Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Essays - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Roddy Doyle

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Essays - Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Roddy Doyle Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha The novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha has no authorial presence at all, yet the reader gains a richer understanding of the situation than Paddy or any other 10-year old could ever have. With regard to the parents break up, how does Doyle achieve this? There are many factors which suggest how Doyle has succeeded in creating a 'triangular relationship' between himself the reader and the narrator Paddy Clarke so that the reader has a greater awareness of the predicament that Paddy is in. Doyles achievement is how he alternates the poetic and realistic without once lapsing into stream-of-self-consciousness; the only way we - as readers can tell it's written by an adult, is by the spelling. We see the violence in Paddy's life peripherally; Doyle tells us nothing more than what the child sees and comprehends. One of the reasons for Roddy Doyles success lies in creating a realistic and convincing character for a 10-year old child. He does this by his clever use of language, and also in how he arranges his sentences to convey deep emotion and feeling than any emotive language could: Hed hit her. Across the face; smack. I tried to imagine it. It didnt make sense. Id heard it; hed hit her. Shed come out of the kitchen, straight up to their bedroom. Across the face. P190 In this instance, Doyle has used short and evident sentences, to invoke a feeling of awe and confusion. The short sentences represent how Paddy is dumbstruck and lost for words, shocked by what hes heard this is also highlighted when he says here; I tried to imagine it. It didnt make sense. Here, he also emphatically uses onomatopoeia smack, which adds to the sense of fearful respect and also Paddys child-like interpretation of events. Repetition is used here Across the face heading his oft-repeated amazement. Another example of how Doyle uses repetition can be seen on pages 153 and 154: I waited for them to say something different, wanting it - Only now, all I could do was listen and wish. I didnt pray; there were no prayers for this. But I rocked the same way as I did when I was saying prayers.I rocked - Stop stop stop stop . Doyle uses repetition to show Paddys anxiety, when he repeats stop. Here, Paddy is mentally commanding his parents to stop in desperation, as he thought he had done on page 42: - Stop. There was a gap. It had worked; Id forced them to stop. He believes that he has the power to make his parents stop arguing, as shown on page 42, but realisation dawns when he repeatedly tells them to stop on page 154, and it doesnt work. This reflects on the fact that Paddy Clarke is a child, and his inability to restrain his emotions is a facet of his youth showing through. Another childish aspect throughout the book is how Paddy like other children at that age would spouts offhand irrelevant knowledge thats hes picked up from class or elsewhere: Snails and slugs were gastropods; they had stomach feet. The real name for soccer was association football. Association football was played with a round ball on a rectangular pitch by two sides of eleven people... Geronimo was the last of the renegade Apaches I learned this by heart. I liked it. Readers can relate to this, as we can all remember when wed learnt something that wed found particularly fascinating at school or the library, and recited it all the time, thinking we were clever. Another reason why the reader of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha has a higher understanding than is simply because the adult audience has more experience in family issues from our own experiences. We can see the violence in his life superficially; we are told nothing more than what the child sees and comprehends. A good example of this can be found on page 95: Ma said something to Da. I didnt hear it. I looked at ma again. She was still looking at Da. Catherine had one of Mas fingers in her mouth and she was biting real hard she had a few teeth but Ma didnt do

