1. Describe at least one important character in the written text. Explain how this character is revealed to you throughout the text and/or how this character helps you understand an important theme/idea in the novel.

The character Ricky Baker develops as he leaves the city due to the judicial and education systems failing him.Ricky soon finds himself at home in the country with Aunt Bella. After a disaster with aunt Bella passing away Ricky has to take in on the chin and take care of himself.Crump reveals how everyone is good at something and even you don’t thrive at school you there is always something your good at (personal experience). Ricky develops as a person this is shown by crump, he using key events in the text eg. When uncle hec breaks his foot and Ricky has to gather food for him and uncle hec, this turns out to be a great survival story

Crump reveals Ricky bakers true personality and how he develops as a character throughout the text by telling the story through the first person point of view . The education and the judicial system was not working for Ricky he soon found himself moving pillar to post because people did not understand he had a disrupted family this meant he was going from home to home.Ricky found it hard to fit in an example of this is “I soon found out that thin white boys were easier to do something with than overweight brown ones”  so moving to the country gave him a clean slate to try new things. Ricky reveals his true self by his narrative point of view and the way he explains stuff is the true kiwi language. Ricky uses idiomatic language. Uncle hec says to Ricky “You’d better stick those new boots of yours on today, young feller. This is idiomatic language and is the face of New Zealand Language.

Through the use of this language crump emphasises that everyone is good at something they just need to find what it is.Ricky didn’t fit in the city but he found himself right at home when he was put on the farm. Crump uses colloquial language throughout the story like “stop for a breather”. I believe Ricky really benefited having a father figure in his life for once because he had a role model to look up to and learn off what uncle Hec was teaching him.Ricky put it to good use in the bush when uncle hec would leave him on his own to go hut and when they split up in the bush.