Kes affected Billy's life in many ways, for good and for bad

The Affects of Kes

‘Kes’ or ‘A Kestrel for a Knave’ contains a story about a normal teenaged boy named Billy Casper. Billy’s life is turned around after he obtains a young hawk and trains it. This essay covers all the main effects that the hawk had on Billy, such as how he took it upon himself to train the hawk responsibly, how training the hawk gained him self-respect in many aspects, how Billy becomes separated, isolated from the world, and how the hawk caused him problems.

Kes affected Billy’s life in many ways, for good and for bad. Some of the best things Kes did for Billy, were helping Billy to achieve success, through means of; training Kes, giving successful talks in school, earning respect with his classmates and Mr Farthing and finally gaining self-respect.

Comments from Mr Farthing like these show that he admires and respects Billy and his kestrel. For instance; when Billy stands up in class and gives his speech on training Kes, Mr Farthing refers to Billy as an expert;

‘“Yes, yes. I suspected as much when he made it look so simple.” “It’s not Sir.” “But that’s the mark of an expert isn’t it. Someone who makes a difficult skill look easy?”’

This shows that he considers Billy as an expert, but says it to Billy subtly. Also Mr Farthing believes that Billy is learned in the skill of training kestrels as he follows his instructions, showing that although he is a teacher, he does not know best in this situation – ‘“Keep looking away Sir, they don’t like being stared at, Hawks.” “Right, best do as you say.” These show that Mr Farthing has some respect for Billy.

Another aspect of Billy achieving success, is when he – not the brightest of all people, takes a book (even though he stole it) and reads it thoroughly and applies the knowledge he gained from it, to real life, through the means of Kes. A quote showing this is when Jud finds out about Billy’s reference book and almost quizzes Billy on what he has learned from it;

‘“It’s smashing! I’ve been reading it all afternoon. I’m nearly half way through all ready.” “An’ what better off will tha be when tha’s read it?” “A lot, cos I’m going to get a young kestrel an’ train it”’

This clearly shows that Billy will use his book for reference to train Kes (it shows this in the quote above, where Billy tells Mr Farthing the information he has gained from his book).

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The book he ‘borrows’ helps him lead a very detailed and successful speech in school, and earns the respect of Mr Farthing (as it shows in the first quote). Here is a quote that shows that the class seem interested in some way in Billy’s story.

‘“Do you want to hear more about it?” (Chorus) “Yes Sir”. Mr Farthing smiled and turned back to Billy, “Carry on Casper”’. This quote proves that Mr Farthing and the rest of class would like to hear more about Billy’s story. The speech gives Billy self-respect as this shows;

‘“Baiting? What’s that?” “Trying ...

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‘“Baiting? What’s that?” “Trying to fly off” “How do you spell it?” “B-A-I-T-I-N-G” “Carry on”’ and also Billy stands up by himself to talk about Kes – ‘“You’d best come up here then.” Billy stood up and walked to the front of the class’ These two quotes have lead me to believe that Billy became more self-confident, and if it wasn’t for Kes, he would not have been able to stand up and give the speech and therefore not have gained the self-confidence that he does now.

The speech that Billy gave to the class about training Kes shows that Billy has learnt a lot from his book, and also shows that he trained Kes well. An obvious example of how well Billy had trained Kes is when Mr Farthing meets Billy flying/training Kes for the first time – “Goodness. Not very friendly is it! It seems alright with you though.” This defiantly shows that the time and effort Billy spent in training Kes has paid off, as Kes recognises Billy as her owner/trainer, and no one else.

Another benefit of Billy having Kes is that Billy becomes more responsible. Examples of these are; Billy paying his court fines, Billy caring for Kes and Billy keeping himself out of trouble.

The most obvious and clearest example of Billy paying his court fines and showing he’s becoming more responsible, is when ironically he’s getting into trouble by Mr Sugden;

“Get a job then Billy.” “I’ve got one Sir.” “Well then, you get paid don’t you?” “Yes Sir. But I have to gi’ it to me mum. I’m still paying her for my court fines, like instalments every week.” Even though Billy is in trouble for not bringing his kit; it still shows that he is responsible for paying his fines.

Billy takes control of his life, as it shows from the quote above, but he also takes control of Kes’s life and looks after her with a lot of care. For example he changes his shed into a home for Kes, he shoots birds and gives the fresh meat to her, and he flies and trains her and gets up early and stays up late to care for Kes. This evidently shows that Billy cares for Kes as if she were family.

One of the better, or maybe even the best things that Kes did to Billy, was that she kept him out of trouble. An example of this is after the fight Billy had with McDowell; “I’m no’ that bad, I’m no worse than stacks of kids, but they just seem to get away with it.” This leads us to believe that Billy wouldn’t see himself as bad, and isn’t looking for trouble, as this shows; “What’s tha’ gone over there for Casper, frightened?” Billy ignored him and continued to stare out. This shows he ignored what would lead to trouble and instead of opening his mouth and making a mountain out of a mole hill, he walked away. Another quote when Billy is getting changed shows that he tries not to get into trouble;

“Well you should keep out of trouble then lad.” “I haven’t been in trouble Sir.” This tells us that at least he’s been trying.

