Paul Carty - the Main Character - in Kevin Sampson's Novel 'Awaydays'

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Paderborn (Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: Football Violence in English Literature, language: English, abstract: Kevin Samspon's Awaydays is a story about football violence, but just as much a story about initiation, and I want to demonstrate this with my paper. 'By initiation we mean that a character, in the course of the story, learns something that he did not know before, and that what he learns is already known to, and shared by, the larger group of the world. [...] the goal is participation in a larger circle and wider grouping.' In this paper I will introduce the main protagonist Paul Carty in Kevin Sampson's novel Awaydays, do a characterization of him and show how he - in the course of the story - becomes an adult. From early childhood two driving forces are apparent in his character: fear and hatred. They make Paul join the hooligan scene where he finds an outlet for his pent-up feelings in violence and sex. But only when he learns to cope with his emotions in another way, can he really find some meaning in his life.