The novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha has no authorial presence at all, yet the reader gains a richer understanding of the situation than Paddy – or any other 10-year old – could ever have. With regard to the parent's break up, how does Doyle achieve this?
             There are many factors which suggest how Doyle has succeeded in creating a 'triangular relationship' between himself the reader and the narrator – Paddy Clarke – so that the reader has a greater awareness of the predicament that Paddy is in. Doyle's achievement is how he alternates the poetic and realistic without once lapsing into stream-of-self-consciousness; the only way we - as readers can tell it's written by an adult, is by the spelling. We see the violence in Paddy's life peripherally; Doyle tells us nothing more than what the child sees and comprehends.
             One of the reasons for Roddy Doyle's success lies in creating a realistic and convincing character for a 10-year old child. He does this by his clever use of language, and also in how he arranges his sentences to convey deep emotion and feeling than any emotive language could:
             "He'd hit her. Across the face; smack. I tried to imagine it. It didn't make sense. I'd heard it; he'd hit her. She'd come out of the kitchen, straight up to their bedroom. Across the face." – P190
             In this instance, Doyle has used short and evident sentences, to invoke a feeling of awe and confusion. The short sentences represent how Paddy is dumbstruck and lost for words, shocked by what he's heard – this is also highlighted when he says here; "I tried to imagine it. It didn't make sense." Here, he also emphatically uses onomatopoeia – "smack," – which adds to the sense of fearful respect and also Paddy's child-like interpretation of events. Repetition is used here – "Across the face" – heading hi...