I have recently finished reading the novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle. While reading the book I noticed that it tracks the development of Patrick Clarke (paddy), how he grows and matures through the book from an innocent ten year old boy to a character who in the end is fairly isolated and tragic. All of the incidents in his life maybe forced him to grow up quicker than the other boys is age, his friends.
Paddy Clarke is a ten-year-old boy growing up in Barrytown, Dublin in 1968. He lives in a small Catholic community with his family. He reads with a child's voraciousness and collects facts and bits of information wherever he can. He has a kind of innocence that only small children can posses. The following quote is an example of this. "Heaven was supposed to be a great place but nobody knew much about it. There were mansions - "one each?" - "Yes" "Do you have to live by yourself?" Father Moloney didn't answer quickly enough. "Can your ma not live with you?" She can of course."" But towards the end of the book he becomes more mature, most of his innocence is lost, by the very end he is almost cynical. "When my da left or even my ma I was going to go out and play. I was going to go into school the next day with my homework done. I wanted to be like Charles Leavy Charles didn't dare anyone; he"d gone further than that; he didn't know they were there, I wanted to get that far I wanted to look at my ma and da and not feel anything. I wanted to be ready.".
By trying to be like Charles Leavy, Paddy isolates himself from the other children, the boys that used to be his friends. For example Paddy and Kevin were best friends, Kevin lives down the road and a large portion of "Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha" involves the trouble they get into together so it is surprising when they have a fight.
"Kevin was waiting. He"d told some other fella's. They were waiting I didn't care. I wasn't scared.