Oakley Purchase
English 150
Wednesday 20 November 2013, 5 p.m. section
Background: After continual harassment of Mrs Nugent, Francis is sent to a reform, or 'industrial', school. Francis manages to manipulate his way through various situations and begins a deeply dark relationship with one of the priests named Father Sullivan, or "Tiddly".
Passage: Begins on page 84: I was in the middle of one of these stories when I look up and what's old Sull doing only smoothing my hair back from my eyes and stroking away at my forehead with his pale cold hand. Look at you, he said, my serving boy. Introibo ad Altare Dei I said I don't know why and the next thing what does Sull do only plant this big slobbery wet kiss right on my lips. Then he said please, tell me the story of St Teresa of the Roses again. So I did, all about the petals falling out of the sky and the smell of perfume what was the perfume like he kept saying. I nearly said look Father do you want me to tell the story or not because if you do will you please stop interrupting? But I didn't for you never knew with Father Tiddly he might start crying or anything. When I told the story sweatbeads as big as berries popped out on his forehead and when it was over he starting muttering and fumbling around the place going this way and going that way and going noweher at the same time. It wasn't until the third or fourth time I told this story about the roses that he began the Tiddly show. I thought it was a great laugh with all the prizes you could win out of it.
The Double-World: Patrick McCabe creates a story in which the reader is placed into the unstable, disillusioned and psychologically twisted fantasy world of Francis Brady, while simultaneously being aware of the real events occurring. Obviously in this specific passage we are aware that Francis' creation of the "Tiddly show" is actually the occurrence of child molestation. This type of writing requires the reader to actively engage with the text. McCabe said, I didn't make that many concessions to the reader
, and his text was merged together without clear divisions. This invokes similarities between Butcher Boy and Ulysses. While the two texts differ in many regards there are noticeable parallels. ***Ask the class if they made the same connection, and where they see the similarities***