The main concerns of ‘Paddy’ are very different to an adult’s thoughts. His world is ruled by adults who have the authority over him. Paddy’s view of his teacher, ‘Mr.Hennessey’, is a child like view of power and a main figure of authority in his life. As he learns from his teacher, his source of information, he respects him. He puts fear into all the children.
‘If I did a gick in me pants he’d kill me!’
They have such a fear of what Mr.Hennessey will do to them if they put a foot out of line, that when their friend did ‘a gick’ in his pants and did not get punished for this, they were astonished. This is because of their rigid sense of right and wrong. If someone was to do something wrong then a punishment would follow, as children they do not understand that there may be exceptional circumstances.
As Paddy is the older brother, he has a very dominant role over Sinbad his younger brother. When bullying his little brother in school, Paddy does not consider his brother’s feelings or the consequences of what he is doing. Being so young, he is very naïve and just wants to prove he can ‘sort out his little brother’, ‘in front of the others’. To Paddy, his friends are more important than his little brother, and he enjoys playing tricks on Sinbad and upsetting him. Tormenting each other is what they do best.
‘We left Sinbad stuck in the hedge and pretended we’d run away’
The immaturity of a child is highlighted here as he finds this treatment of Sinbad funny and enjoyable. When his brother is being punished by their mother he sees this as a form of amusement as well and instead of caring about his brother, he was more concerned about him being ‘ahead of her so she wasn’t really getting him properly’. He doesn’t feel sympathy for his bother and he would rather see him receive a good beating. Not only does he feel no sympathy for him but also he doesn’t understand why his mother is upset. The reader feels sorry for the mother having to deal with money problems in their struggling circumstances and shows a contrast between a little boy not picking up on the reasons for his mothers problems and the reader seeing and understanding the mothers feelings. He doesn’t understand her upset but he does know he is scared of her
