The snapper door Roddy Doyle

My expectations and first reaction to the book:
It seemed a very nice book, when I saw it for the first time. It book appeals to me, because the main character is a girl and the book looked also girlish.



Summary:
The main character of the book is the twenty year old Sharon Rabbitte. She lives in Barrytown (that is a nort-Dublin suburb) with her mother Veronica, father Jimmy Sr., brother Jimmy Jr., brother Darren, brother Les, the dog Larrygogan and the twins Tracy and Linda. After a night of going out, she is so drunk that she has a one-night-stand with Mister Burgess. Mister Burgess was a married man. Sharon were pregnant after that night. First, she told her parents that she was pregnant, but she didn’t say of who it was. The only thing she said was that she wouldn’t married him. First she was afraid to say anything to anybody else because she was afraid of their reaction. Later, she has also told her three best friends. These are Mary, Jackie and Yvonne. She has also told to her brothers and sisters that she was pregnant then. She didn’t say who the father was to them either. Sharon has bought a book about pregnancy. In this way she can take good care of herself. The father of Sharon goes a lot to the pub with his friends; Bimbo, Paddy and Bertie. Bimbo had told the father of Sharon, Jimmy Sr., that George Burgess (Mister Burgess) called Sharon a great little ride. Jimmy Sr. was very angry of it and he told that to Sharon. After that she had heard that, Sharon went to Mister Burgess to say that if he said anything of her again, she will say it to Missis Burgess. At this point of the book, you knew that he was the father of Sharon’s baby. After this conversation, Mister Burgess ran away from his wife and children. Yvonne, the girlfriend of Sharon, was one of his children. He had told Missis Burgess in a letter that he had a baby by someone else, so everybody said that he had a baby by Sharon. After this was happened, Sharon were called names as little ride etc. Also at her work. After a few days, when she came home from work, she received a letter from Mister Burgess. He wanted to see her. Sharon wouldn’t see him. Sharon told everyone that she has a baby of a Spanish sailor. She tried to deny the gossips of Mister Burgess and her with this. Everybody believed her except her father. He was also thinking that everyone laughed at him because Sharon was pregnant. He tries to explain Sharon that the family is in a difficult situation by her. To clarify this, he ignores her for a while. Sharon notices this behavior and confronts him with it. When she says she goes away from home because of the behavior of Jimmy Sr., Jimmy Sr. makes his apology. He also bought a book of pregnancy. He is almost more nervous than Sharon. A few days after this, Sharon gives birth to a daughter, Georgina, but Sharon calls her George. She looks like Mister Burgess, but Sharon doesn’t care.



Facts:
Title : ‘The Snapper’
Author : Roddy Doyle
Editor : Vintage
Year of publication : 1990
Total number of pages : 183 pages



Biography of the writer:
Roddy Doyle was born in 1958 in Dublin in Kilbarrack. This is also the city where he grows up. It is a suburb in the north of Dublin. His mother was Ita Bolger Doyle. She was the first niece of the short story writer Maeve Brennan. Roddy Doyle has studied at the University College Dublin to become an English and geography teacher at the Greendale Community School in Kilbarrack. He were also a teacher at the greendale community school in killbarack. He has been a teacher for fourteen years. As a teacher he always wanted to know a lot of his students and about people. That had to do with the neighborhood where he lived. He always tried to see good things in people. Even at aggressive or drunk people. He saw that behind the face of an aggressive or drunk person there can be a lot more. He found that this people suffer, because they are often poor and unemployed. Writing was his way to make this clear to many people. He started writing in 1993. Most of his books are about Barrytown. He writes about Barrytown, because it is similar to where he now lives and works. His books are about the working class in Dublin. In his first book, Roddy Doyle said this about the people from Barrytown; ‘The Irish are the niggers of Europa, the people of Dublin of Ireland and the people of Barrytown are the niggers of Dublin. Roddy Doyle combines humor and drama in his books and is very succesful by that. Some of his books have been filmed. The three books from the ‘Barrytown trilogy’ (consisting of ‘The Commitments’, ‘The Snapper and ‘The Van’ ) have been filmed. In 1993 he has won the Booker Prize for the book ´Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha’ from 1994. His work was in many different languages translated. His books are difficult to read, because it is written with an Irish accent. He wrote many different kind of books. The themes of his books are novel, non-fiction, theatre and books for children.



