Lydia Brough
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Miss Raub
English 11 Honors
3 March 2011
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha: A Lost Childhood
Roddy Doyle’s Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is a troubling story of endings and
shortcomings. The protagonist, ten-year-old Paddy Clarke, endures the devastating
consequences of his parents’ separation. Because of circumstances beyond his control, Paddy
must leave behind his childhood and adapt to a new life. In doing so, he abandons his previously
carefree existence and matures rapidly. Paddy gives up his friends and games to assume
responsibility for his younger brother and adopt a more serious, grown-up attitude. Thus, Doyle
demonstrates the negative effects of failing marriages on children’s lives. He emphasizes that
divorce causes children like Paddy to feel unhappy, become isolated, and grow up too quickly.
When the reader first meets Paddy, he is an innocent and cheerful little boy. However,
his parents’ fights soon cause him stress and anxiety. The fighting grows from a “sublimal
quiver around the edges of Paddy’s consciousness” (DiMauro 407) to a feeling of foreboding
that always weighs on his previously carefree mind. When Paddy becomes convinced that the
fights are real and harmful, he mentally tries to stop them:
All I could do was listen and wish. I didn’t pray; there were no prayers for this...But I
rocked the same way I sometimes did when I was saying prayers. Backwards and
forwards, the rhythm of the prayer...I rocked.
--Stop stop stop stop (154).
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This situation displays the distress and unhappiness that the fights cause Paddy because he feels
responsible for saving the marriage. Paddy grows increasingly unhappy when he realizes that he
cannot stop his parents from fighting and save them from divorce.
Following many unsuccessful efforts to end the heated arguments, Paddy recognizes that
he cannot bring peace to his family. After staying awake all night on “guard” to make sure his
parents don’t fight, Paddy despairs “I couldn’t do anything. Because I didn’t know how to stop
it from starting. I could pray and cry and stay up all night, and that way make sure that it ended
but I couldn’t stop it from starting” (255). Thus Paddy agonizes about his inability to stop the
fights. This anguish and worry brought on by the imminent divorce is more than any ten-year-old
should have to bear. As a result, Paddy becomes much more solemn and gloomy as he leaves
behind the luxury of an innocent and carefree childhood.
In addition to unhappiness, his parent’s war also brings isolation for Patty. Because Ma
and Da focus only on their own problems, they expend very little effort into giving Patty the love
and attention that he needs. Paddy’s father spends most of his time at work and when he is home
he devotes his time to reading the newspaper and yelling at Paddy’s mother. He barely seems to
notice his son as the domestic battles become more and more severe. Ma is not perfect either;
she denies Paddy much of the warm motherly love that he needs as she becomes increasingly
detached and consumed with her worries (DiMauro 407). The lack of parental support resulting
from the approaching divorce leaves Paddy feeling confused, unloved, and alone.
Initially, the divorce causes Paddy to pursue a friendship with the infamous Charles
Leavy. Charles uses foul language, smokes, skips school, and is an outsider (Marsh 2). This
“grown up” behavior begins to appeal to Paddy more than his juvenile games of torturing insects
and building forts. Additionally, Paddy shadows Charles because Paddy has no other clear role
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models. Paddy can no longer looks up his father, who yells at and abuses his wife. When Leavy
expresses his “dismissive distaste” of Paddy and Paddy’s old friends boycott him, he moves even
more into isolation (Shepard 12). Consequently, the impending divorce has a negative effect on
Paddy’s lifestyle because it leads him into a more solitary existence without friends to offer
support and companionship.
In the final pages of the novel, Paddy unmistakably abandons his childhood and enters a
life of isolation. Because his father has left, Paddy’s classmates and former friends mock him.
They chant:
--Paddy Clarke,
--Paddy Clarke,
--Has no da,
--Ha ha ha!”
Paddy’s adult-like response to this insult is “I didn’t listen to them. They were only kids”
(281). This cruel taunt clearly shows the negative effect that the divorce has on Paddy’s life
because it leads Paddy’s classmates to bully and abandon him. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt
writes that Doyle shows “how trouble at home propels Paddy from the warm, familiar comforts
of childhood into a cold, indifferent world where the laughter of the novel’s title echoes
hollowly” (4). Paddy’s parents’ separation forces him to leave his pleasant childhood and enter
an existence of isolation and ridicule. Although Paddy declares that he did not listen to the taunt,
he has certainly lost the innocence and carefree bliss of his childhood. By the end of the novel,
Paddy becomes “sadder, wiser, more mature, and more alone—though not entirely by choice”
(Hutchings 13). Hence, the divorce forces Paddy Clarke to grow up before he is ready.
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As his family collapses, Paddy feels the need to take on responsibilities of an adult even
though he is still only a child. At an age where he should be dependent on his parents, Paddy
regrettably must fulfill the parental roles that his mother and father have abandoned. His
relationship with his younger brother, Francis mirrors this transformation. Before his parents
begin fighting, Paddy is cruel to his brother, whom he always calls “Sinbad.” Most notably,
Paddy forces Sinbad to eat a capsule of lighter fluid, and then lights Sinbad’s lips on fire (8-9).
