The original book "A Kestrel for a Knave" has
some pretty curious moments. Right now to my mind come
the following:<br><br>i) Billy gets more fish and
chips than he paid for. This is equated with the
multiplication of loaves and fishes from the new testament (nt)
by way of the sentence "as grateful as the
5000".<br><br>ii) Billy changes chips to meat without paying at the
butcher. This appears a rather overt parallel with the
transubstantiation from christianity.<br><br>iii) Billy denies his
knowledge of his brother's presence at school three times
to the teacher. Again, this appears to be a
reference to Peter's trifold denial in the new
testament.<br><br>iv) Billy falls asleep in the boiler room while the
Kes is pursued by Jud. Also this appears from the nt,
when those disciples fall asleep.<br><br>v) Billy gets
locked in the boiler room and no explanation is given
how he gets out. what is this supposed to mean? He
says "Bloody hell," so is this his descent to hell?
And is his emergence supposed to be some kind of
miracle?<br><br>vi) The "footsteps on my grave" in the last few lines
of the book. One can surmise that he died when his
father deserted him (which is immensely shocking to me,
I find Billy's attachment to his father hard to
unerstand given this desertion.)<br><br>It is perfectly
unclear to me where this religious imagery is supposed to
go. It is also not very carefully adhered to in the
film. Part of it gets lost without anything to do about
it.<br><br>The kestrel appears to take as substitute the burden
of Billy's transgression with the betting.<br>That
fits in christian imagery, but not very well.<br>The
murder of the substitute in the nt is supposed<br>to set
the others free. That event seems absent in this book
to me.<br><br>And yes, I know that Barry Hines
denies any multi-layered intentions on his part. I do
not see how that can be taken seriously, however, in
the face of him literally writing in his book<br>"as
grateful as the 5000." <br><br>One might try to argue that
the book is only a commentary on a failing
educational system and nothing else. It would be reasonable
for a high school teacher to write such a book. But
then the whole thing falls somewhat flat on its face
in my opinion. Also, in that case the book shows
extremely little faith in the resilience of its young
protagonist.