How important is Kes to Billy?

“ Fast asleep during the lord prayer! Ill thrash you, you irreverent scoundrel!” These are the words of Mr. Gryce, Billy’s headmaster. The context this is in is that Mr. Gryce needed to make an example of somebody and Billy was his chosen victim. The school Billy goes to isn’t a particularly nice school by any means this is however made worse by the fact that Billy is in a class known as the Easter leavers. At home Billy is thought to be destined to work in the mines like his older brother Jud.

Billys dad ran away when Billy was just a young child and Billys mother is more interested in herself than Billy or Jud. Jud watches his own back and has no real plans in his life and lives from one break out of the mines to the next. Billy is stuck in the middle of this slap dash family, the lives though the torment on a daily basic. However there is a slim ray of light in this world for Billy. Kes.

Kes is a bird, and Billys best friend and the only good thing he has got going for him. Kes is what the whole of Billys life is shaped around. Billy is always doing things which might get him in trouble or make him look foolish will help Kes. For example, when Bilyy has just finished football his sports teacher, Mr. Sugden is behaving very childishly because he lost in the game of football, and he blames it on Billy. He pushes Billy in the showers and turns the cold water on. Billy demonstrating his care for Kes jumps ...

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Another demostration of how important Kes is to Billy is when we see that Bily is willing to kill other creatures for Kes.

Kes also helps Billy by forming a formal relationship with Mr. Fathing. This is the only relationship that we see in the book where an adult isn’t looking down on Billy as if he were a used bandage! An example of an adult looking down on Billy is in the sweet shop where Mr. Porter says

“ You know what they said when I took you on, don’t you?” he pauses as though expecting answer. He then goes on to give Billy the answer, even though it is obviously a ritorical question.

“ They said, you’ll have to your eyes open now, you know, ‘cos there all alike off that estate. They’ll take your breath if you not careful.’ These few lines sum up what every adult thinks of Billy, there expecting him to fail and thus aren’t any more interested in him than they are on the mud on the bottem of their shoes. As I said earlier the only adult who reacts differently to Billy is Mr. Fathing. At this point we get the feeling that Kes is the only lifeline Billy has left to stop him falling down into the mines like his brother has.

There is an incident in the book where Billy wrongs Jud by taking his money and as such Jud wants revenge. He cant get his hands on Billy so he heads for the next best thing, Kes.

Once Billy finds out about this he confronts his brother who shrugs Billy off by saying that he should have taken his money.

Billy runs into the house carrying the dead bird. Jud and his mother both come towards Billy. Billy then proceeds to swing the dead bird around stopping them getting to him.

This is very symbolic to me as through out the book we see Billy using Kes as an emotional shield against his life. And here we see Billy using the bird as now a physical shield against his family. When Jud kills Kes, the incident for me marked the end of Billys hope not to work down in the minds, as now his lifeline has been taken away.

Overall I I conclued that Kes was more than just a pet to Billy she was more a rock for him to cling to. All in all Kes was the best thing in the world to Billy and that was ruined for him by his older brother.

Max Cunnane