The Snapper Essays - Roddy Doyle, The Snapper, The Van,

The Snapper Roddy Doyle. Title: The Snapper (Snapper stands for a baby, child, kid, which is the main matter of the book. The story evolves around the pregnancy of the main character. But to snap means you change moods very easily, beeause of the hormonal changes during a pregnancy. Information about the book: This book was first printed in 1990. My copy: Blackbird, 183 pages. Publisher: Wolters Noordhoff. Biography: Roddy Doyle was born in 1958 in Dublin and has grown up there, in Kilbarrack, to be precise. Kilbarrack is a suburb in the north of Dublin, close to the sea. He was a Geography and English teacher there and thus stayed in touch with all generations of his neighbourhood. He loves that part of town and knows that inside the aggressive, foul mouthed, drunken eejits there is (more often than not) a heart of gold. At one point Doyle felt that the only way to express his true love and sympathy for the suffering people around them was to write about them. His first book The Commitments was made into a very succesful movie by Alan Parker and it helped to establish Roddy Doyle's reputation as a writer of best- sellers Bibliography: The Commitments (1987). The Snapper (1990) The Van (1991). Paddy Clake Ha Ha Ha (1993). The Woman Who Walked into Doors (1996). Genre: lt's a novel about a working-class family which has to deal with the pregnancy of the daughter. Motto: This book is delicated to Belinda Characters: Main Characters. -Sharon, a girl being pregnant and giving birth to a child of a married man from the neighbourhood. -George Burgess, the father of Sharon's child. -Veronica, the mother of Sharon. -Jimmy sr, Sharon's father. Minor Characters -Jimmy jr, Sharon's brother who has decided to be a famous discjockey. -Tracy, Linda (= twins), Darren and Les, the rest of Sharon's brothers and sisters. -Yvonne, Jackie and Mary, these are the best friends of Sharon, with whom she spends quite a lot of their time (and money) in a pub, getting ?pissed? (=drunk) -Paddy, Bertie and Bimbo, the pals of Jimmy sr. Ordering of time: The story is built up very simple, it is told chronologically. Setting: The setting, like most of Doyle's work, is a suburb exactly like the one he lives in himself. He calls it Barrytown, and it is a working class-suburb with tiny houses, lots of children in the streets, unemployment and heavy drinking (barry means happy in Irish). Narration: The story is told by the omniscient point of view, so the reader gets an insight in what the characters are thinking and feeling, or when Sharon is feeling pain or sickness during her pregnancy, or when Jimmy sr. was mad at Sharon because she was pregnant and wouldn't tell him who the father was. Language: The English being used by the characters is mostly Irish dialect, which means that they pronounce ?jezus? like ?jayses?, and they use lots of insulting words. You could say they speak slang. Theme: In Barrytown excists a great sense of togetherness both within the family and in the local community, but sometimes things happens which can cause a divide. Sharon getting pregnant of a married man and not telling who he was, is an example of such an event. The book could also be entitled as: ?Nine months in the life of a family in a Dublin suburb?. Plot/outline: The Rabibitte family lives in Barrytown, a north-Dublin suburb. One day, after dinner, Sharon Rabbitte tells her parents that she is pregnant. The father and Sharon are having a big row, because she refuses to tell who the father of the child is. Sharon goes to buy a book which describes the details of pregnancy. When she is in her 1 l th week signs start to show. The time has come to tell her friends, but she keeps postponing it, because she knew they would ask who the father is. Her friends are sympathetic and delighted for her. One night Bimbo, a pal of Jimmy sr, told him that he heard that George Burgess said that Sharon was a great little ride. Jimmy sr. was furious and wanted to crease him. When