An Essay to Show How Billy Is Treated in A Kestrel for a Knave

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 off every night drinking. If you take this all into consideration these factors help amplify any feeling we get when a character interacts with our underdog, Billy.

The first character I will look at is Billy’s Mother. Billy’s Mother is a bit of a sleep around; this is implied because when we first meet her in the novel she mistakes Billy entering the house for her current boyfriend Reg. During this scene it is also implied that she doesn't really care too much about Billy or that she is a bit neglectful as she asks Billy for a cigarette even though he is only 15 and asks him to basically steal some cigarettes, eggs, butter, and bread from the local store. We also see that she is neglectful because when she is going out to the pub she leaves him money for ‘some pop an’ some crisps’ as dinner. She is not much of a mother as the description of the house at the start of the novel proves; it is cold, unwelcoming and there is no food there are clothes strewn around piled on furniture which shows that she doesn’t care too much about keeping things tidy she is also a coward and doesn’t stand up to her own son Jud. Personally I see Mrs Casper as being a pathetic role model; she doesn’t care about Billy’s health and treats him as her own persona...

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...s talked with Billy more than once, he also knows about Billy’s history with the police and how he was constantly getting into trouble but instead of judging him on it Mr Farthing makes sure that he isn’t getting into trouble and offers alternatives to roaming the streets with MacDowell’s gang like youth clubs. Mr Farthing is the only adult in the book that treats Billy properly in my opinion, also because everyone else sort of bullies him it makes Mr Farthing seem all the more kinder.

Overall Billy is treated very badly by his family and teachers bar Mr Farthing who acts as a sort of father figure towards Billy, Mr Farthing is also the only one who takes any interest in Billy’s talents and interests. As I said before Billy is most certainly an underdog but that just helps the reader feel for him even more because you can empathise with Billy in some way or another.