Discuss Nick Hornby s presentation of Marcus in chapters 1-10 of ‘About a Boy’ Essay

Nick Hornbys novel, Ab come to the fore a boy is a story approximately cardinal boys. A 12 year old, named Marcus, who has a suicidal mother. And a 36 year old child- standardized-man callight-emitting diode testament Freeman. result, has never worked in his life, he was been sustenance of the royalties of a call that his father had wrote for Christmas, over 70 years ago. Marcus is real much a understoodmys boy. He is so close to his mother that his taste in music and clothes be identical. When he starts his new school, he realises that he is an easy target for bullies as his haircloth is cut dodgy by his mom and he has a leaning to sing aloud in class.When we follow up Marcus in chapter mavin, we see a naive teenager. On the genuinely first page of the mass, Marcus mum Fiona suffers from a break up. Have you spilt up now? This very reiterate shows the naivete of Marcus. This childish questions, suggest that Marcus has non developed any take aim of maturity and ha s no means of comforting his mother. However, with this in mind, Marcus has a very logical itinerary of hypothecateing, and there are there are twain valid reasons for this bold statement. When we do see the break up accident, Marcus realises that when battalion begin to do things together (almost exchangeable a family) they should gel and stick together.Hed once shared a toilet with Roger, when they were twain busting for a pee later a car journey. Youd speak up that if youd peed with someone you ought to keep in touch with them somehow. This logical view by Marcus suggest that he had thought astir(predicate) future with his mum and Roger, and that Roger would stay because of the family relationship that they all shared. The second reason why I believe he has a logical process is the pizza pie incident happens. When the break up argument began, they had just now orders three pizzas. As we sock Marcus and Fiona are vegetarians, and Roger wasnt, so one of the pizza co ntained peperoni. Well throw it out-of-door then? Fiona suggests, but Marcus existence Marcus, he promotes that they should Pick the peperoni off.This suggests that instead of throwing out a perfectly satisfactory pizza, Marcus appreciates that they can still eat the pizza without the peperoni topping. Although Marcus is still very naive, we see a very different berth of Marcus on the very past page of chapter 1. He is very evasive of his mum. When they have fished eating and arguing, Marcus finds the TV remote and Zapped through the channels. He didnt want to watch any of the soaps, because soaps were full of discommode, and he was worried that the trouble in the soaps would remind his mum of the trouble she had in her own life. This excerpt suggests that because of his mothers break ups and troubles, he did not want the TV reminding her of anything, which rattling shows how restrictive he is over his mother.Marcus has just moved house, which unfortunately means he start s a new school. In the first a couple of(prenominal) chapters, we see life for Marcus in school, and it wasnt passing play to be easy. He is different from his peers. There clips in the book, which truly shows how apart he is from everyone. Firstly, he arrives for school. EARLY. Not a typical hazard from a teenager. He got to school early, went to the form room, sat down at his desk. This is one of vey first examples, of why he is very different.Not some(prenominal) teenagers would willingly want to come to school early. The mode he dresses, and the way he looks is another issue. He was usually wearing the wrong habilitate or the wrong trousers, and his haircut was wrong all the time. This would mean that he would be an easy target for bullies. However, worst is still to come. A song had slipped out yesterday during English. When he had an English lesson, Marcus unexpectedly sang a song whilst the t distributivelyer was reading. As a kid, this really sealed the deal for Marc us.Luckily, Marcus had lay out a big(p)ly a(prenominal) friends who were also outsiders like him. They were Nicky and Mark. Marcus meet them by an later school computer club. However, their relationship with each other was very timid. He was being left out deliberately Marcus was waiting his turn on the Gameboy, at this point in the book. Although he hasnt done anything wrong, he was still singled out.Suddenly, things to a turn for the worse for their relationship. At lunchtime, a few bullies, who had been tormenting Marcus before, came up to Marcus and his friends, and began insulting them. When they had gone, Mark spoke out and said. Marcus, we dont want you take careing around with us anymore. This shocked Marcus. He knew that if they were to hang out with him, they would all get bullied. These so called friends that Marcus had, had been unsupportive and nothing like Marcus. This shows how different Marcus really is he cannot fit in with people who are so similar to him.As h ave mentioned before, Marcus is overprotective over his mum, because of their