Scarfedale lived in the narrator's terrace, but considerably closer to the bike factory, and it was always a din of noise in the Scarfedale home. The narrator figures it might have been the constant noise in addition to a suffocating mother that drove Jim to do what he did.

Flashing back, the narrator describes Jim's mother, "a real six-footer" who tends to Jim's every need. She works hard after Jim's dad dies in the first World War to provide...