Part one of term paper
Incidences that occur in one's childhood tend to affect them possibly for the rest of the rest of their life. This applies to the novel and the characters Dunstan Ramsey and Boy Staunton. Throughout the lives of these characters Dunstan lives in the shadow of Boy due to feelings of guilt and responsibility as a result of one winter evening ...

Part two of term paper
... that point in time Dunny, being the more caring and excepting of responsibility for other peoples problems, of the two, has not lived up to par with the life of Boy Staunton. Ever since the snowball accident Dunny has been preoccupied by worrying over Mary Dempster, and now her son Paul. At the age of sixteen the small town of Deptford becomes too much for Dunny to handle so he decides to drop out of secondary school and join the Army. Dunny needed a change in his life, something to get his min ...