1.
Shelter- Antagonist
"Well - get fell in, my luck lads. I'm ready for you"
"And that was my mission in life - to turn dirty, scruffy, pimply youths into soldiers"
"It's begun, the recruiting"
"If I'm disposing of these druggy dossers whose activities are dragging the country down, am I a murderer?"
"There's a trap serial killers fall into, namely, the trap of pattern"
"Our next meeting will prove far more amusing for me than for them"
"I suppose I'm a mass-murderer – what the Yanks call a serial killer"
"Trained to kill"
"I said a target must be alone"
"I nailed him when he went to lift the blanket"
Ginger- Mentor
"Folks like us, we've got to after number one [yourself]. And don't tell anybody else you've got nine quid or you won't have it long".
'Anyway you can, Link old son".
"That's the first thing you gotta learn".
Link says "I'd a feeling he [Ginger] knew a lot of stuff I'd need to learn if I was to survive in this great, cold jungle".
Link to Ginger "You're the expert".
"He [Ginger] said you had to put non-alcoholic because people seldom give to winos"
"Being with Ginger that was making things easier for me".
Link old son"
Link says to Ginger " It's time I had a go at getting some dosh by myself, but I'll feel better if you're somewhere around".
"Kiddo"
Link- Protagonist
"I'll tell you the story of my fascinating life"
"I didn't move to London straight away"
"I'd applied for loads of jobs in the months since I'd left school"
"I made loads of mistakes"
"I got nowhere"
"My anonymity was a comfort"
"And that's how I met Ginger"
"I walked all the way back to the DSS next morning and Ginger was right"
"We hit it off, Gail and me, from the word go"
2.
Link is a 17-year-old boy who ends up homeless after his mom's new boyfriend locks him out of the house. After that Link moves to London. Link is a growing character because he has made mistakes and learned from them, thus making him wiser.
"I've made lots of mistakes, lots of people do when they first come to London"
Link is reflecting on his past experiences with being homeless in London. He also says a lot of homeless people make mistakes when they come to London.
"If you think sleeping rough is just a matter of finding a dry spot, you're wrong.
I'll talk you through a typical night" This means Link has learnt something from sleeping on the streets. He knows that everything isn't as easy as it seems. He knows that because of experience from sleeping on the streets. In conclusion Link is a growing character because he has learnt from his mistakes.
3.
Link is very detailed in his descriptions of his conditions throughout the book, his descriptions make you empathize with him.
"So pick your spot. Wherever it is (unless you're in a squat or a derelict house or something) it's going to have a floor of stone, tile, concrete or brick. In other words it's going to be hard and cold. It might be a bit cramped, too - shop doorways often are. And remember, if it's winter you're going to be half frozen before you even start."
"The last days of January were a swine. I nearly went back to Vince. I mean it. It snowed every day so the pavements were thick with slush, and nothing gets inside a pair of trainers like slush can" In my first example Link is talking about sleeping rough he includes us in the scene he uses 'you' to put you in his shoes and empathize with him. He also uses hyperboles to make his point. Link uses short sentences to emphasize what he said before. He talks about stuff that everyone can identify with, like slush getting in trainers. In conclusion, Links detail makes us empathize with him.
4.
Shelter is crazy, the language he uses reflects that.
"There's a plot - it's been hatching a long time now - to undermine the country by clogging it up with dossers and junkies and drunks. Some of the top politicians are in it, and civil servants and social workers and even the church."
"So it's Shelter and Sappho. Could be a series on the telly, couldn't it? Shelter and Sappho, otherwise known as The Invincibles. All is ready. Recruiting can commence."
Shelter is detached from reality. He experiences reality as a product of his imagination, but he doesn't know that. He thinks it's real. The plot he writes of and the recruiting exist only in his mind, but he thinks they are real and he acts as if they are.
