Analysis of the short story: The Best Death Ever by Niall Griffiths

Children are, unlike adults, unable to distinguish between reality and fiction. In The Best Death Ever this lack of sense of reality almost results in a boy losing his life. Because his friends cannot see that he is really dying instead of just pretending to.
The short story is told in first person by a narrator who looks back at his childhood. He narrates of a particular episode, when he and three of his friends were playing in his backyard in Netherley, Liverpool. They were playing a game called Best Deaths, in which the idea is to imitate one’s death as convincingly as possible. The children are strongly inspired by war movies and war stories. The first one who is “dying” is Mick. He is running out from a coal bunker, and the other children shoot him with their toy weapons. The other children (the narrator, Stevie and Gavin) are not impressed by his death. Half-heartedly Mick just falls “over like a fart” because he does not want to fall and hurt himself “Well I did...