The Midnight Gang

“‘Are you comfortable?’ asked the porter, plumping up a pillow.

Tom didn’t answer. It wasn’t comfortable at all. It was like lying on a concrete slab with a brick for a pillow.”

Tom initially feels excited to stay at the hospital, as it means delaying his return to the hated St. Willet’s. These lines convey Porter’s care and concern, but the bed is so dreadfully hard and unwelcoming that Tom is mute. The simile (“like lying on a concrete slab”) and metaphor (“brick for a pillow”) communicate sensory imagery to the reader and invite them into the scene. This moment foreshadows Tom’s change of heart about the hospital: He soon wonders if his dreaded school might be preferable to the austere, uncomfortable environment.

“They came from me local newsagent […] I’m ‘is favorite customer.”

George reveals that Raj, a newsagent, sent the tin of chocolates in this line, which includes dialectical spelling to convey George’s Cockney accent. The chocolates are a crucial part of the Midnight Gang’s plans: They hide George’s “snoozy pills” and make Matron sleep deeply enough that they can escape the ward, serving as a symbol of Achieving Dreams Through Collective Effort. A newsagent is a person who owns a local newsstand; Raj is a featured adult character and Ally to protagonist Alfie in Walliams’s Demon Dentist. The author sometimes incorporates shared characters among his novels’ casts.

“I decided to shave it all off so I could look exactly like a boiled egg.”

Though Sally is clearly the most ill of the children in the ward, she quickly reveals her sharp wit and cleverness with this simile (“like a boiled egg”) that gets Tom’s attention and respect. Here, he has asked why she has so little hair; she follows her comedic response with the truth—that the treatment for her illness causes hair loss. Tom is astounded to learn there are such difficult illnesses and treatments in the world, which demonstrates his naïveté and insular upbringing while establishing his potential for growth and maturity.

“If the Midnight Gang isn’t passed on, then one day it will die out […] We must all remember, even the leader herself, that this is not something that can be done on your own. […] The Midnight Gang can only succeed if all the members work together […] to bring one of the children’s dreams to life!”

Despite Tom’s immaturity and the jibes and bossiness of George, Robin, and Amber, all have potential for growth, as setting the goal of Achieving Dreams Through Collective Effort demonstrates at least a dose of kindness and generosity in each. All stand to grow in empathy, however, as seen in the reactions to Tom’s nightdress and in Tom’s refusal to bring Sally along on his adventure. This chapter hook raises the question of whose dreams they might be able to help fulfill.

“Tom stood silently listening, wishing he could dream this big. He had always been quiet and even rather timid at school. Tom never wanted to stand out. Now the boy was being asked to reveal his big dreams, and to his shame he realized he didn’t even have one.”

Like most young protagonists, Tom faces both external conflicts, such as Matron and the bullying peers at his boarding school, as well as internal conflicts, such as those he describes here. Here, in interior monologue, Tom voices his desire to have an adventurous, fulfilling dream—a thought out of reach in his lonely day-to-day existence.

“This was his best one: ‘You’re under a vest. Freeze! What did the policeman say to his tummy?’”

Moments of laugh-out-loud comedy pepper each chapter. Here, the gang members and Porter recall a boy whose dream involved being a wonderful comedian, despite his penchant for telling jokes backward. Walliams gets mileage with this particular joke: Comedy comes from the joke itself, the idea of a backwards joke teller, and that George does not “get” the joke immediately.

“Amber looked most displeased that the boy had stolen her thunder.”

This metaphorical cliché sums up how Amber feels when George takes away her dramatic moment in telling Tom he has been accepted into the gang as a full member, even though Amber admits to wanting to keep the good news from Tom for an undisclosed amount of time, just to make him wait. The writer reveals Amber’s, Robin’s, and George’s personalities through direct and indirect means: Here, for example, Amber’s expression indirectly shows her impatience and tendency to take charge.

“Tom had only just sworn an oath to the Midnight Gang, but his heart ached for Sally who they’d left alone in the ward night after night. However, he felt as if he had no choice.”