Paddy often remarks that he hates his brother, and despises the inconvenience of looking after
him. However, when the fights start, Paddy begins to feel responsible for Francis. Paddy is
“capable of committing clumsily loving acts towards his brother” (Lehmann-Haupt) as he reacts
to the unrest between his mother and father. Paddy wants to protect and shelter Sinbad from the
troubles that lie ahead. In one instance, Paddy does not tattle when Sinbad gets in trouble at
school for crying on his handwriting worksheet (212). “I wanted to help him,” Paddy decides.
“He had to know; he had to get ready like me. I wanted to be able to stand beside him.” Paddy
wants to prepare his little brother for the turmoil that he knows the divorce will bring. Paddy
also begins to call his brother by his real name, Francis. Paddy’s actions towards his younger
brother show that Paddy is accepting adult responsibilities and adopting a more mature
mentality. Yet when his parents separate, Paddy unfortunately has no one to care for him in the
way that he cares for Francis.
With Paddy’s newfound maturity comes a much unhappier and more solitary life. Paddy
transforms from a playful little boy into an isolated, worried outcast. Kelly Marsh describes this
change in Paddy as “a rapid and traumatic development out of childhood innocence into a more
mature and problematized existence” (2). This statement expresses that the tragedy of divorce
replaces Paddy’s childhood innocence with worry and anxiety. Throughout the novel, Doyle
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emphasizes that the divorce robs Paddy of his childhood and the “luxury of irresponsibility”
(Reynolds 147). As Paddy prematurely comes of age, he is forced to assume responsibility as
“the man of the house.” He also expects his mother to call him Patrick, a more adult-like name,
instead of Paddy (281). Nevertheless, Paddy is still only a child and the sudden change is
difficult for him; although he knows that he must grow up and face his parents’ separation.
Paddy cries that he wants to “look at my ma and da and not feel anything. I wanted to be
ready...I was crying now too, but I’d be ready when the time came” (250). This quote clearly
shows how divorce forces a little boy to grow up too soon. Paddy still needs love and attention
from his parents, but instead he must become mature and stoic in the face of their separation.
In the final scene, Paddy’s father comes back to visit. When he asks Paddy how he does,
Paddy replies stiffly “Very well, thank you” (282). This formal and solemn reply contrasts
sharply with the carefree boy in the beginning of the novel whose greatest worry is getting
caught using matches. Because of the grief the divorce inflicts on Paddy, the novel “begins as a
celebration of childhood but ends as a memorial both for childhood and for marriage” (White
114). The reader watches Paddy change from a naive and happy child to a troubled outcast in a
broken family. Doyle condemns a world where divorce is a common occurrence because of the
negative effects it has on children (White 114). In regards to his book, Doyle states that “marital
breakdown is often considered a modern problem. I wanted to make a rosy period [the 60’s] in
Irish history clash with what’s considered to be a modern reality” (Sbrockey 3). He shows how
the decaying marriage of Paddy’s parents turns a little boy’s life for the worse. Paddy is
powerless to prevent the troubling consequence of his warring parents. Still, he must adjust to
their separation. In doing so, he loses the carefree bliss of his childhood.
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Because of his parents’ failing marriage, Paddy Clarke transforms from an innocent
young boy to the “man of the house.” He becomes an isolated, unhappy child who feels worry
and responsibility for his family’s well-being even though he is only ten-years-old. Through this
change, Doyle shows that divorce has terrible consequences on children. He illustrates how
Paddy is forced to leave behind the irresponsibility of childhood and enter a more mature and
solemn consciousness. This transition into adulthood is premature and painful, leaving the
reader feeling uncomfortable (Marsh 2). By the end of the novel, the divorce causes Paddy to
enter a grave and isolated existence filled with adult responsibilities and worries.
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Works Cited
Dimauro, Laurie, ed. “Doyle, Roddy.” Modern British Literature. Vol 1. Detroit: St. James,
2000: 406-408. Print.
Doyle, Roddy. Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha. New York: Penguin, 1994. Print.
Hutchings, William. “Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha.” Companion to Contemporary World
Literature. Ed. Pamela A. Genova. Vol. 2. New York: Twayne, 2003. 1614-1615.
Print.
Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. “Books of the Times; Window Into the Mind of aTen-Year-Old
Irish Boy.” New York Times (1993). Gale Student Resources in Context. Web. 23
December 2010.
Marsh, Kelly A. “Roddy Doyle’s ‘Bad Language’ and the Limits of Community.” Critique
(2004): 147-160. Gale Student Resources in Context. Web. 23 December 2010.
Reynolds, Margaret and Jonathan Noakes. Roddy Doyle: the essential guide. London:
Vintage, 2004. Print.
Sbrockey, Karen. “Something of a Hero: an interview with Roddy Doyle.” The Literary
Review. Detroit: Gale, 1999. Gale Student Resources in Context. Web. 23 December
2010.
Shepard, Allen. “Never the Same Again.” New England Review (1994): 163-67. Rpt. In
Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Janet Witalec. Vol 178. Detroit: Gale, 2004.
Print.
White, Caramine. Reading Roddy Doyle. Syracuse: Syracuse University, 2001. Print.