Another one of Roy’s victims in the novel is a boy who Roy calls, ‘Dressed-By-His-Ma-Cunt,
‘The funny thing was though, that I felt sorry in general, never to the particular person I’ abused. I just hated them even more. But eftir I did something like that I’d try to make it up by doing a good deed, like giving up my seat oan the bus tae an auld cunt or daein the dishes for my Ma. It was just that when I did something like I did to the Dressed-By-His-Ma-Cunt I always felt alive, so in control.’
Also, when Roy abuses Caroline Carson for flicking the back of his ears, he says to he, ‘Nae cunt laughs at Roy Strang,’ and ‘I enjoyed the look in her eyes. Enjoyed the knife at her throat. Enjoyed the power.’ Roy's final comment on that particular incident was, ‘That was another problem sorted.’
The rape of Kirsty in the dark centre of the novel is by far the most serious case of Roy’s abuse, although, despite the confessional narrative at the beginning of the novel, ‘It was me,’ he is in denial about the rape and conceals the truth until his identity is unravelled. The rape itself could be compared to the attack of the female pig in William Golding’s novel, ‘The Lord of the Flies.’ As they both show signs of brutal masculinity and also negativity and demolition of a distrupt system of patriarchal masculinity.
However, it is not just Roy that is set in the mindset of ‘dog eat dog,’ throughout the novel there is a sense of winners and losers, the losers fall victim to those in power and the winners are previous victims of power. As well as Roy inflicting violence on people who have embarrassed him or that he simply hates, people that are different also fall victim to his obsession with power, such as Roy’s half brother Bernard. There is a particular disturbing incident when John is encouraging Roy to beat up Bernard, he is constantly being called a ‘QUEER FACED CUNT’ or a ‘POOF.’ Elgin, Roy’s other brother, is also classed as different and is sent away near the start of the novel to a ‘VENTURE FOR YOUNG EXEPTIONAL MEN.’ There is a sense of irony in the novel due to the fact that Roy ends up in a similar state of mind and when he visits Elgin before he enters his coma, it is apparent that Roy envies his state.
It is apparent at the beginning of the novel, particularly by the use of the word ‘DEEPER,’ that Roy wants to escape from the clutches of reality. In the novel it appears as though he feels confident, fully aware of his motives and in control of his course of action, ‘I am driven to eradicate the scavenger-predator bird known as the Marabou Stork’ (page 4) Although, even at this early stage in the novel he is not sure how long he has been on the quest for and is unsure of the reasons behind it, ‘I now have as little control down there as I did in the real world…’ (page 157).
It seems as though Roy’s quest is to loose himself as he doesn’t want to find himself retreating into the unconscious realm, escape reality he attempts suicide. Even at the start of the novel there is a sense of a nightmarish reality of which he is trying to escape.
At the start of the novel (page 6) Welsh uses a metaphorical description of the vehicle Roy is driving, as the vehicle becomes him. He is losing control and as he can’t trust the vehicle we can’t trust his narrative, he is not in control of his narrative, ‘Fuck… were am I?’
Roy believes that he must catch the Stork to gain control of his life, he thinks when he catches it he will be ready to go back into the real world, ‘HUNT THE STORK TO GET CONTROL.’(page 11) The stork is personified as a symbol of all badness, ‘If I kill the stork I’ll kill the badness in me. Then I’ll be ready to come out of hare, to wake up, to take my place in society.’(page 9).
In advance of Roy’s coma he talks about his bad experience on acid, his friends seem to enjoy the drug but he says how he dislikes it because he is not in control. This indicates that Roy is adamant on being in control at all times. It can also be related to the previously discussed power issue as Roy believes he is entitled to control over anyone because he is a man. The fact that Roy is a working-class person and lives in an underprivileged area could also be associated with this consistent need for control, as it is a necessity when living in the Scheme.
However, in the later section of the novel when he meets Dorie and experiments with E’s, he enjoys the feeling as he is still in control, it also makes him forget the past and takes the pain away.
The layout in this particular novel is different to the other novels that I have studied as part of my course. For instance, the text is set out differently on the page, it his difficult for us as the reader to go along with story as there is an ongoing interruption of the narrative flow thus representing his life and the state of mind he is in as this itself is not straight forward. Large bold font is used to represent a character raising there voice, the shouting is mainly from Roy and it is as though we are forced to hear his voice and he is the one who decides what is significant for us to read, which is very typical of a most-modern text.
The narration between the reader and the character is personalised and is rather unsettling due to Roy’s disturbed mind. The novel has a first person narrative and we as the reader want to hate Roy but he is our only guide through the novel. However, the narrative authority is disrupted as we are forced to question it due to other voices. There are various different perspectives in the novel which leaves us to question whether or not Roy is reliable.
As well as a graphical difference there is also different registers in the novel. There is a point near the beginning of the novel when Sandy and Roy are together and there is language used such as, ‘Wizard’ and ‘Blighter,’ which could be associated with traditional schoolboy narratives. ‘Me, Pete, Brian, Deek (Bri’s brother) and Dennis, we would think about running away and going camping, like the Enid Blyton Books.’ (page 26). This is a different register to the majority of the book especially the sections in the novel about life in the Scheme when a lot of informal and taboo language is used, showing a social contrast of different settings.
When Kirsty goes to visit Roy in hospital for the last time the truth is revealed through her voice, this is when she gets her revenge. Small text is used to represent Kirsty at the start of the novel, however, it ends up the same size as Roy’s. This is a very significant part of the novel as she is constantly at the mercy of patriarchal discourse, but in the end she gets her5 revenge. However, it must be questioned as to weather her revenge is a balance on the feminine side or if by acting violently towards Roy in order to get some revenge is her simply acting out the masculine side. In the extract, Berthold Schoene-Harwood believes, ‘The moment Kirsty takes her revenge on Roy and cuts off his penis is not a moment of feminist emancipation but a moment of acute patriarchal subjection.’ The disturbing way in which Kirsty seeks her revenge again shows this ongoing pattern of abuse, she was once the victim but now holds the power over Roy, she herself is the victimiser, ‘You’ve made me just like you.’ (page 29).
As well as Kisty gaining her revenge on Roy, he also seeks revenge against his father’s beloved dog, Winston. Even though Winston viciously attacked Roy’s leg when he was just a young boy, his father refused to put the dog down and made Roy lie about the incident. This again shows the lack of care and respect that John had for Roy and again could be an excuse for why he had no respect or care for others. Since the incident with Winston Roy has always been determined to get revenge, however when he finally kills the dog he is no longer an aggressive young animal but an old weak creature. This is similar to the situation with Roy and Kirsty, when she finally seeks her revenge he is not violent and angry but rather anunleathal man in a coma.
I think the novel, despite the disturbing nature, is very interesting especially when portraying masculinity, femininity and patriarchal imperatives with an original and modern view.
