‘A kestrel for a knave’ was written in the 1960s when single mothers especially in the working class society such as Mrs Casper, were looked down upon. Billy, her son went to a secondary modern school where education was seen as unimportant and so he did not get much motivation from school or family to do well. The novel is structured over a period of one day. This is so we get to see everything in detail and so can identify and engage with Billy, Mrs Casper and the rest of the characters.
Hines chose to write the novel in third person because if it was written by Billy, the readers wouldn’t be able to read it, firstly because he has a strong Yorkshire accent and secondly because he is illiterate. However the narrator follows Billy’s every step so it’s like we still see everything through Billy’s eyes. Barry Hines partly wrote this novel to show that single mothers, like Mrs Casper struggle and so should be helped not looked down upon.
Hines presents Mrs Casper in the passage, as a mother that doesn’t know how to deal with a problem. ‘O shut up no then!’ you’ve cried long enough about it’ we can see that Mrs Casper doesn’t know how to deal with the situation. Instead of comforting Billy, she shouts at him and doesn’t show him any sympathy. Mrs Casper doesn’t understand Billy. She doesn’t know that the hawk is the only thing that Billy is interested in. the fact that Jud has taken it away now she doesn’t realise this and says, ‘but its only a bird. You can get another cant you?’ this probably makes the reader think that Mrs Casper is uncaring because Billy has spent days and moths training that hawk. However, she does know that what Jud did was wrong, even though Billy took his money, as she tells him off. ‘It wa’a a rotten trick, Jud’.
In the beginning of the novel we already get an impression of Mrs Casper even though we haven’t met her. ‘There were a packet of dried peas and a half bottle of vinegar on the shelves’ we get the impression that Mrs Casper doesn’t provide her family with any breakfast or food as everything is empty. The readers get the impression that she doesn’t really care if Billy has any food to eat, especially when he has a long day ahead of him.
Mrs Casper doesn’t provide Billy with food but also dresses inappropriately’ his mother was standing in her underslip, a lip stick poised at her mouth..’. The readers get the impression that she dresses in a slatternly way and how no respect for herself. Hines shows this as she says ‘ is that you Reg?’ Mrs Casper again shows she has no respect for herself as she sleeps with any man Mrs casper doesn’t see education as important as she doesn’t care if Billy has gone to school ‘o’its you Billy, Havent you gone to school yet?’ She pesters Billy into buying her ‘fags’ when he will be late for school ‘I cant, ill be late’ clearly a caring mother should care more about her childs education than her cigarettes.
Billy clearly shows in his ‘Tall Story that Mrs Casper isn’t the mother role he wants. He dreams his mum of providing him with food, as many items of food get mentioned in the ‘tall story’ such as ‘backen, ‘egg’, ‘bread’, ‘butter’ which in reality he doesn’t get. In conclusion, Hines presents Mrs Casper as an uncaring mother, to show that single mothers were looked down upon in society.
