OPPapers.com

Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clark: No More Laughing For Paddy

Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clark: No More Laughing for Paddy

Yer Name Here Poetry/Fiction Paddy Clarke

Roddy Doyle's Paddy Clarke HA HA HA was a beautifully written book. It
perfectly captures the mind of a ten year old boy in Ireland during the mid-
1960's. Paddy Clarke, the young boy who Doyle uses to enter the mind of a ten
year old, is a boy who most can relate to. The book explores most aspects of
life through the eyes of Paddy. Doyle takes us through childhood and childhood's
end. Doyle is able to seize the complexities of life, but at the same time
simplify them enough for ten year old.
Everything is a mystery or an adventure to Paddy and his friends. From
taking over construction sites to receiving polio check-ups. However not
everything is a game to Paddy. His parents lack of compatibility troubles Paddy
and his brother Sinbad greatly. The intensity of his parents arguments
accelerate as the book goes on. At times Paddy feels he can stop them, at one
point he considers himself a "referee" in the fights. "I didn't know what I'd do.
If I was there he wouldn't do it again, that was all."(p.191) He ends up
contemplating who he would want to win. He comes to the conclusion that he would
want his mom to win because she does so much for him, however his father is his
father and he loves him.
Sinbad reacts differently to his parents fighting. He doesn't try to
intervene or stop them. In fact he closes up, he implodes emotionally. He cuts
himself off from everyone. During one of their parents arguments Paddy tries to
talk to Sinbad, but Sinbad shuts himself off. ""Sinbad?" He didn't answer. He
wasn't asleep though, I knew the breathing. I could hear him listening. I didn't
move. I didn't want him to think I was going to get him." (p.222)
This drama did not effect me as much as the daily life. The fights I
could not relate to. I had never experienced arguments of such high caliber. But
inevitably I had experienced the life of a ten year old. I could relate to...