A difficult internal conflict erupts in Tom just after he joyously accepts full admittance into the Midnight Gang. Realizing he is trapped between his obligation to keep the gang’s secrets and his recent promise to Sally to tell her about the adventure is agonizing for Tom, demonstrated by the idiomatic expression “his heart ached.” This description demonstrates the protagonist’s high degree of empathy while showing he has an intuitive understanding of The Therapeutic Value of Imagination and suggests he will grow and develop in morality and maturity by taking Sally’s feelings into account in the future.

“They know someone’s been down to the freezer room. […] Footprints. Wheelchair tire marks, they’re on to us.”

Chapter 24 ends with this hook which increases the suspense and throws a proverbial wrench into the workings of the Midnight Gang. Wheelchair marks are the key piece of evidence at the scene of the “crime,” as it was Amber’s own dream that prompted the North Pole set-up in the deep freeze. In a nod to Adults as Allies and Adversaries, Tootsie, a hospital employee, warns Amber that authorities found the markings, thus proving her position as an ally.

“Tom felt close to all the children on the ward, but in particular the little girl in the corner. She was special.

‘Thank you for getting us out of that one, Sally,’ said Tom.”

Sally is the kindest and most considerate child on the ward and is also the sickest. Her “treatment” alludes to chemotherapy, so she likely has a form of cancer. Sally is the first of the hospitalized children to speak kindly to Tom, and they bond when he promises to tell her about his first adventure with the others. The statement in Tom’s interior monologue about feeling particularly close to Sally foreshadows his expanded concern for Sally in the second half of the novel, when he works to focus everyone’s attention on Sally’s dream.

“It was sad enough looking at Sally, with her bald head and pale skin that made her look like a piece of porcelain. Like a piece of porcelain, Sally looked as if she needed to be handled with care.”

This simile conveys how delicate and pale Sally appears due to harsh treatments for her disease, but appearances are deceiving in the novel: Just as Tom learns that he should not judge Porter’s personality in connection with his physical appearance, he also recognizes that Sally’s outer weakness belies her inner strength and gumption. She is indirectly characterized as a clever, witty girl who has dreams like anyone else. Porcelain is a type of ceramic material used for making dishes, vases, vessels, and other glassware; it has a delicate appearance but is actually more durable than other kinds of ceramic, making this simile an effective comparison considering Sally’s strength.

“Yeah, I know. You and I both love our grub.”

A comedic line from Raj, this piece of dialogue helps to characterize this tertiary character efficiently. Raj is a newsstand agent—that is, he owns a local newsstand and convenience shop where children like George buy candy. A solid Ally character in Walliams’s Demon Dentist who befriends and helps protagonist Alfie, Raj is a friend to George in The Midnight Gang and feels comfortable asking him for a plethora of Indian take-out items (to comic effect) because the hospital food is so brutally spare.

“We need to get the number of balloons just right. If you take all the balloons now, you could zoom all the way up there like a rocket.”

Porter’s line and especially his simile “like a rocket” as he carefully hands George balloons one by one foreshadow two elements: The first is an unrelated list of animals labeled with how many balloons would be needed to fly them, along with illustrations showing each one ready to take off. The second element is Nelly’s balloon flight: At her age and with her small physical stature, it is implied that she is much lighter than George, so grabbing the balloons from him results in a sudden lift-off.

“As the vehicle zoomed off into the night, Tom’s eyes searched the black sky. What fun Sally’s missing, he thought. Suddenly these imaginary adventures had taken a whole new turn.”

As the children’s first venture outside the hospital, the ambulance ride symbolically represents steps in Tom’s maturation, growing kindness, and coming-of-age. His sense of freedom and possibility awaken as he breaks rules for a good cause. As Tom notes, their imaginary exploits, such as traveling to the North Pole, have now transcended to a real, true adventure in the commandeering of a hospital ambulance and rescue mission for Nelly. It is a strong mark of Tom’s growing empathy that he thinks of Sally in the middle of the excitement.

“I love what you’ve done to your office. The décor is a delight!”

Robin, one of the children in the Midnight Gang, is a witty and clever character whose verbal irony increases the comedic effect of the narrative. Here, Sir Strillers takes Robin’s perfectly delivered line as a compliment—until he remembers that Robin’s eyes are bandaged and he cannot see a thing. Robin’s punchy one-liner helps to show that although Sir Strillers is an adult authority figure, he does not necessarily win the cleverness contest.

“You were faking it all along, you deceitful little snake.”

