"Nooligan" and "Street Boy"

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“Nooligan” and “Street Boy”

By Hamza Mush

The poems “Nooligan” by Roger McGough and “Street Boy” by Gareth Owen are two poems which both deal with the issue of teenage hooliganism, and both poets use language to create a vivid sense of character. Although both deal with the same theme, there are many similarities and differences between the two.

“Nooligan” is about a boy who thinks he is really powerful and harsh but is actually an uneducated boy trying to be a real hooligan. “Street Boy” is also about a hooligan except that he actually is more powerful and has a higher status than the inferior “Nooligan”.

One of the main similarities is that both the poets present the characters as using slang language or some sort of incorrect form of English. In “Nooligan” for example the boy says in the fourth line of the third verse:

Football’s me game

(Well, watchin’)

McGough has used “me” instead of my. This portrays the “Nooligan” as unintelligent and uneducated because of the use of words and grammar, because the poem gives us an impression that “Nooligan” isn’t the type of person who would work hard (he doesn’t “give a toss”), I’m not surprised at the hooligan’s English. The use of slang by the hooligan in “Street Boy” is the word “hark” instead of listen or hear and “stompin’” instead of walking. The effects that these two words put on us are that we start to think that the boy actually does have some power and attitude, and we believe that he actually is the bully that he’s talking about. But at the same time, the use of these slang words makes the characters appear to be foolish and idiotic.

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Another similarity that the poet employs in the two poems is that in both of them, the first line of each verse is the same for all the verses. For example in “Street Boy” the first line always starts with “Just you” and always ends with “man”.

Just you look at me man

Gareth has used that technique intentionally to characterize the street boy as an attention-seeker. “Street Boy” wants the reader to pay full attention to him and focus on him before starting the verse.  Furthermore, “Just you” is a type of a threatening phrase which just tells us ...

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