The Runner
ESSAY TOPIC:
Do you think that Charlie was forced to grow up to soon?
The Runner, based on a 16 year old boy who has had to grow up because of his father’s unforeseen death. The outcomes lead to Charlie dropping out of school at an early age to go find a job. The job that he finds was working for Melbourne’s chief crime figure Squizzy Taylor which influenced him on running as a professional because running for this boy was no child’s play anymore.
Charlie was just 16 when a tragedy occurred within his household, his father’s death. His father became infected with a sever illness called the Spanish Flu epidemic that devastated the world at that time and because of the poor state of climate he was unable to recuperate. It was said earlier in the novel that some families had to strip bits of wood from their homes just to alleviate the cold, As Charlie says, ‘ If you are poor the chances of surviving illness because of the cold are slim’. This had a great repercussion on him and his family seeing they we’re near impecunious, ‘When the undertakers came to wheel my father's lifeless body out to the hearse, it was as if they took my childhood with them’ Charlie had said which lead him to fill in his father’s shoes
Due to Charlie’s father’s sudden death, Charlie was forced to leave school to support him and his family’s financial needs. While having a younger brother Jack and his Ma looking after him at home, there was no other but Charlie himself, to earn the money, for he was now the unannounced man in the house. Education being no other than a distraction, it was a job that Charlie needed and committed himself to find one he did. The optimistic boy soon found a job, putting his running skills to good use, that involved something that he loved to do, running for Melbourne’s leading gangster, Squizzy Taylor. Albeit he had to try out and win against four other boys, who weren’t the only ones needing money, first before the job became official. Therefore
Do you think that Charlie was forced to grow up to soon?
The Runner, based on a 16 year old boy who has had to grow up because of his father’s unforeseen death. The outcomes lead to Charlie dropping out of school at an early age to go find a job. The job that he finds was working for Melbourne’s chief crime figure Squizzy Taylor which influenced him on running as a professional because running for this boy was no child’s play anymore.
Charlie was just 16 when a tragedy occurred within his household, his father’s death. His father became infected with a sever illness called the Spanish Flu epidemic that devastated the world at that time and because of the poor state of climate he was unable to recuperate. It was said earlier in the novel that some families had to strip bits of wood from their homes just to alleviate the cold, As Charlie says, ‘ If you are poor the chances of surviving illness because of the cold are slim’. This had a great repercussion on him and his family seeing they we’re near impecunious, ‘When the undertakers came to wheel my father's lifeless body out to the hearse, it was as if they took my childhood with them’ Charlie had said which lead him to fill in his father’s shoes
Due to Charlie’s father’s sudden death, Charlie was forced to leave school to support him and his family’s financial needs. While having a younger brother Jack and his Ma looking after him at home, there was no other but Charlie himself, to earn the money, for he was now the unannounced man in the house. Education being no other than a distraction, it was a job that Charlie needed and committed himself to find one he did. The optimistic boy soon found a job, putting his running skills to good use, that involved something that he loved to do, running for Melbourne’s leading gangster, Squizzy Taylor. Albeit he had to try out and win against four other boys, who weren’t the only ones needing money, first before the job became official. Therefore