The Running Man

Mrs Mossop

Mrs Mossop is described at the start of the story by Joseph as being thin and having upright posture, neat clothing and sharp features. Joseph narrates that Mrs Mossop reminds him of a bird, more specifically a crane because of her appearance and how she was always "sticking her beak into everything, fossicking around for juicy snippets of gossip".

 

Later on in the story, as Joseph starts to get to know Tom Leyton and Mrs Mossop's judgments become more personal to him, he describes her as "not like a harmless crane but more like a bird of prey, with its eyes widening as if sensing movement in the grass".

 

Mrs Mossop comes across as opinionated, judgmental and most of all the biggest gossip in town and Joseph along with everyone else judges her on her outer appearance and her reputation of being a gossip and nosy. But further on into the story Joseph realizes through a confrontation with Mrs Mossop that the only reason she is so apprehensive of Tom Leyton is because she had a bad experience when she was younger and is only trying to look out for Joseph by warning him of the potential dangers that Tom Leyton could present.