Across the Barricades is a novel written by Joan Lingard. Essay

Across the Barricades is a novel written by Joan Lingard. Across The Barricades 'Across the Barricades' is a novel written by Joan Lingard. It is set in the Belfast area in the 1970's. Catholics want Ireland to be all together and one country while Protestants want The Northern Ireland to stay part of Britain. The plot is about 'The Troubles' and a Protestant girl in love with a Catholic boy. Sadie (Protestant) and Kevin (Catholic) are separated by the divide. They meet (they used to know each other a while ago) and become close. This upsets their families and friends because they are from different sides of the divide. Kevin and Sadie get threats and Kevin gets beaten up as a result of this. Sadie know Mr Blake from high school. When Kevin goes to see Sadie, Mr Blake sees that Kevin is in need and so takes Sadie and Kevin to his house. After some time, Mr Blake gets too involved and so gets threats, nearly killed in a car and eventually killed by a petrol bomb. Kevin and Sadie become sick of Belfast and the violence and so leave. Kevin and Sadie realize that 'The Troubles' aren't going to go away and that there's no hope for change in the future. In this paragraph the importance of the characters will be discussed. Kevin McCoy is Catholic and works in Mr Kelly's scrapyard. Kate Kelly likes Kevin but Kevin loves Sadie. "Kate tried to cling to Kevin but most of the time she irritated him". Kate thus tries to get Kevin into trouble by telling the police about Brian's gun. "Underneath was a rifle and several rounds of ammunition. Brian wanted Kevin to rebel against the Protestants and use the gun but Kevin had rejected his thoughts. Brian then hid the gun in Mr Kelly's scrapyard. Kevin is then blamed f... ...escribes the violence. "There were disturbances in the night. Sound of gunfire, rumble of cars, shouting in the distance, flicker of flames against the night sky". This is a good example of imagery. I think the author is trying to imply that 'The Troubles' are not going to go away but will get worse by the language she uses to describe the areas and the activities. There are constant bombings and Mr Blake dies. Catholics and Protestants just send a bomb back every time something happens. Just now the violence has got worse, Joan Lingard was right! I don't think that the violence is going to get better because the deaths are constant as well as the trouble, people are trying to follow their beliefs by killing other people. There is always going to be the divide. Kevin and Sadie were right to leave, they realized that 'The Troubles' were getting worse.