Bibliography of the main work of the writer:
- Novels
* The Commitments ; A group of Dublin Teenagers, led by Jimmy Rabbitte Jr., decide to form a soul band in the tradition of Wilson Pickett.
* The Snapper ; Jimmy's sister, Sharon, becomes pregnant. She is determined to have the child but refuses to reveal the father's identity to her family.
* The Van ; Jimmy Sr. is laid off, as is his friend Bimbo. Bimbo buys a used fish and chips van and the two go into business for themselves.
* Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha; The world as described, understood and misunderstood by a ten-year-old Dubliner.

- Short stories
* The Woman Who Walked Into Doors; A story of a battered wife, narrated by the victim; despite her husband's increasingly violent behaviour, she defends him, using the classic excuse "I walked into a door" to explain her bruises.
* A Star Called Henry ; The story of Henry Smart, an IRA assassin and 1916 Easter Rebellion fighter, from his birth in Dublin to his adulthood when he becomes a father.
* Oh, Play that Thing ; Henry Smart's adventures in 1924 America, specifically the Lower East Side of New York City, where he catches the attention of local mobsters by hiring kids to carry his sandwich boards. He also goes to Chicago where he becomes a business partner with Louis Armstrong.
* Paula Spencer ; Ten years after The Woman Who Walked into Doors, its protagonist returns.

- Drama
* Brownbread
* War
* Guess Who’s Coming to the Dinner
* Bisi Adigun (The Playboy of the Western World)

- TV series
* The Family
* The Commitments ; A group of Dublin Teenagers, led by Jimmy Rabbitte Jr., decide to form a soul band in the
tradition of Wilson Pickett.
* The Snapper ; Jimmy's sister, Sharon, becomes pregnant. She is determined to have the child but refuses to reveal the father's identity to her family.
* The Van ; Jimmy Sr. is laid off, as is his friend Bimbo. Bimbo buys a used fish and chips van and the two go into
business for themselves.
* When Brendan Met Trudy
* No Messin’ With The Monkeys!

- Children books
* The Giggler Treatment
* Rover Saves Christmas
* The Meanwhile Adventures
* Wilderness
* Her Mother’s Face
* No Just for Christmas



A character description of the main characters in the book in your own words:

Main characters:

- Sharon
She’s a young twenty years old woman. She lives by her parents Veronica and Jimmy Sr. and her five brothers and sisters. She became pregnant by George Burgess, which was a married man, after a night going out when she was drunk. Despite the problems she has during her pregnancy, she continues her pregnancy. After nine months she gets her child, a girl, called Georgina. Sharon has a lot of secrets during her pregnancy. She is very strong with that. She doesn’t tell her family or her friends who the father is of the child. She has many friends in the pub, but there’s no one who is her best friend, a friend who she can tell all her problems.

- Veronica
She is the mother of Sharon. She is not so involved by the pregnancy of Sharon. She is more concerned with making dresses for Linda and Tracy. She has a good character.

- Jimmy Sr.
He is the father of Sharon. He goes a lot to the pub. He is more involved with the pregnancy of Sharon than his wife Veronica. He is also more shocked. He want to know who the father is. He also bought a book to read about pregnancy and is more nervous than Sharon about it. Jimmy Sr. loves his family. Jimmy Sr. goes a lot to the pub with his friends.

- George Burgess
He is the father of the baby of Sharon. He is trying to escape from the reality. At one moment he writes a letter and he is going away from home. Sharon is the only one who knows where he is.

- Jimmy Jr.
He is the little brother of Sharon. He want to become a DJ and get lessons to improve his pronunciation. He performs often at home, to the annoyance of the rest of the family.



Title explanation:
Another word for ‘snapper’ is ‘baby’. The theme of this book is the pregnancy of Sharon, so the book is called ‘the snapper’.



Explanation of the following literary terms with examples from the book:

Genre
The genre of the book is a realistic novel. It is a realistic, because many things from this time, (for example a TV, etc.) occur in the book. It is a novel because it deals with Sharon who got pregnant by a married man. That brought much problems for her. Therefore is it an realistic novel.

Example:
Jimmy Jr. was upstairs in the boys’ room doing his D.J. practice. Darren was in the front room watching Police Academy II on the video.