Matron continues her path as a stereotypically evil adult in the novel, as not only does she attempt to control the children’s ward in an authoritarian manner, but she eventually shows her truest colors when the children reveal her ineffectiveness by leaving the hospital for their ambulance ride. Intent on reasserting control, Matron devolves into name-calling. Her metaphor alludes to Tom’s sneaky fibs about his supposed illness and fever. Matron serves as a foil to compassionate characters like Tootsie and Porter, reflecting Adults as Allies and Adversaries.

“Tom’s stupid parents have been calling the hospital. Desperate for news of their son. But I put the phone straight down on them!”

While the children learn lessons in empathy and consideration from adults like Porter, Matron reveals continual malice. Tom overhears this line from Matron, which includes not only a direct insult (“stupid”) but an important revelation, as Tom has long assumed his parents do not care about him. Along with Mr. Thews’s admission that he trashed Tom’s parents’ letters at the boarding school, these revelations change Tom’s mind about his parents.

“With his back to the man, Tom smiled to himself. He knew he had hooked him; now he just had to reel him in. The boy turned around to face the porter.”

Knowing now that making Sally’s dream come true should supersede any other goal, and that Achieving Dreams Through Collective Effort has the most potential for success, Tom works on getting Porter to participate in one last Midnight Gang project following Porter’s firing. The figurative language in Tom’s third-person limited viewpoint (“hooked,” “reel”) serves as a metaphor for fishing, in that he wants to “catch” Porter’s attention and bring him on board his plan to see Sally’s dream come true.

“Come on, Professor Pigeon […] We are going to have an awfully big adventure.”

That Porter keeps a pet pigeon in his dark storage room points to his propensity for kindness and love; that the pigeon is missing a wing underscores Porter’s acceptance and concern for those who are differently abled or have visible differences in appearance, like him. The mention of Professor Pigeon and her eggs also serves as a plot plant for the bird’s starring role in Sally’s upcoming dream-come-true, when it will contribute to The Therapeutic Value of Imagination.

“The man picked up a white sheet so old it had gone gray. He shook it out and clouds of dust filled the basement room. The blizzard of dust made the pair cough and sputter.”

The narrative balances humorous dialogue and action sequences with descriptive imagery. Often, imagery plays double duty in not only helping the reader imagine the scene but also in helping to convey characterization or setting. Here, for example, all the hospital cast-offs in Porter’s secret basement “home” are old and dusty, but Porter appreciates their usefulness and demonstrates his skill in fashioning a disguise for Tom. The age of the sheet also reminds the reader that Porter has worked thanklessly at the hospital for many decades. The weather metaphors (“clouds,” “blizzard”) for the sheet’s condition offer hyperbole and visual imagery for effect.

“I need three portions of poppadoms. You can never have enough poppadoms.”

Raj, George’s local newsagent, plays a comedic role in the novel as his hyperbolic insistence on receiving a take-out order juxtaposes against the more sincere and important work of the Midnight Gang. Raj serves as a complication in the plot when Tom and Porter try to get back to the children’s ward to bring Sally’s dream to life; Tom overcomes the obstacle Raj presents by giving him false directions to George. Poppadoms are fried or baked flat rounds of bean dough, often dipped in sauces.

“Well, apart from not being the best at ballroom dancing, it’s never held me back.”

Walliams’s brand of comedy strays into bathroom humor, farce, slapstick, and at times, as exemplified here, slightly irreverent topics. Here, Tom’s disguise late in the story relies on quickly learning to walk on prosthetic limbs; when the pharmacist notes Tom has two left feet, Tom displays his quick, clever wit with this comedic one-liner.

“None shall sleep! / None shall sleep! / Even you, O Princess, / In your cold room, / Watch the stars, / That tremble with love and hope.”

These lines are translated from the opening to Giacomo Puccini’s aria “Nessun Dorma” in the opera Turandot. They serve as a prelude to the Midnight Gang’s performance of Sally’s life (which exemplifies The Therapeutic Value of Imagination) and contribute to the auditory imagery in the scene. They also remind the reader that Robin, who is manning the CD player, is a musician who loves classical music. The words connect to Sally’s character, as she demonstrates love and care for Tom and the others and hope for her own recovery. The mention of “cold room” calls to mind the isolation ward where Tom found Sally on the Midnight Gang’s last night.