Societys Rejects and Barry Hines Kestrel for a Knave Essay -- Barry

Society's Rejects and Barry Hines' "Kestrel for a Knave" A kestrel for a knave is about a poor troubled Yorkshire lad by the name of Billy Casper. What he imagines to be out of reach and unbelievable are things we take for granted. He imagines love from his parents and just normal, every day things like fish and chips for supper and someone being nice to him. For Billy, that is a dream that will never become reality. Treated as a failure at school and unhappy at home, Billy discovers a new passion in life when he finds Kes, a kestrel hawk. Billy identifies with her silent strength and she inspires in him the trust and love that nothing else can. I don’t think that Kes gives Billy the power to revolutionize and turn around his social life, because she doesn’t. But Kes is extremely close to Billy’s heart. Kes gives Billy a sense of satisfaction and achievement. Kes gives Billy the will to live another day while other is Billy’s position would have given up on life long ago. Kes is effectively Billy’s best friend and whom he spends most of his spare time with and would have continues to do so after he left school if event wouldn’t have gone the way they had done. Billy is portrayed as someone who has given up on everything as he knows he wont get a second chance, and that he’s future is going down the same road as his older brother Jud. Billy has been made to look after himself for most of his life as he’s dad has left him and his mum is too busy worrying about herself. He’s had to learn to find ways to find food and that is stealing from anyone, anywhere. For example he takes a bottle of milk from the milkman, he steals sweets from the little store where he has a job to deliver newspapers. The shop ... ...assroom. This is also a good example for his punctuation as he uses short sentences, â€Å"the scuffle of a turning page† etc. the problem with using so much description is that it leaves the readers having no imagination on the scene or character. Most of the book is written as Billy’s thoughts on things and he doesn’t use speech that much to describe things. This book reflects on many issues that still carry on today but have got even more serious. It shows how lucky we are to have a family who care and love us and how important it is not to take it for granted, as there are many children who don’t know the feeling of being loved. I think Barry Hines used a very good story to bring the message across on how people can be made to feel. And that everyone deserves a second chance and should not be judged on wealth but on the persons morals and personality.