Runner By Robert Newton Sparknotes

The book that was read in class was ‘Runner’ by Robert Newton. It was based in the year 1919 in Richmond which is a poor suburb in Melbourne. It is about a boy named Charlie Feehan who is only fourteen years old. He lives with his Ma and little brother Jack. Charlie and his family aren’t very wealthy. Charlie really likes running because it gets his mind off of things and because he is poor he only really craves one thing which is warmth and running makes him warm. He ends up applying for a job with a guy named Squizzy Taylor to earn money for his family, he gets the job and he becomes a part of the gang and is the runner for all the jobs Squizzy Taylor needs being done. Charlie ends up quitting the job later on in the book when he realises

Charlie loved working for Squizzy Taylor because he was doing his favourite thing which was running to do the deliveries of liquor while he was also getting money to support both him and his family members. Charlie never thought that Squizzy Taylor would be such a bad guy because of how he treated Charlie so nicely and how he bought Charlie new boots because he saw that Charlie’s weren’t fit for running. Later in the book Charlie finds out what Squizzy Taylor’s real personality is like the night that Charlie and Nostrils went out for a delivery job and got Nostrils got jumped by Barlow and his group of boys and got really badly injured. When Charlie went back to Squizzy later that night he explained to Squizzy what happened and he didn’t even care how Nostrils was or if he was even going to survive, Squizzy’s only thought was if the delivery was done correctly. That night Charlie realised how much Squizzy only cared about himself and his business and not his workers who were only young. Mr Redmond had been helping Charlie with his running and training him to be better while working for Squizzy. After the night where Charlie finds out Squizzy’s true colours Mr Redmond tells him about