Fear
Sinbad’s lips had “disappeared” because he was “pressing them shut so hard.” Paddy and other boys “couldn’t get his mouth open.” Kevin “pressed the fuel capsule” against Sinbad’s mouth but “it wouldn’t go in.” Patrick even had to “pinch Sinbad’s arm,” but “no good.” The little boy refused to give up. According to Patrick, the whole situation was “terrible,” not because he was sorry for his little brother, but because he, Patrick, “couldn’t sort out” his “little brother.” He felt an urge to “hurt him.” Sinbad’s eyes were “closed” but the tears were “getting out.” Patrick held his nose, the little boy gasped, and Kevin shoved the capsule “half-way into his mouth.” Then Liam lit it with the match. It went “like a dragon.” This imagery evokes a feeling of fear, for Sinbad can’t really do anything against three older boys.
The Old Sofa
Liam and Aidan’s house was “darker” than Patrick’s. That was “because of the sun, not because it was scruffy dirty.” It wasn’t really “dirty,” the way “a lot of people said it was.” It was just that “all the chairs and things were bursting and falling apart.” “Messing on the sofa” was “great” because it was “full of hollows,” and nobody ever told the boys “to get off it.” They got up “on the arm, onto the back and jumped.” Two of them would get “onto the back and have a duel.” This imagery evokes a feeling of carefree happiness.
The Dad
Sinbad ate “nothing.” The mother tried to persuade the boy, but the father didn’t have much patience. He “lost his temper and shouted at him.” The man was sure that Sinbad was “provoking him.” He even accused his wife of spoiling the boy. Later on, he made Sinbad “sit there for an hour until he was ready to inspect the plate.” He was “like that,” their dad. He would be “mean now and again, really mean for no reason.” He said “he was always busy.” But “he mostly sat in his chair.” This imagery is supposed to show that the atmosphere in the house in not healthy at all. As it turns out to be, the father is an abuser.
