In the story the fly there are only two characters involved and they would be the boss and Mr.Woodifield.. Mr. Woodifield is an elderly man who is not in perfect health and admires the heath of his boss. Although Mr. Woodifield does not play a key role in the story he is almost like a prop to open up a hidden part of the boss' psyche. He then quickly fades out of the story as it reaches its surprising conclusion. The boss on the other hand is the main character in this selection and his relationships form the main part of the story. He is also an elderly man who is in good shape for his age and is admired for it . He had a son who died in the war in which he was going to give his business to. The story seems to take place in a office building where the boss appears to be in his office .Mr. Woodifield comes in to inform him that someone saw his son's grave and that is was neat and well maintained.
             The theme of the story appears to be that it is not right to do things for other people that are motivated only by self-interest. The boss character is generally less and less sympathetic as the story goes on, so that by the end he appears quite cruel. Cruel enough to torture a poor innocent fly. The plot of this story would be that a man is reminded of the loss of his son and takes out his frustration on a little fly by torturing it. The crisis in this story would be when Mr.Woodfield tells the boss about his son's grave and the boss is once again reminded of the horrible misfortune that he has been trying to forget about. He was trying to get over the mourning of his son but when once reminded he breaks down again and weeps in his office. He tortures and kills and fly at this time, it may have improved his mood by taking out his frustration on the something instead of doing something major that he may regret. One hidden theme that I found in this story was that the man tried to control and organize his son's future ...