A Kestrel for a Knave

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A Kestrel for a Knave

For this assignment, I shall be looking at Barry Hines' novel 'A Kestrel for a Knave'. The story focuses on a day in the life of Billy Casper, a fifteen-year-old schoolboy growing up in an environment lacking in many ways. In this assignment I am to look at examples of deprivation in the various areas of Billy Casper's life.

Barry Hines writes about a young boy growing up in the 1960's. Despite the fact that the Welfare State had been in place for over twenty years, Hines' novel sheds much light on the kind of life some children still had to live, in order to survive in societies that should have been well developed. The text writes in extensive detail about how a boy like Billy had to live, and I felt quite sympathetic towards Billy - for him having to endure so much abuse in one day. Considering the Welfare State had been firmly in place for two decades, reading this novel opened my eyes to how some families had to live.

Barry Hines was a teacher and he would have had first hand experience of what life was like for some children of the era. Maybe, through such a novel, Hines hoped to raise awareness by outlining the poor standards in which people were living. I shall now therefore like to explore ways in which Billy's life lacked.

Firstly I am going to write about how Billy's life lacked within the home. I found that Billy was heavily denied of material possessions. For example - quite early on in the text - we learn Billy is deprived of the basic necessities of food.

'There were a packet of dried peas and a half-bottle of vinegar on the shelves. The bread bin was empty.'

Such extreme circumstances caused Billy to steal; he stole a box of eggs, a chocolate bar and some milk. He did not steal for the adrenaline rush, nor did he do it out of spite or for peer pressure - Billy stole because he needed to do it to survive.

Secondly, I discovered Billy is deficient of satisfactory clothing. In the very early stages of the text, Jud takes Billy's clothes, and so he is left with no other option but to wear his Mother's sweater.

'He placed the clock on the mantelpiece then picked up his Mother's sweater from the settee and pulled it on over his shirt.'

Billy also wears the cheapest footwear around at the time, known as 'pumps', which were probably uncomfortable and not very durable. Furthermore, he wears an old battered coat called a windcheater, which sports a broken zip. I feel Billy found the coat handy for thieving - it has those large inner pockets perfect for storing stolen goods. People in the sixties were quite well developed in the context of fashion - the 'Swinging Sixties' owes its name to the fashionable rock stars sporting their flared trousers and gaudy coloured blouses. And so most people living in this time, even by their standards, would have dressed much better than Billy, and so even they may have been shocked by his sorry attire.

Another aspect of material deprivation shows how inadequately Billy's house is furnished. He and his older brother Jud are made to share a single bed that they struggle to fit in, and also there are no curtains in their room to give them any sense of privacy.

Most of the above deficiencies are chiefly due to the lack of money Billy's Mother and Brother have put into keeping the house fully furnished and stocked of food. However, the lack of money is not due to poverty - but due to the reckless and irresponsible attitude Jud and his Mother share. This is reinforced when we learn Billy's house actually has a garage - a feature rather uncommon to housing of the sixties.
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I would now like to move on to extensive emotional deprivation Billy endures within the family. Billy endures a lot of verbal abuse from his Mother and Jud. For example, the way in which his Mother speaks to him before school - calling him a 'Dozy bugger' and trying to hit him suggests that she doesn't care much for her son. Billy also suffers Jud's torment when he learns that Billy is reading a falconry book in order to train a wild kestrel.

'An' what better off will tha be when tha's read it?'

'A lot, ...

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