Secondly the topics he talks about are quite normal for a ten-year-old boy, they are almost quite simple subjects, slugs, football and Indians are all mentioned immediately. This is a very good technique implied by Doyle because it just shows how young he is. Doyle does is very effectively and he manages to keep this going throughout the novel, for instance when the lady farted, quite simple subjects that keep Paddy amused.
Doyle’s use of language is also extremely effective, it again indicates, how young the boy is and how he may seem quite confused following the events that are circulating his life. Overall the language is quite simple; ‘a sad old woman’ phrases like this emphasize that, but in some circumstances the language does become more structured, ‘he was riding hunched down sideways on his horse so that others couldn’t fire their arrows at him’. For a ten year old, this is quite a complex sentence; this may indicate that he could be rather serious and even sad because of his parents divorce. In my opinion I believe he likes to occupy himself in-order not to think about his parents situation. I feel this way because of the in-depth section he gives on Indians on page 55. Another language point, is the use of repetition in which Doyle introduces, on page 54, ‘he looked very old, his face, but the rest of him was young.’ And on the following page, page 55, he again mentions, ‘he still looked old and young’. His use of repetition indicates not only how young he is, but how he finds it quite hard to structure his sentences. He may also still be fairly puzzled, as he cannot fully distinguish whether the man is young or old.
The register of this passage is very informal due to the style of narration used and the language included by Doyle. This is apparent because the text is very chaotic, it is not very structured, ‘I saw another picture in a book. Of Geronimo with his warriors.’ This phrase is not very formal, you can easily identify that he is talking with a close friend, no one of any great importance. Doyle’s narrative technique is awfully effective as he allows us to believe that the paddy is only ten years old, the structure of his sentences perceives us a great deal. The way in which he does is quite easy, the inclusion of short, sharp sentences. He manages to capture how a young boy would think, when he narrates he doesn’t allow him to say to much at time, he allows him time to think about what he is going to say next. For example, ‘he was wearing boots. There were bushes all around him. I put my fingers on his hair to cover it’.
In conclusion I believe that this passage presents the way in which Paddy Clarke is growing up rather well. I feel this way because Doyle manages to get across the confusion of what the young boy is going through in several techniques. You can identify that paddy maybe behaving a little differently because of things that are happening around him, his parents divorce and the troubles taking place in Northern Ireland. I believe that Roddy Doyle is very effective in employing the main characteristics of the novel in just this short passage through Paddy emotions.