Lamb Essay

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“Lamb Essay”

Lamb is a novel written by Bernard Mac Laverty in 1980 and it is set in the beginning in a strict catholic home for boys in Galway. The novel surrounds the lives of the Christian Brothers who are priests that run the home and also the boys who are sent there to live. Brother Benedict is the spiritual leader who heads the Christian Brothers that run the home. He is tyrannical, cruel and bullied both Owen Kane and Brother Sebastian in the home. In contrast to him Brother Sebastian a young priest under his authority that is humane and compassionate in his treatment of the boys in the home. This is shown in Brother Benedict’s bullying of a young boy in the home called Owen Kane and also by Brother Sebastian’s defence of him and the fact that he helps the boy escape with him. When after escaping the Home things don’t work out for Owen Kane and Brother Sebastian, so the idea of killing Owen is thought of by Brother Sebastian as an “act of love”. I disagree that killing Owen Kane was an “act of love” and I find that Brother Sebastian was a coward and his actions were reprehensible.


There are certain parallels between the author and the novel. Brother Sebastian loses his father as the author also did and Owen Kane is 12 which is the same age the author lost his father. Owen Kane’s father leaves him never to be heard of again. The loss of this father figure brings about big changes in the author and his characters lives. The author has also dedicated this novel to his father which shows that his relationship with his father was important to him. Another parallel is that the author went to a strict Catholic School, St Malachy's College and in his other book called “The anatomy school” he also criticises the teaching, the oppressive atmosphere and the staff's attitudes towards the pupils.  


The death of Brother Sebastian’s father changes his life as he no longer feels the need to stay with The Christian Brothers as he wouldn’t feel guilty disappointing his father now that he had passed away. The money left to him in his fathers will enables him to change his life. It is because of his vow of poverty that he realises that to obtain the money before the Christian Brothers he will have to leave the order and take the money with him. Brother Benedict threatened Brother Sebastian not to leave as he said “and remember if you do leave in hurried circumstances we can make it difficult for you to get a job. The Church in Ireland, Brother, has as many fingers as there are pies. Remember that.”  


The author creates the bleak atmosphere at the home by describing outside it with a metaphor and also personification “surrounding the whole complex was a high wire fence which screamed and whistled in the constant wind from the sea.” The weather is described as “it seemed to rain continually” which also makes it seem a very depressing and cold place to live. Another metaphor is used to describe the home as “miles from nowhere on a promontory jutting its forehead into the Atlantic wind. The inside of the home is painted cold colours like green on the walls with brown lino on the floors. One of the boys who lived at the home described how it was scrubbed clean and dead “like a corpse.” The air inside was said to be “full of disinfectant and polish and each boy had a cleaning duty to do every day” which would make it seem a clinical and disciplined place.

Brother Benedict revels in his power over priests and the children in the home.  At the beginning of the novel I feel that Brother Benedict is condescending and humiliates Brother Sebastian.    When Benedict gets to the point of his meeting with Sebastian about his fathers will, Benedict says, “I am surrounded by the educationally sub-normal” when Brother Sebastian fails to understand the term intestate.  When Brother Sebastian speaks of leaving and criticises a twelve year old such as Owen Kane being treated as a criminal for “mitching school and running away from home”, Brother Benedict admits that “if they do not conform we thrash them”.  Benedict goes on to say to Sebastian “there is no room for your soft-centred, self-centred idealism”.  This quote from Benedict shows the author using alliteration and sibilance to highlight this view through repetition.  Brother Benedict is described like a bird which is a recurring theme in the book.  When Brother Sebastian reveals he wishes to leave Benedict is depicted through a simile such as “Benedict sat waiting with a bird like tilt of the head, sharp, beakish, owl-like” gives a very vivid description of Benedict. It portrays Benedict as animalistic in the character of an owl which is a bird of prey which pounces. The words the author uses “before he pecked”  “A chicken eying a seed” all seem to make Benedict a nasty predator through imagery.  Benedict’s attitude towards children is shown when he says “anybody who says he loves children doesn’t understand them”.  

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I found Brother Sebastian to be a compassionate man who was against violence towards the boys in the Home.  I think he was rebellious as he didn’t want to be there and he didn’t really care for Brother Benedict or his treatment of the boys.  I feel that Brother Sebastian had empathy towards Owen as he too felt bullied and imprisoned at the Home by Brother Benedict.  Sebastian was a teacher of woodwork and not an academic person like Benedict claimed to be.  I feel Sebastian was more down to earth and practical in this sense of how he ...

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