Biography of Bessie Blount, American Inventor

Biography of Bessie Blount, American Inventor Bessie Blount (November 24, 1914–December 30, 2009) was an American physical therapist, forensic scientist, and inventor. While working with injured soldiers after World War II, she developed a device that allowed amputees to feed themselves; it delivered one mouthful of food at a time to patients whenever they bit down on a tube. Griffin later invented a receptacle that was a simpler and smaller version of the same, designed to be worn around a patients neck. Fast Facts: Bessie Blount Known For: While working as a physical therapist, Blount invented assistive devices for amputees; she later made contributions to the field of forensic science.Also Known As: Bessie Blount GriffinBorn: November 24, 1914 in Hickory, VirginiaDied: December 30, 2009 in Newfield, New JerseyEducation: Panzer College  of Physical Education and Hygiene (now Montclair State University)Awards and Honors: Virginia Women in History Honoree Early Life Bessie Blount was born in Hickory, Virginia, on November 24, 1914. She received her primary education at Diggs Chapel Elementary School, an institution that served African-Americans. However, a lack of public resources forced her to end her education before she had completed middle school. Blounts family then moved from Virginia to New Jersey. There, Blount taught herself the material required to earn her GED. In Newark, she studied to be a nurse at Community Kennedy Memorial Hospital. She went on to study at the Panzer College of Physical Education (now Montclair State University) and became a certified physical therapist. Physical Therapy After finishing her training, Blount began working as a physical therapist at the Bronx Hospital in New York. Many of her patients were soldiers who had been wounded during World War II. Their injuries, in some cases, prevented them from performing basic tasks, and Blounts job was to help them learn new ways to do these things using their feet or teeth. Such work was not only physical rehabilitation; its goal was also to help veterans regain their independence and sense of control. Inventions Blounts patients faced numerous challenges, and one of the biggest was finding and developing new ways to eat on their own. For many amputees, this was especially difficult. To help them, Blount invented a device that delivered one bite of food at a time through a tube. Each bite was released when the patient bit down on the tube. This invention allowed amputees and other injured patients to eat without assistance from a nurse. Despite its usefulness, Blount was unable to successfully market her invention, and she found no support from the United States Veterans Administration. She later donated the patent rights to her self-feeding device to the French government. The French put the device to good use, making life much easier for many war veterans. Later, when asked why she gave away the device for free, Blount said she wasnt interested in money; she simply wanted to prove that black women were capable of more than [nursing] babies and [cleaning] toilets. Blount continued to search for new ways to improve the lives of her patients. Her next invention was a portable receptacle support, which hung around the neck and allowed patients to hold objects near their face. The device was designed to hold a cup or a bowl, from which patients could sip using a straw. In 1951, Blount officially received a patent for her self-feeding device; it was filed under her married name, Bessie Blount Griffin. In 1953, she became the first woman and the first African-American to appear on the television show The Big Idea, where she exhibited some of her inventions. While working as a physical therapist for Theodore Miller Edison, the son of inventor Thomas Edison, Blount developed a design for a disposable emesis basin (the receptacle used to collect bodily fluids and waste in hospitals). Blount used a combination of newspaper, flour, and water to produce a material similar to papier-mache. With this, she made her first disposable emesis basins, which would have saved hospital workers from having to clean and sanitize the stainless steel basins used at the time. Once again, Blount presented her invention to the Veterans Administration, but the group had no interest in her design. Blount patented the invention and sold the rights to a medical supplies company in Belgium instead. Her disposable emesis basin is still used in Belgian hospitals today. Forensic Science Blount eventually retired from physical therapy. In 1969, she began working as a forensic scientist, assisting law enforcement officers in New Jersey and Virginia. Her main role was to translate the academic findings of forensic science research into practical guidelines and tools for officers on the ground. Over the course of her career, she became interested in the relationship between handwriting and human health; Blount had observed that writing- a fine-motor skill- could be affected by different forms of disease, including dementia and Alzheimers. Her inquiries into this area led her to publish a groundbreaking paper on medical graphology. Soon Blount was in high demand for her expertise in this emerging field. During the 1970s, she assisted police departments across New Jersey and Virginia, and she even served for a time as a chief examiner. In 1977, she was invited to London to assist British police with handwriting analysis. Blount became the first African-American woman to work for Scotland Yard. Death Blount died in Newfield, New Jersey, on December 30, 2009. She was 95 years old. Legacy Blount made major contributions in both the medical and forensic science fields. She is best remembered for the assistive devices she invented as a physical therapist and for her innovative work in graphology. Sources Inventors and Inventions. Marshall Cavendish, 2008.McNeill, Leila. The Woman Who Made a Device to Help Disabled Veterans Feed Themselves-and Gave It Away for Free. Smithsonian Institution, 17 Oct. 2018.Morrison, Heather S. Inventors of Health and Medical Technology. Cavendish Square, 2016.Overlooked No More: Bessie Blount, Nurse, Wartime Inventor and Handwriting Expert.The New York Times, 28 Mar. 2019.