The Main Character Diary Entry

Richmond, Melbourne Wednesday, 15 June 1919

My experiences in this novel were sad in a way but as soon as something good happened I would be so happy. Even in some of the good times I would feel sad because I know that a curtain someone wasn’t with us anymore my Dad. Those times were sure hard on our family because not a lot of money was flowing our way. That left a challenge on my plate to get a job and to support my family. When I was in my job I felt happy because I met new people every day but also sad because I would do the right thing by Mr Squizzy Taylor but still get yelled at. But I was always happy when our next door neighbors would visit because there was always something new to share with them. But one night when Nostrils and I were walking home from a hard days work we got harassed by jimmy Barlow. Both of us hated Jimmy because he was just a bully. Because I didn’t help Nostrils he got bashed and I was so angry with myself because I just stood there watching my friend get kicked and punched at. That left me the job of telling his parents about what happened, when I saw Mr Taylor he didn’t care about what happened to Nostrils and that made me furious so I quit working for him.

SUMMARISE THE CLIMAX OF YOUR
CHOSEN NOVEL

The main point of this novel is that you could be one of the poor and marginalized people but still come out the best. It was exactly the same case with Charlie who hasn’t got a job to support his family at the difficult time of his father’s death. So Charlie puts forward a challenge for setting himself a goal to find a job. After a long time of thinking about the job that Charlie was got with Mr Taylor and whether it suited him, he decided he was happy working for Mr Taylor. Charlie then trained hard for the Ballarat mile, because Charlie was training he had no time for his job so he quit. Charlie came first in the mile and had enough money to own a business so he opened a wood mill. So the main point is that Charlie kept chipping on at life and got a reward for it.

Q2 Describe the central characters - 17 May 2009

THE CHARACTERS IN THE NOVEL RUNNER

Charlie Feehan

Charlie is the main character of the story, he is an ordinary teenager that has his hardships especially when his dad past away. But some how Charlie is different from all the other kids, he just has different ways to deal with difficult situations. Charlie works for the most wanted criminal in Melbourne Mr Squizzy Taylor. Charlie lives in Richmond with all the pubs and criminals surrounding him in his Cubitt Street house. It is Charlie’s job to deliver packages from Squizzy Taylor to the address written on the parcel. But Charlie didn’t just walk it to the receiver he had to run all around the Richmond and Fitzroy area. It eventually became to hard on Charlie to support his family with this type of job, so he quit working for Mr Taylor and became a runner. Charlie entered himself into the Ballarat mile and he came first and with the prize money he opened a saw mill.

Mr Redmond

Mr Redmond was the next door neighbour to the Feehan’s. The Redmond’s helped Charlie and his family in the time of need by giving supplies to Charlie. Charlie’s Mum (Ma) didn’t want to go outside because she was embarrassed that her husband had died. Ma didn’t even go to work any more, so this is why Mr Redmond comes in always lending a hand. When Charlie quit his job it was Mr Redmond that introduced him to the boxing bag to help him get ready for the big race, the Ballarat mile. Mr Redmond was the man who organized Charlie’s training for the race. Whenever Charlie needed to talk to someone but not his family he would go and see Mr Redmond about any issues that had come up. Charlie could see Mr Redmond as a dad because Charlie has the job with Mr Taylor didn’t give him any education. The reason for this was because Charlie was working for most of the day when he should have been at school.


Nostrils (Norman Heath)

Norman heath was his real name but everyone called him Nostrils because of the big nose he had. Charlie first met Norman when there was a race on to get a job Mr Taylor. Norman didn’t win the race but he made a new friend. When Charlie told Norman about the jobs Norman wanted to get evolved so all the trips that Norman did with Charlie were with shopping trolleys with beer. One night after collecting the money, Charlie and Norman were walking home via the Fitzroy gardens and Jimmy Barlow and his gang were in the middle of the Fitzroy gardens. All of a sudden the gang ran after Charlie and Norman, Norman fell and Charlie hid in a bush, while watching Norman get bashed and this made Norman unable to play footy on the weekend. As a way of saying thanks to Norman for all his help Charlie named the saw mill THE HEATH AND FEEHAN TIMBER COMPANY.

Q5 Write an alternative ending of the book - 11 May 2009

The day has come for Charlie Feehan to compete in the Ballarat Mile. So Charlie wakes up and has a light breakfast because Mr Redmond said ‘Charlie if you eat too much it could cost you the Mile by getting a stitch when you need your energy the most during the race’. 11.45 a.m. soon to be 12.00 midday was when the Mile started right on the stroke of 12 noon. The Ballarat official called for all the competitors to the track ready for the start of the race. ON YOUR MARKS, SET, BANG the runners pushed strongly out of the starting blocks, their arms swung hard beside them. The runners were in a straight line as they had just completed the first lap, Charlie was in a strong position as he was fourth in the race. Charlie thought to himself ‘I am so close to the leaders I have to try and have a stab at the lead position’. So Charlie started trying his hardest to hang in there but all of a sudden a head wind hit the runners and you could see the physical strain of the runners as they were starting to tire. This is where Charlie’s stamina came into effect, if Charlie could only just keep on running head wind or no head wind. Two and a half laps to go in the Mile, Charlie saw a chance to take the lead and he took the chance and is now even with the leader. One lap to go at this final leg of the race there are now only three runners in the chance to win the Ballarat Mile. Half a lap to go and suddenly Charlie starts sprinting but is still evenly matched with first and second. Without warning Charlie trips and the runner from Harriers falls on top on Charlie. Charlie quickly gets up off the ground. He can see that the Harriers runner is still on the ground in a lot of pain, Charlie thinks about running on to win but he gathers himself and instead of finishing the race returns to the fallen runner. Charlie helps the injured Harrier onto his feet and arm in armhe helps him across the finish line . The crowd cheers wildly because Charlie Feehan has helped a fellow runner, the judges decide that the race be a draw and that the first four runners would have to race again on another day. After the race the Harrier runner went up and thanked Charlie for what he had done to help him. It was a very unselfish thing that Charlie had done.

Hi and Welcome to my Blog!!!!!!

Hi
Later I will be posting some blogs about the novel Runner in that will be about the character, plots , and what happens in the book