tautness and the strong relationship they have. In the fifth chapter, we see Marcus worrying about his mother. This is caused by the constant crying habit his mom has developed. This had frightened him. angiotensin converting enzyme Monday morning his mother started crying before breakfast, and it frightened him. In this scenario in the book, Marcus understands that his mum is going through a tough time but he does not know what to say or do. He didnt know what to say.So instead, when we went for his weekly shop, he stuck to the economy sized packets of cereal, because he knew that is he had brought banded name, then his mum would be angry. This again shows how protective he is over his mum. With this in mind, he had realised that there was an vantage of her terrible depression. Without her knowing he bought the branded Coco-Pops. This shows that he was still pickings advantage out of his mothers sadness .In the final few page of chapter 7 we see an intense moment between Marcus and Fiona. Marcus at long last con expects Fiona about her constant depression and the fact the she hasnt been looking aft(prenominal) him. altogether you do is make my meals and I could do that. The rest of the time you just cry. Thats thats no good. Thats no good to me. This shows that Fiona does not know how to look after a child. However, Marcus does not succor or resolve the matter instead he heads off to his room. He went upstairs to his room and played NBA Basketball with the earphones on. This shows a level of immaturity and a certain lack of social skill. Fiona claims that were not doing each other any good to Marcus. This again is more evidence to attest that Fiona simply cannot look after Marcus.When we see Will in chapter eight, he describes Marcus as being the weird kid. Will thinks this about Marcus because of the way he acts. For example, when they were at the back of a car together, Marc us began humming tunelessly. This would not be a normal act performed by a teenager, and this led Will into believing he is strange. There is more evidence for Will to believe Marcus is weird. You know Michael Jackson, right? He makes a million pounds a minute, said the weird kid. When Marcus said this, Will thought he was make things up, which again led Will to believing he is weird.At the park, Marcus accidently killed a duck in the lake. In this part of the book, Marcus changes his mind about Will in a matter of minutes, from despising him, and then realising that he was one his side. Who did this Will think he was? Will was trying to be mordant about the matter, but Marcus, did not find it funny. Then, all of a fulminant Marcus looked up at him maybe he didnt hate him after all. Will then made the incident look like it had stirred them in front of the park-keeper. Marcus had changed his view about him, in a flash, without him doing anything. All of this suggests that Marcus has mixed opinions on will, on moment he is the hero, and the next he is just a stranger,In chapter nine, we sadly see a suicide attempt from Fiona. The events leading up to this moment, is very intense. On the day of the suicide attempt, Marcus is at Regent Park for a picnic with Suzie and Will. Whilst Will and Suzie were talking, Marcus was supply the ducks, with loaf hard bread that Fiona had made, he had then accidently thrown the unscathed loaf in to the lake and a killed a duck. Hence the Dead duck day. All of a sudden Marcus could see Fiona across the lake waving and rejoicing at him, he morose around to tell Suzie but when he looked back she was gone. It was then that Marcus saw-or thought he saw-his mum.She was standing in front of them, blocking the path, and she was smiling. He waved and turned around to tell Suzie that shed turned up, but when he looked back his mum wasnt there. This part of the book is based on symbolism. I think it represents symbolism because t here is a link between what happened with the Dead duck and the fact that she was there, meant that it was a way of saying bye to Marcus. It was almost like a premonition for Marcus, that something was about to happen. A new part of his life began, bang, without any warning at all. When I saw this part in the book, it really surprised me. I wasnt aware of how Fiona was so depressed, that caused her to a terrible act like this. As a reader, I would say that Fionas depressions was only recognize as just her crying most the time, I was not genuine she would have gone to that greater length, and commit suicide.It is obvious that Marcus was hit hard by the fact that his mother had committed suicide. At the end of chapter nine, it reads he knew the moment he walked in that it was something hed have to think about forever. At this point in the book, we see Marcus character really open out. This continues as we read on.When they reach the hospital, Marcus is in the waiting room, reflectin g on other people troubles and compares this to his mum. My mums not like these people. Supposing they think she is, though? he believes that the hospital might treat her as being just a normal druggy.