"What is the Importance of the Kestrel in the novel " A Kestrel for a Knave."

The first 200 words of this essay...

"What is the Importance of the Kestrel in the novel

" A Kestrel for a Knave."

Billy Casper is a mischievous young boy. This is expressed in the title of the book,

" A kestrel for a knave."

Billy leads a lonely and miserable life because his family does not love him and just think of him as a nuisance and a liability. His mother and his brother Jud are not interested in him at all. They are both more interested in their social life and their appearance. Billy gets the kestrel about a third of the way through the book because he feels that he needs someone to love and to show affection to. I think that the kestrel symbolizes Billy's love for his father. Throughout the book we see this but especially in the "Tall Story" we see Billy's love for his father when he writes,

" Jud's going to the army and he's not coming back but your dad's coming back instead."

The kestrel is Billy's opportunity to express his love to someone.

The first example where we see that the kestrel plays and important