Setting
The story is written in the present and the length of the story is nine months. It begins when Sharon tells her parents that she is pregnant and it ends when she is getting a baby. Example:

Sharon is tells she is pregnant;

- You’re wha’? said Jimmy Rabbitte Sr.

He said it loudly.

- You heard me, said Sharon

Jimmy Sr. was upstairs in the boy’s room doing his D.J. practice. Darren was in the front room watching Police Academy II on the video… Sharon was pregnant and she’d just told her father that she thought she was. She’d told her mother earlier, before the dinner.

Sharon becomes a baby;

Sharon was able to look at her in the crib there without having to lift her head. That was nice.

…… She lifted her hand – it weighted a ton – and wiped her eyes.

- Ah, said the woman. – Were yeh cryin’?

- No, said Sharon. I was laughin’.

The whole story is in Barrytown. Barrytown is a north-Dublin suburb. Dublin is located in Ireland. The story also takes place at home by the family Rabbitte and in the pub.

Example:

- Wha’ does Jimmy be doin’ up there when he’s shoutin’, yeh know, abou’t bein all over Ireland? He asked Sharon.



Theme’s
The themes of the book are being pregnant from a married man with all its problems there, lying and acceptance.

Example:

- - You’re wha’? said Jimmy Rabbitte Sr.

He said it loudly.

- You heard me, said Sharon

Jimmy Sr. was upstairs in the boy’s room doing his D.J. practice. Darren was in the front room watching Police Academy II on the video… Sharon was pregnant and she’d just told her father that she thought she was. She’d told her mother earlier, before the dinner.

- - Who was it?

- Wha’t? ----- Oh. I don’t know.

- Ah now, Jaysis ---!

- No, I do know

- Well, then?

- I’m not tellin’.

- Jimmy Sr. could feel himself getting a bit angry now. That was better.

- Sharon was nearly crying now. She was loving this.

- What abou’ the baby?

Jimmy Sr. breathed deeply and looked out the window, and looked at Sharon. Hiws eyes were shiny again.

- I feel like a fuckin’ eejit. ------ I love you Sharon. An’ it’ll be your baby, so I’ll love it as well.



Style
Roddy Doyle writes his books with an Irish accent. He also uses many curse words in this book.

Example:

---- Ah ----! ----- fuck -----

He shook himself. His chin was wet, and a bit of his shirt.

---- Ah Jaysis, he gave out to himself. ---- Yeh fuckin’ baby, yeh.

He looked at the telly. Cricket.

---- Ah, fuckin’ hell.



Structure
The story is told chronologically. There is one flashback, when Sharon was becoming pregnant by Mister Burgess at a party. The story is divided into small chapters separated by asterisks. Most of the book consists of dialogues. Sometimes is an idea of a person described. The end of the book is an open end.

Example:

***

She didn’t wait at her usual bus-stop, across from work. She kept going, around the corner to the stop with the shelter. There was no one else there.

She couldn’t stop crying. She wasn’t Trying to stop.

She leaned her back against the shelter ad. She gulped, and let herself slide down to the ground. She fell the last bit. She didn’t know how she’d get up again. She didn’t care.

She gulped, and gulped, and cried.

***




My explanation or quotation from the book that represent an important aspect of the book:
An important aspect of the book is when you find out that Mister Burgess is the father of the baby of Sharon. That's an important moment, because hereafter gets Sharon all kinds of problems. Mr. Burgess run away from home because he still likes Sharon. Then, he writes a letter to his wife, Missis Burgess, where he says he has a child by anyone else. Everyone says that Sharon the girl is. From this point gets the book a whole different twist.

A quote from the book:

She walked into the fron room. Mister Burgess shut the door. He was shakinig and red.

--- Wha’ do yeh think you’re up to, yeh little bitch, he hissed.

--- Wha’ d’yeh think YOU’RE up to, yeh little bastard?

He didn’t hiss now.

--- Wha’?

--- Wha’ were yeh sayin about me to your friends? Said Sharon.

--- I didn’t say ann’thin’ to annyone.

It was an aggressive answer but there was a tail on it.

--- You said I was a ride. Didn’t yeh?



Evaluation and final verdict:
It was a separate book. you could learn a lot from it . It was a pity that there were many invectives and it was hard to read the Irish accent. After a while, I found the subject also a bit too wordy. I won´t read the book again. My mark for the book will be a 6,5.