English Essay: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

Explore Doyle’s manipulation of language to capture the voice of a 10 year old boy

Roddy Doyle uses different linguistic techniques related to lexis, grammar and graphology to creat the voice of a 10 year old boy in this extract.

Doyle uses grammar to show a child’s voice. This is demonstrated by Paddy’s use of mainly simple sentences, such as ‘I didn’t hear it.’ Using simple sentences suggests a basic idiolect that you would find in a child who hasn’t been in education for very long. The monosyllabic vocabulary used by Paddy, ‘when he got to the end of his first lap he stopped’, also suggests a simple vocabulary that a child would have.

Doyle also creates a child’s personality through Paddy’s actions. Doyle shows a child’s immaturity by Paddy’s ‘botty bickies’, slang which would not be used by an adult. He also shows a child’s behaviour in Paddy’s systematic manner of eating things by ‘nibbling all around the edge...’. This shows a child’s detail to small activities that an adult wouldn’t bother with.

Doyle creates a child’s voice in the way he talks. Paddy tells the story in a first person narrative voice. However, not usually found with this type of narrative, Paddy never expresses any emotions or feelings outright as he only uses declarative sentences. Instead of vocally expressing emotion, Paddy shows feeling in his physical action, for example when Sinbad finishes the fanta. Paddy made Sinbad ‘squash the biscuits into crumbs’, which shows that Paddy was angry and wanted revenge. Doyle does this as it is common for children not to say how their feeling but rather imply or show how they feel in their actions.

Paddy’s constant use of declarative sentences are also used by Doyle to show that, like many children, Paddy doesn’t always understand what is going on around him. Paddy says that ‘Ma was getting out of the car’ and admits that he knows ‘something had happened; something’ but the repetition of the word ‘something’ shows that he is completely oblivious to his parent’s behaviour.

Paddy thought his mum had gotten out of the car because it had stopped raining, ‘but it hadn’t. It was lashing.’ Doyle uses the pathetic fallacy to show Paddy’s naivity. The reader realises through the atmosphere created by the pathetic fallacy and the actions of Ma declared by Paddy that the parents had had an argument. Paddy, however, realises none of this and wonders if she has ‘gone for 99s?’

Dramatic irony is constantly used by Doyle throughout the extract. Through the different actions of Ma, Da and Paddy the readers pick up on the subtext. With Paddy, the reader can see that he is worried about where his Ma had gone through his questions and eagerness to rub ‘the wet off the inside of the window’ to search for her. With the parents, when Ma returns to the car and says ‘it was too wet for Cathy’, Paddy thinls nothing of it. The reader, on the hand, knows that she is telling Da that she hasn’t come back because she forgives him, but for their daughter.

Doyle uses the way Paddy tells his story to show his age in the sense that his naivity prevents him from seeing the significance of his parents actions. Firstly, Paddy seems to be thinking aloud at some points as he goes through his thought process. This can be seen when he is discussing the biscuits and says he’d ‘keep the polo till last.’ These thoughts are unnecessary details that an adult wouldn’t have bothered to say.

Secondly, Paddy seems to switch between the two occurrences in the car: the biscuits with Sinbad and himself in the back and his Ma and Da with Catherine in the front. When Ma gets out of the car and Da ‘leaned over and grabbed the passenger door handle and pulled the door shut’, Paddy switches from this to talking about Sinbad ‘licking his hand’ and then back to focusing on Sinbad but then he realised he didn’t know where his Ma had gone so he reverted back again to his parents and started asking questions.

Roddy Doyle uses the narrative voice of Paddy to create the voice of a ten year old by giving his idiolect simple colloquial vocabulary and sentences. He also uses declarative sentences and subtext to create a child’s naivety to their parents behaviour.