A Kestrel For A Knave

“‘You know what they said when I took you on, don’t you?’ He waited, as though expecting Billy to supply the answer. ‘They said, you’ll have to keep your eyes open now, you know, ‘cos they’re all alike off that estate. They’ll take your breath if you’re not careful.’”

Mr. Porter displays his class prejudice, criticizing Billy for the possibility of being late, even though he’s early, and expressing the expectation that Billy will steal simply because of where he lives. The Difficulty of Escaping Class Oppression is a major theme in the book, as pervasive class prejudice deprives people like Billy of opportunities, keeping them stuck in the very circumstances for which they are judged. This prejudice is what traps boys like Billy in a cycle of abuse, crime, and deprivation.

“‘O, it’s you, Billy. Haven’t you gone to school yet?’

‘Who’s that bloke?’

His mother pressed her lips together and stood the capsule, like a bullet, on the mantelpiece. ‘That’s Reg. You know Reg, don’t you?’”

Billy’s mother is an important character to the events of the narrative but has little presence in Billy’s life. She doesn’t nurture or care for Billy and does little to provide food and heat for him. She is often a source of shame for him, with Billy’s fellow pupils mocking him for her multiple sexual partners. She’s depicted with an exaggerated level of disgust, with her behavior, appearance, and mannerisms rivaled only by Mr. Sugden the physical education teacher in terms of extreme and negative representations of gender. Rather than be strongly criticized for her neglect, she’s condemned for her sexuality. This could well be an artefact of the time the book was written, the late 1960s, when misogyny was more normalized and widespread, but the story ultimately shows how people of this time had to navigate misogyny as well as classism and toxic family dynamics.