Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha: by Roddy Doyle

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is a captivating and humorous novel by Roddy Doyle. The protagonist Paddy Clarke, participates in many childhood adventures and events throughout the novel to continue to collect more information about his questions in life from his friends and parents. Seeing as Paddy's friends know just as much as Paddy, the only true information he gains is from his parents. The book was almost as if Paddy Clarke had wrote down his thoughts and feelings when he had an interesting situation in his life, causing the book to skip days, weeks, and even months of Paddy's life. Roddy Doyle had wrote this novel to have no direct plot line, but only for the reader to follow Paddy Clarke through his interesting thought process in different situations as a ten year old boy.

Roddy Doyle was easily able to capture the thoughts of the ten year old Irish boy Paddy Clarke. Continuously, Paddy Clarke had used Irish slang words and had always thought in the way an average ten year old does. The book was brought to life because of this and the reader would be able to believe this was an actual ten year old writing down his interesting stories every few days. Throughout the novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Paddy had always asked questions to his peers and his parents to develop more of an understanding of things that concerned him in his life. The more information Paddy receives, the more his character develops and becomes more intelligent. Roddy Doyle was also able to write dialogue between characters in Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha brilliantly. Doyle had mastered the transition between the dialogue with Paddy's parents and the dialogue between Paddy and his friends. This was important because all of the ten year old boys should not have been speaking like adults, and Roddy Doyle was able to separate the two different kinda of dialogue.

"I stood near Sinbad; he was my brother and he was holding a dead rat in his hand." (page 74) This quotation appealed to me because it showed the random thoughts of Paddy Clarke. The reader already knows Sinbad is Paddy's brother, yet Roddy Doyle repeats it in this manner for use of humor in this situation that the boys are in. When I read this passage, I had laughed because it shows that Paddy is shocked that Sinbad actually picked up the rat.

"'It's for sewerage,' said Liam. 'What's sewerage?' 'Gick,' I said." (page 105) This passage is an example of the words that Paddy would make up throughout the book as a type of slang. This passage also shows the type of information Paddy and his friends would share with each other which was not correct. Because of this, the characters do develop, but they develop in their own way with each other by feeding off of one an others true or false information.

"'What are fish-fingers made of?' 'Fish.' 'What kind of fish?' 'Cod,' said my ma, 'White fish.' 'Why do they-' 'No more questions till you're finished.' That was my da.'Everything on the plate,' he said. 'Then you can ask your questions.'" (page 140) This dialogue between Paddy, Sinbad, and Paddy's mother and father shows how Paddy Clarke and his friends or brother would gain proper information from adults such as Paddy and Sinbad's parents. It also proves that Paddy likes to ask many questions to his parents to gain information when his father says, "No more questions till you're finished."