Families Portrayed In Roddy Doyles Books Essay -- essays research pape

Families Portrayed In Roddy Doyles Books     Why do we hear so much about family these days? Perhaps it is becauserelationships in the midst of family members are assumed to be the prototype for solelyother social relations. In the novels, The Commitments, The Snapper and The Van,Roddy Doyle shows his support of the family as an institution. Each characterdemonstrates strength and direction within the family unit. However, when thestability of the family is threatened, distributively character breaks down along with thefamily itself.     When we think of family life we associate happiness, a life of sharingmemories and developing unbreakable friendships. It is swooning to create a familythat is make believe, we just tend to leave the ugly side of the relationshipout. It may be true that there is a family that lives kindred the "Cleavers" inour society today, but speaking realistically every family will breakdowneventually. In an interview about his novels the author said, "I didnt garb outto capture the good in every family, or bad for that matter, I just precious toshow a typical Irish family."1 Doyles writing is real--he deals with issuesthat might not hit home with every reader however, they are events thatconfront many people every day. The Rabbitte family is used in all three novelsthat make up the "Barrytown Trilogy." While the times are both good and bad forthe eight members of this Irish family, in around way they bump a way overcomeevery problem that faces them.      peerless of Doyles strengths is his feel for personality his characters areneither devils nor clowns, dolts nor wits, but wobble between the extremes."Theyre fish gutters and mechanics, unripe knockabouts and unemployed workerswho spend a lot of time watching T.V. drinking Guinness and jawing at the pub,trying to stave off the feelings that they are nondescript people in anondescript world.&q uot2     The Commitments is Doyles first full-length novel. The main characterJimmy Rabbitte, the eldest son, puts together a band. It is almost everyteenagers dream, at some point, to be famous playing music in front of largegroups of people. In fact, this is how this book started off. In the end,however, it turns out to be the complete opposite. Doyle captures ... ... about unemployment and welfare. One night when thefamily is eating Darren says something to upset his father whose reply is           "Darren, dont you forget who paid for tha dinner in front ofyou, son, righ          -I know who paid for it, said Darren. -The state did."7     This reaction not only made Jimmy Sr. upset but, he came to terms withthe fact that he was going nowhere and if he wanted things to get better he hadbetter get a job soon.     The Rabittes may have gone through times when they wanted to kill eachother, but other times they cared. Doyle is a down-to-earth writer, he showsthe way of life for many families with the use of slang in his writing and hisabillity to capture brainpower when the times are hard. The Rabbitte family sharedmany bonds, they had many memories and of course many fights, but they are afamily. They may be fictional but they even out a modern family. It is truethat when the stability of the family is threatened, each character breaks downalong with the family itself.