The Rockpile

The Rockpile Summary | Detailed Summary

The Rockpile is a pile of rocks occupying the empty space between two houses. The two boys, John and Roy, are forbidden by their mother, to play in the rockpile. More specifically, it is Roy who is directly forbidden because the mother knows that John would probably not take the risk anyway. Therefore, each Saturday morning, the boys sit on the fire escape of their home and longingly watch other boys playing on the rockpile. Their mother, Elizabeth, usually sat in the room behind them and sewed or helped their younger sister Delilah, or took care of the baby boy Paul.

Once Saturday, while their mother was in the kitchen having tea with Sister McCandless, Roy is unable to resist the urge to play with the boys and sneaks out to the pile despite John's protest. He tells John that he will be back in five minutes and not to tell their mother. It's unclear as to how much time passes between Roy leaving the fire-escape, playing on the rockpile, climbing to the top of the pile, getting hit by an empty tin can on his forehead just above his eye, and tumbling down from the top of the rockpile. John calls out to his mother for help and she and Sister McCandless rush downstairs and take Roy from the arms of a man who has picked him up.

While nursing him, they realize that his injuries are minor. He has, however, been hurt near one of his eyes and could have potentially lost his eye. John is afraid that he will be blamed for Roy's injury because he allowed Roy to sneak down to and play at the rockpile. He is even more afraid of he stepfather, Gabriel, who is expected to show up at the apartment any minute. There is an added dimension to John's fear since Gabriel is John's stepfather but Roy's real father. John avoids answering the question of who let Roy go down to play and sticks to the refrain of "He said he'd be back in five minutes," when asked by the Sister. Later when his mother asks him the same question he says, "It wasn't my fault. I couldn't stop him from going downstairs."

His mother understands that John is telling the truth and tells him that he should not worry and that he should simply tell his father the truth.

When the father Gabriel arrives, he assesses Roy's injuries. He is upset about the fact that Roy could have lost an eye, blames the mother and asks about John's whereabouts when the accident occurred. At first, the mother avoids connecting Roy's sneaking away to his brother John's lax in responsibility but when the father keeps pressing, she finally declares that it was not John's fault. She further continues to blame the father for spoiling Roy such that he would take the liberty of disobeying his mother's directive. Gabriel becomes angry at the blame directed toward him and hates her for it.

The story ends with John picking up Gabriel's lunchbox as instructed by his mother in a scene indicating that, however temporary, order has been restored in the household by the mother's assertiveness.