As with most things there too good to be true, and the downside of Kes, is that it makes Billy isolated from his friends, he becomes a loner. Tibbut’s comment about Billy and his hawk in class show how he becomes isolated; “He’s mad about it. He never knocks around wi’ anyone else now, he just looks after his hawk all t’time. He’s crackers wi’ it.” This is an example of how Billy has changed from his old ways; I think that it is good for him to be doing something different, as it keeps him out of trouble, which must be a good thing. Another quote that shows how he has changed is when Billy gives his opinion to Mr Farthing;

“I don’t like youth clubs. I don’t like games. We used to go out into t’city, to t’pictures or a coffee bar. But any road, they can please their sens what they do. I’m not bothered now.” Billy clearly doesn’t like his old ways and seems very happy spending his time with Kes.

Another quote which shows that Billy is spending too much of his spare time with Kes, is when he is talking to Mr Farthing;

“I wa’ dog tired. I’d bin up since six, then I’d had to run around with t’papers, then run home to have a look at me hawk.” In this case, Billy spends time with Kes before school, which meant he was late, which brings me to the next point.

Kes causes Billy to become a loner, and makes Billy spend all of his spare time with Kes. That is not that bad, but Kes causes much bigger problems for Billy other then falling out with his friends. Billy spends so much time with Kes that he just can’t keep up or cope with school. Billy is tired as it shows in the previous quote above, and the consequent for that was the stick by Mr Gryce. The following quotes are references to when Billy had fallen asleep;

“Fast asleep during the Lord’s Prayer were we Casper?!” “Get you’re head up lad, or you’ll fall asleep again.” “You were asleep weren’t you?” “He’s been asleep again Sir.” As you can tell by these quotes, Billy has fallen asleep a lot. The main reason for this is Kes. He’s been spending so much time with Kes that he needs to sleep during school assembly. This has lead me to believe that he must be with Kes nearly all the time for him to fall asleep in assembly.

Another example of Kes causing Billy problems in school is when Billy doesn’t bring his P.E kit to his lesson. “I’ve got no kit Sir. My mum won’t buy me any.” Once again we see how Kes is causing problems for Billy. This either shows that Billy’s mum is bad, and does not even support her own son, or that he was to busy with Kes to pester her to buy him a kit.

Not only does he fall asleep during lessons and not bother to get any kit, but he also arrives late to his lessons, as this complaint from Mr Sugden shows; “Get changed lad. You’re already two weeks late.” Billy was late for P.E even though he had no kit, so he couldn’t have been searching for it, which makes me think that he was probably checking on Kes, and therefore getting into trouble which he had been trying to avoid. Another example of how Kes is having a bad effect on Billy.

Kes causes Billy social problems as well. It may not be as bad as getting him the stick, but causes him suffering mentally. The result of owning Kes means that his fellow school piers see him as different. The class laugh at him and think he’s mental as these quotes show;

‘The class laughed and looked at Billy. Billy turned his chair and shouted above the laughter. “He’s crackers Sir.” “He can’t help it Sir.” “What’s this about a hawk Casper... is it a stuffed one?” the whole class roared with laughter.’ As these plentiful quotes show, Billy is seen as a freak. Because he is unique, he gets laughed at by everyone else. Other boys hang around with their mates, Billy hangs around with Kes. I can see why they find him different but it doesn’t seem necessary to pick on him that much.

The biggest problem for Billy caused by Kes was Kes itself. Kes gave Jud a reason to get back at Billy. Kes sparks up arguments between the two and in the end pays for being Billy’s kestrel with a big consequence. Jud in the next quote annoys Billy for no reason whatsoever;

“Any road, where’s tha going to get a kestrel from?” “A nest” “Where” “I’m not tellin’” “I said where?” He rushed over to the settee and jumped astride Billy. Pushing his face into the cushions and forcing one arm up his back into a half-nelson.’ This quote shows the typical “brotherly love” between brothers. Jud being the older and therefore stronger out of the two bullies. Jud only wants to pester Billy, and when Billy doesn’t oblige to tell Jud where the nest is, Jud punishes him, all for no reason at all.

Billy, although trying his hardest to avoid trouble. Disobeys his brother’s orders to place a bet on a horse (no bodies perfect, but I think if Billy knew the consequence of that, he would have placed that bet.). Billy gives Jud the reason to get back at him ‘big time’, and does so;

“It’s his fault. If he’d have put that bet on like he was told to. There would have been none of this” “He killed my hawk!” I felt sorry for Billy at the end of the book, but if he had just done that little thing, he could have saved Kes.

This essay has shown that Kes has changed Billy. Billy turned over a new leaf since he started to care for Kes, as we found out when he achieved success; in school, while training Kes and helping him to read and apply gained knowledge from books to real life. Without Kes Billy wouldn’t be as responsible as he is now, but he would also be more awake, earlier and punctual in school. Kes also gets Billy into trouble with Jud, who eventually kills her. One thing is for certain though; Kes changed Billy’s life for ever.

Robert Hanson

16 January 2005