By close analysis of the extract, taking account of narrative methods, show how effective you think McCabe is in presenting the outsider Francie Brady’s alienation and separation from society.

In ‘The Butcher Boy’ Patrick McCabe transforms, according to John O’Mahony, “the microcosm of the small town, a neglected and disparaged corner of Irish experience into an arena for burlesque humour and biting satire.” “McCabe is a true original,” says critic and novelist John Banville. “Like Roddy Doyle writing about life in working-class Dublin suburbs, McCabe has used the stuff the rest of us didn’t bother with and made a peculiar kind of rough poetry out of it. He catches that particular kind of bizarre, insane world of Irish country life in the 50’s and 60’s. People like O’Faolain and Frank O’Connor wrote about it in lyrical mode, McGahern wrote about it in tragic mode, but McCabe writes about it in a kind of anti- black comedy that is absolutely unique.” Such aspects of McCabe’s unique style are vividly captured within the given extract from the novel, where McCabe’s unique hybrid bog-gothic style is clearly evident.

The theme of Francie Brady’s alienation and separation from society is a dominant concept that develops and intensifies throughout the novel. Alienation refers to the sense of being separated and isolated from others, of not belonging, and in the specified extract McCabe successfully develops the reader’s understanding of Francie as an outsider in a society neither accepts nor understands him due to his inherent since of difference. McCabe presents the alienation of the protagonist Francie Brady as socially, physically and emotionally alone and insecure, using the situation of Francie finding that his best friend Joe was away at boarding school, followed by the encounter with Mrs Connolly to enhance the reader’s response to Francie as an alienated and unwanted outsider. This extract I an excerpt from the latter section of the novel where McCabe exploits the situation of Francie’s seeming abandonment by Joe, as well as his angry confrontation of Mrs Connolly. In this section of the novel McCabe presents and explores Francie’s alienation from the rest of society; and the anger he feels because of this isolation.

In this extract the theme of alienation is presented in a key moment filled with pathos, eliciting an emotional and empathetic response from the reader. The characterisation is dedicated to the abandonment of Francie by those who he cared about most; his parents, Alo and Joe. This works to emphasise Francie’s sense of alienation and of not belonging.

Throughout the passage, McCabe develops the reader’s understanding of Francie’s alienation and separation from society by creating a complex and dominant narrative voice from Francie as narrator-protagonist. The use of first-person narration in lines like “the only one I knew” and “then I knocked on the door” force the reader to respond directly to Francie’s somewhat limited point of view, moulding the reader’s identification with Francie as an outsider with a unique perspective on events; in this case, the perspective of an abandoned, alienated young boy who only wants to be liked and accepted by the people around him.

McCabe structures Francie’s retrospective narration with a highly personalised, authentic voice appropriation. The reader is led directly into Francie’s world, psyche and perspective through McCabe’s successful creation of a unique character voice. McCabe’s structuring of Francie’s narration with the use of colloquial, idiomatic expressions such as “who’s standing there only some lad” effectively captures Francie’s unique individual voice, adding authorial realism to not only Francie’s Irish midlands vernacular, but creating a protagonist whose narration of Joe’s absence and the encounter with Mrs Connolly directly influences the reader’s understanding and response to Francie’s alienation and separation from society.

McCabe’s narration throughout the given extract is presented as a stream of consciousness structured in a kaleidoscopic, episodic fashion with sudden transitions of focus, tone and content. Francie begins by recollecting the night he went to see Joe, only to find that he’d gone to boarding school but quickly digresses into seemingly unconnected comments and thoughts like “I had business with Connolly.” and “I don’t want any of your apples!” The tone of the narration is equally fragmented. The friendly conversational tone adopted in the interactions with Joe’s father is starkly contrasted to the hostile and tension filled tone regarding the confrontation with Mrs Connolly. The fragmented, disjointed nature of the narration reflects own fragmented, distorted sense of alienation. At times he feels like he belongs, when he is with Joe; but when he discovers Joe has gone to boarding school he would feel a sense of abandonment: “I pulled at the grass along the edge of the bank and counted all the people that were gone on me now.” McCabe’s style of commentary and narration is purely observational, cleverly leaving the narrative devoid of reflection and evaluative commentary. In such a way, the reader is forced to act as analyst and interpreter, creating a unique and personal perspective from which to understand Francie’s alienation and separation from society.

McCabe successfully moulds his reader’s response to Francie’s alienation and separation from society with a highly unique and, at times, deliberately disorientating use of language. Francie’s account of the conversation with Joe’s father and the somewhat hostile exchange with Mrs Connolly is presented through disjointed and ungrammatical syntax, a deliberate lack of dialogue markers and a disorientating blend of long, unpunctuated sentences, mixed with short simple sentences and monosyllabic phrases. The convoluted syntax in lines like “There was a light on in the front room I thought Joe was probably at his books we could listen to records after” which lack conventional adherence to dialogue and discourse markers, vividly convey Francie’s lack of cognitive processing, the flow of unrestrained thoughts and blur between the real and imagined; which depicts Francie’s struggle to from meaningful relationships with other people, meaning that he feels cut off from the rest of society. The use of long sentences like “I was going to say O of Course that’s right I forgot about that but I couldn’t for this brr was starting in my head like the noise the telly used to make if you fell asleep at night watching it” suggest a flood of unrestrained, free-flowing thoughts, while equally conveying Francie’s psychological and physical indiscipline and his inability to appropriately control and manage both cognitive processing and his life. Short monosyllabic phrases like “That was the best yet” contrast sharply with the otherwise convoluted, stream of consciousness which defines Francie’s narration and highlight to the reader Francie’s sense of difference which inevitably alienates him from the rest of society. Such narrative choices enable McCabe to evoke a sympathetic response from the reader by highlighting the extent of Francie’s alienation and separation from society.

In conclusion, in the given extract McCabe explores Francie’s desire to fit in and be liked by others around him. Yet it is his own disjointed view of reality and childlike psychology that disables him to do so, heightening his feelings of alienation and separation from the rest of society. A fear of being disliked and ignored is a prevalent element of Francie’s character and such is implied in lines like “I put my foot up against the door in case she’d try to close it before I was finished”. A desire to be heard and the possibility of being ignored shows that Francie wants to be accepted by society and does not wish to be alienated; he is not an outsider by choice. A sense of detachment and alienation is a feeling felt by all at some stage in life; and as such this would elicit a degree of sympathy from the reader for an alienated boy who craves to be liked and accepted by those around him.