MacB is based on one of Shakespeare’s most famous stories, Macbeth. Just like Macbeth, MacB involves two guys where one betrays the other. MacB is the modern version of Macbeth, instead of witches giving telling them about the prophecies, a fortune-teller tells them about what is to happen. As the main characters, MacB and Banskie are teenage boys, MacB does not have a wife, instead, his mother is the one who persuades him do all these evil deeds. In the story Macbeth, the position promised to Macbeth is King, but in MacB the position promised to him is captain of the soccer team.
However, MacB is quite different to Macbeth as no one dies, instead of Duncan dying, he just gets badly injured, Banksie was also not killed but was injured as well. Although both, Duncan and Banksie, were sabotaged by MacB, as he had tampered with Duncan’s bike and had paid the opposing players to side tackle Banksie and injure his leg. MacB was also not killed but instead was taken by the police and will probably be in juvenile prison.
The writer has used a lot of effective imagery to make the reader see what is happening in the book, “Mac headed it: one, two, three, then dropped it to his instep, a dead ball. He paused for a moment, the ball frozen to his foot, before flicking it up and heading it back. Banksie controlled the ball with his thigh; bounced it from one leg to the other.”-pg. 2. The writer has also used soccer terms in the book to make the characters seem more authentic, for example, he used words like header, striker, defensive line etc. The writer also used some literary devices like characterization, and similes and metaphors. However throughout the whole time, we do not know the full names of our protagonists, we do not know if Banksie is a nick name, or its his real name or if it is his family name, also for MacB all we know is that this is short for his last name, MacBride. This sort of creates uncertainty for us, we do not know as much about them.
I think that this story was great as I myself like to play soccer. I understand that for some people, soccer is their life and would do anything for it, to be captain. That’s why MacB did what he did, he wanted to be captain, he knew he deserved it, he was a great player. However I don’t think it was right to put any one’s life for captainship. Although that might have been the only way he was ever going to be captain, as the team’s coach, Mr. Powell seemed to favour Duncan, as he had been the soccer captain for the past two years. I think that most teenagers would be interested in this book, especially those who like to play soccer. Mud and blood…blood and mud…
