Throughout this novel, Paddy Clarke endures four different types of relationship with his younger brother, who he calls Sinbad. These are:
1. Paddy hates Sinbad
2. Paddy stands up for Sinbad, and protects and helps him.
3. Paddy uses Sinbad, usually in front of his mates, to make himself look big.
4. Paddy LOVES Sinbad.
At the start of the novel, Paddy, Liam, Kevin, Aidan and Sinbad are being chased by one of the men on the building site when Sinbad starts to lag behind the boys. Paddy grabs him and helps him catch up so they don’t get caught. “ I grabbed Sinbad’s hand and ran and caught up with the rest of them.” This is an instance of when Paddy cares for Sinbad, he doesn’t want to leave him on his own, and so he helps him. Then the boys decide to hide in a hedge do they don’t get caught. Sinbad gets stuck in the hedge and the others pretend to run away. “We left Sinbad stuck in the hedge and pretended we’d run away. We heard him snivelling.” Paddy now hates sinbad and shows that he doesn’t care for him by leaving him behind. After a short while, Paddy becomes fed up of hearing Sinbad moan so he helps him out of the hedge and cleans him up. “I gave up. I got sinbad out of the hedge and made him wipe his nose on my sleeve. We were going home for dinner; shepherd’s pie on a Tuesday.” Paddy’s feelings towards Sinbad change once again in a short space of time as they do so often throughout the novel. He now becomes concerned about Sinbad, and decides to help him out of the hedge. There could, however, be a reason for this other than Paddy caring for Sinbad. Paddy may have got fed up with the whining and so got him out to stop the moaning.
Once Paddy and Sinbad are home, their ma finds out about Sinbad leaving his shoe in the mud, and she hits Sinbad. She tells the boys that they’ll have to go out after dinner and find the shoe. Paddy is unhappy about this and he gives Sinbad a dead leg. “I closed the bathroom door and I got Sinbad back for it; I gave him a dead leg.” This shows that Paddy is begrudging doing anything for Sinbad, so he can’t really care about him.
A few days later, Paddy and Sinbad are out with their friends and Paddy tries to put lighter fuel in Sinbad’s mouth. This is the first real instance that we see Paddy bullying Sinbad in front of his friends to increase his popularity. Sinbad refuses to swallow the lighter fuel and Paddy feels embarrassed about this, so he reverts to violence in order to control him. “This was terrible; in front of the others, I couldn’t sort out my little brother. I got the hair above his ear and pulled it up; I lifted him.” Paddy wants to hurt Sinbad so he looks good in front of his friends and tries to increase his own popularity by committing such acts.
Nothing much happens concerning their relationship in the next twenty-odd pages, but then Paddy shows how much he cares about Sinbad during a meal one night. Sinbad is not eating his food, and his Da shouts at him. His da then says “I’m going in now to read my paper. And if that plate isn’t empty by the time I come back I’ll let you have what for.” Paddy realises that Sinbad is not going to eat his food, and so he helps Sinbad out. “It was empty; in me and in the bin.” This emphasises the closeness of their relationship. Paddy doesn’t want Sinbad to get into trouble so he helps him out.
Another instance when Paddy hates Sinbad is when Sinbad has pains in his legs one night and he is crying which subsequently keeps Paddy awake. Paddy sees this as an opportunity to get Sinbad into trouble, and he goes downstairs to tell ma. “I loved getting him into trouble. This way was best. I could pretend I was helping.” Paddy tries to disguise the fact that he is being horrible to Sinbad by pretending that he is helping, and this makes Paddy feel good. He sees it as a kind of punishment towards his brother for keeping him awake.
There are also quite a few instances throughout this novel when Paddy genuinely cares for Sinbad. One example of this is when Sinbad’s lens gets painted black and he can’t see out of it. This is one of the rare moments that the family get the chance to bond and share a joke, but it is short-lived as da sees the dry gravy on his plate and causes another row. “She went into the garage and got a bottle of spirits and started to clean his lens and she showed him how to do it. I said I’d help him but he wouldn’t let me. Da laughed; He was home late and Sinbad was in bed, but I wasn’t. He Laughed. So did I.” The family as a whole are happy at this stage and this helps to develop Sinbad and Paddy’s relationship on the whole. Another example of this is when Sinbad cut’s his eye. Paddy thought that putting whiskey on it would make it better but it hurts Sinbad so he stops. “I poured whiskey on Sinbad’s scab, just a tiny drop. He was squirming even before I did it so I couldn’t tell if it was really sore or not.” This is another example of Paddy caring for Sinbad, he genuinely wants Sinbad’s cut to get better, and tries his best to achieve this.
One day, Paddy is having a conversation with his mother about the zoo, and Sinbad interrupts. This really irritates Paddy and he feels some hatred towards Sinbad at that time. “…I was going to tell her. Then Sinbad came over and ruined it.” Paddy likes to spend time with ma, enhancing their relationship without Sinbad near. Paddy likes to have all the attention with his ma, and when Sinbad interrupts, it annoys him to a great extent.
Paddy bullies his brother a great deal, and this is mostly in front of his friends, where he tries to show off and look big. An example of this is when Paddy and his friends are talking about dogs and Sinbad asks, “Why don’t they wait?” Paddy doesn’t know what this means but he calls Sinbad thick, just so he can show off in front of his mates. Another example, which is almost identical to this one, is when Paddy and his mates are standing playing on the scaffolding and Liam picks up a scaffolding joint. Sinbad asks, “What is it?” Paddy sees this as an opportunity to ridicule Sinbad and show off and he calls Sinbad a “Thick eejit” Paddy evidently doesn’t care how this affects Sinbad as long as it gains him popularity (which it probably doesn’t anyway).
Again, however, Paddy’s relationship with sinbad is reinforced when their Da hits them with a belt for misbehaving. Sinbad is crying upstairs. Paddy goes upstairs, and when Sinbad sees him he calms down. “He was crying. When he saw it was me he slowed down.” This is one of the moments when they genuinely care for each other and it almost feels as if they would do absolutely do anything for each other. Sinbad agrees with Paddy here to try and make Paddy like him more.
Later on in the novel, towards the end, Paddy becomes confused about his own relationship with Sinbad and is unsure whether he likes him or not. “Why did people not like each other? I hated Sinbad. But I didn’t” He is quite confused here, sometimes he hates Sinbad, but other times he likes him.
Deep down, although he doesn’t show it very often, Paddy loves Sinbad. He can’t imagine being with out Sinbad and when he imagines what life would be like without Sinbad, he cries. “I loved Sinbad.” Throughout the novel, even though they have their ups and downs, they care deeply for each other and would be lost without each other. The splitting up of Ma and Da brings them closer together and they seek comfort in each other.
