Paddy Clarke and his father
Paddy’s relationship with his father (P.24-30)
This episode in the novel is the first the reader learns about Paddy’s relationship with his father. Earlier in the novel we have seen how his mother plays the sympathetic adult role, comforting him when he returns home with a jellyfish-related injury. But this episode is immediately after his father returns home.
Firstly, the reader can tell that Paddy has respect for his father. Whilst watching him read he notices his hands and their presence (My Da’s hands were big. The fingers were long. They weren’t fat). To a son, big hands can represent authority because of the many things that can be done with hands, labour work, writing, fighting. By doing this, we can start to see the father’s authoritative figure, through the eyes of Paddy.
‘World war three looms near’, this is stated at the beginning of the episode about the newspaper. It is merely stated and not specified that it is a headline to a paper. Lack of explanation is a child-like feature, and Doyle creates the childish character of Paddy by including a lack of explanation in the text. The reader is therefore forced to presume that he is talking about a headline from ‘I got the paper every day for my da’. He then starts questioning his parents about the ‘possible war’. He asks his ma ‘Will we be in the war’ and despite her giving him a clear answer, he says ‘Ma said there won’t be a war’ to his Da in a questioning tone. From this we can tell that his dad is the parent he will get the definitive answer.
Another clear sign of appreciation towards his father, is when Paddy observes the way his father adjusts his seating when he is about to answer a question. Paddy would only observe his actions if he had respect for his father. His father is his role moral, someone he looks up to. The conversation is constructed evenly. There are clear questions, or statements, that are answered by his father, therefore completing many adjacency
This episode in the novel is the first the reader learns about Paddy’s relationship with his father. Earlier in the novel we have seen how his mother plays the sympathetic adult role, comforting him when he returns home with a jellyfish-related injury. But this episode is immediately after his father returns home.
Firstly, the reader can tell that Paddy has respect for his father. Whilst watching him read he notices his hands and their presence (My Da’s hands were big. The fingers were long. They weren’t fat). To a son, big hands can represent authority because of the many things that can be done with hands, labour work, writing, fighting. By doing this, we can start to see the father’s authoritative figure, through the eyes of Paddy.
‘World war three looms near’, this is stated at the beginning of the episode about the newspaper. It is merely stated and not specified that it is a headline to a paper. Lack of explanation is a child-like feature, and Doyle creates the childish character of Paddy by including a lack of explanation in the text. The reader is therefore forced to presume that he is talking about a headline from ‘I got the paper every day for my da’. He then starts questioning his parents about the ‘possible war’. He asks his ma ‘Will we be in the war’ and despite her giving him a clear answer, he says ‘Ma said there won’t be a war’ to his Da in a questioning tone. From this we can tell that his dad is the parent he will get the definitive answer.
Another clear sign of appreciation towards his father, is when Paddy observes the way his father adjusts his seating when he is about to answer a question. Paddy would only observe his actions if he had respect for his father. His father is his role moral, someone he looks up to. The conversation is constructed evenly. There are clear questions, or statements, that are answered by his father, therefore completing many adjacency