Barry Hines: A Kestrel for a Knave The novel ‘A Kestrel for a Knave’, by Barry Hines, is set in 1968 in a Northern industrial estate. It is about a boy named Billy Casper who is under pressure at home and struggling in school. The only time when he can get away is when he escapes to the countryside to experience nature in all its glory. The title of the novel is a sort of play-on-words, as in medieval times there was a group of people called knaves who were, like Billy in the novel, the
A Kestrel for a Knave tells the story of a day in the life of Billy Casper. The story is written in the third person, but there is little doubt that we are encouraged to look through Billy’s eyes. The setting is South Yorkshire in the 1960s – probably Barnsley – though Hines never names places. In the novel of Kestrel for a knave, it shows the lack of opportunities, lifestyle and just how much the education system fails him. Throughout the essay I will describe and explain each character as they
A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines For this assignment, I shall be looking at Barry Hines’ novel ‘A Kestrel for a Knave’. The story focuses on a day in the life of Billy Casper, a fifteen-year-old schoolboy growing up in an environment lacking in many ways. In this assignment I am to look at examples of deprivation in the various areas of Billy Casper’s life. Barry Hines writes about a young boy growing up in the 1960’s. Despite the fact that the Welfare State had been in place for
Comparing Oliver Twist and A Kestrel for a Knave Introduction ============ In this essay I am hoping to show the similarities between the novels 'Oliver Twist' and A 'Kestrel for a Knave'. Charles Dickens wrote Oliver twist in the early ninetieth century. It was set in the area of in and around London. Whereas A Kestrel for a Knave was wrote in the 1960s by Barry Hines and is set in the area of Barnsley. Although the two Novels are set one hundred and thirty years apart there are
Treatment of Billy in A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines In "A Kestrel for a Knave", Barry Hines tells his realistic story of a boy called Billy. Firstly Billy lives with his mother and brother in their small house in Barnsley. His mother smokes cigarettes all day and asks, "You haven't got a gag on you, have you, love?" and "Do me a favour, love, and run up to t'shop for some fags." By asking if he can go to the shop and buy some cigarettes, obviously is showing that she is a selfish
In this essay I will be looking into the treatment of Billy in A Kestrel for a Knave, the emotions surrounding them and comparing and contrasting the differences between how three characters treat Billy, those three characters are Billy’s Mother, Jud, and Mr Farthing. The novel, A Kestrel for a Knave, is about a young boy who doesn’t fit in much, he doesn’t have a farther and gets picked on at school, to top it all off he has a terrible home life with his brother Jud bullying him and his mum going
Compare the characters of Mr. Grycefrom Barry Hines' Kestrel for a knave' and Mr. Squeers from Charles Dickens Nicholas Nickelby During the course of this essay I will be comparing the teaching methods, school conditions and general demeanor of Mr. Gryce, a secondary school headmaster in the 1960's, and Mr. Squeers who controls a boarding school for disabled and unfortunate children in the 1830's. Both schools are set in Yorkshire. Mr. Gryce is an experienced teacher with 35 years in
Comparing the Ways in Which Mrs. Casper, Mr. Sugden and Mr. Farthing Treat Billy in A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines I am going to compare how these three characters, Mrs. Casper, Mr.Sugden and Mr. Farthing treat Billy, a 14 year old boy, living up north in a rough school and he has quite a hard time. Mrs. Casper, who is Billy's mother, has no time for Billy "Oh stop pestering me! I'm late enough as it is!" She finds her social life and nights out more important than listening to what
skill. The general meaning of the word director is: · The leader of a course of action or actions · A person who leads someone or something In this case I shall be writing about 'Kes' a film by Ken Loach, adapted from the book "a Kestrel for a Knave" by Barry Hines. I shall be showing how Loach brings the book to life; not only tools such as description and what is going on in a person's head but by the behaviour, reaction, and environment. A good example of this is the first scene
hates and is hated, his family and friends are harsh to him, and already think he is going to end a failure, and in trouble. He doesn't want to work down the mines and wants to work with animals which he knows about. His only companion is his kestrel hawk which he raised from the nest and trained well. There are many similarities between himself and the hawk. For example it is a bird of prey, it doesn't get any pleasure in killing, but it has to kill to live, Billy doesn't get any pleasure
relationships with other characters, generally, are not of friendship or companionship, rather relationships of association. However there are friendships that develop through the story. Billy's friendship is evident from the title of the book: "A Kestrel for a Knave." Jane Eyre, on the other hand, finds solace in another girl at Lowood called Helen Burns. Later when Helen falls ill, Jane finds friendship in a girl named Mary Ann Wilson and they both spends pleasant times with Miss Temple, a teacher
The Life of Billy- Original Writing I intend to describe Billy’s school and explain to what extent the school has helped him achieve his full potential whilst attending the school. The author’s intentions when writing ‘A Kestrel for a Knave’ were to highlight how defective the school was at helping Billy to be a successful person in life. Billy’s school was an all boy’s school situated in Barnsley. The school was run by corporal punishment, and the head teacher believed that is how it should