Harry Hodby's Growth In By The River By Steven Herrick

Everyone grows up eventually, and each person passes through childhood and into the adult world in their own way. By the River, by Steven Herrick is a novel which shows how Harry Hodby grows and matures into a young man. The story is a ‘coming of age’ novel, Harry’s growth creeping up on the reader. Harry experiences death at a young age, with his mother passing away. As a result, he gains extra responsibilities in his youth. He experiences other different types of losses. All of them help him gain greater maturity and develop as a young adult, although these movements are harsh and painful at times. The most important event, though, is for Harry to accept his life and move forward, which he learns near the novel’s end.

Firstly, readers discover

When Harry’s mother passes away, he gains responsibilities such as looking after Keith, doing housework, caring for his father and finding his way without a loving mother. Harry ‘could cook at the age of seven’, and he and Keith ‘shared the duties [their] mother left [them].’ Harry now ‘make[s] breakfast… on [his Dads] birthday’ because he knows how to, with the knowledge he received as a young child. With all the duties his mother left Harry, readers see that Harry has the independence of an adult. Harry’s father cuts his finger off at work, ‘it severed the bone, the tendons, and spat across the factory floor.’ The chopping of the watermelon is a ritual for Harry and his family. After his father’s accident, Harry is given the responsibility of cutting the watermelon, and he is ‘proud that [he] can be trusted’ with this. Gains like this move Harry from his childhood into a young adult. Harry develops the independence and knowledge to journey into the adult

At the beginning of the novel, we find that Harry hates his town and regards his life miserable. Harry wants to ‘find the quickest way out’ of his town, and never wants to ‘come back… [not] for a long time’. He dreams and wishes of being ‘miles and another world away’ from the town he lives in. Harry has been exposed to death, loneliness, sadness and anger in his childhood. This makes Harry strong but sometimes lonely and isolated. As the novel progresses, Harry realises and accepts the life he has and the town he lives in and comes to term with the great questions of human life. Harry knows that ‘it wasn’t God’ that caused the tragedies in his life and his very own town, it is his life, not Gods. In the poems ‘It wasn’t God’, ‘Not Alone’ and ‘Perfect Silence’ show that Harry remembers all his memories of his life and reflects on each one of them. Harry realises that the significant people and events in his life changed him and without them he wouldn’t be who he was. Johnny Barlow, Linda, Keith, Claire and his Mum and Dad are some of these people. Claire helps Harry sees things in different ways. Harry has never liked the rain before because it took Linda’s life, but Claire ‘love[s] the rain…it cleans everything…it’s like God staring again’. Clarie asks the finale questions that helps Harry accept his town, ‘it’s good to start again. Don’t you think?’ Memories from his childhood are ‘all safe and cherished deep within’ his