Gars mother died shortly after his birth, this was a huge upset
for him and his father. To make things worst Gar's father, S.B, does
not get on with his only son, even know Gar lives and works with him.
They see each other every day and still their communication levels are
low. ''If he wants to speak to me he knows where to find me! But I'm
damned if I'm going to speak to him first''. This is one example of
were Gar gets so annoyed he starts to take it out on poor Madge who is
trying to help. Gar doesn't mean to but it is he is so annoyed at the
sate of his life. They only communicate when essential. Gar is leaving
for Philadelphia in the morning, and still his father does not take
this in to consideration to offer him a fare well. He simply does not
know what to say to his son. Gar finds this really frustrating and
makes this clear by saying to Madge: " If he wants to speak to me he
knows where to find me! But I'm damned if I'm going to speak to him
first!''. This clearly shows his feeling towards his father.
The one person Gar finds it easy to communicate to, is his housekeeper
Madge. Gar and Madge seem to have a strong bonding between eachother.
Gar seems to speak to her about all his problems and she is glad to
answer them and give Gar a hand. They also have jokes the odd time,
but when it comes to serious matters both help each other out. Like at
the start of the book Gar says to Madge I know you are going to miss
me and started tickling her. Later on in the book Madge helps Gar
understand the relationship between him and his father. They clearly
have feelings for each other. Madge knows how Gar feels and she
understands him a lot better than anyone else. We have evidence of
this when Madge stuck up for Gar and said ''just because he doesn't
say much doesn't mean that he hasn't feelings like the rest of us''.
Another reason for Gar leaving Ballybeg is his social life. His social
life in Ballybeg is...