My Name is Leon: Themes (AQA GCSE English Literature): Revision Note

My Name is Leon: Themes

In your GCSE English Literature exam, the essay questions on Kit de Waal's My Name is Leon may ask you to consider any of the themes of the novel (or its central ideas). You will also need to demonstrate that you understand how the writer presents these ideas, and why they may have been presented this way.

Here are some of the key themes in My Name is Leon to revise:

• Childhood neglect

• Social injustice and discrimination

• Family and heritage

• Loss 

Childhood neglect

The majority of children who enter the care system will have seen some level of childhood neglect in their lives. Leon acts as a carer for himself and Jake until he can no longer do so, and goes to Tina for help. She reluctantly calls social services, as she cannot take on the burden, but knows the boys need much more care than they are getting from their mother Carol. 

Knowledge and understanding

• As early as the second page of the novel, we see that Carol’s priorities are not focused on parenting:

  • When the nurse tells her Jake needs feeding for the first time, just after he is born, Carol says she wants to go and have a cigarette first

• This leaves Jake with Leon, which foreshadows that this is what will happen for most of Jake’s life in Carol’s home

• Leon takes on the entirety of Jake’s care in the weeks building up to them eventually being taken away from Carol by social services:

  • He doesn’t know how to dispose of the nappies and scrapes by for food, eating whatever he can find

  • Leon is confident in taking care of Jake, and talks about how he has to care for the whole family

  • That Leon doesn’t question this suggests that he does not expect much of a level of care from Carol

  • This signals to the reader that his past has been marked by neglect

• Leon is relatively unconcerned by his mother’s condition:

  • Even when she’s almost completely bedridden Leon remains unmoved

  • This lack of concern shows us how Leon is used to this

• We see Leon is comfortable lying about how often he has been to school:

  • This shows he knows to hide this and similar issues

• Leon’s problems controlling his bladder are also brought up often:

  • As a stress response, Leon wets himself

  • This suggests Leon has some psychological issues, as this is a far from a typical reaction to distress

  • That it hasn’t been addressed by a parent shows neglect

• Later in the novel, we see Tufty showing Leon how to grow plants, discussing how important it is to care for and support seedlings:

  • The irony being displayed by the author is that Leon has never had any of these things

  • Unlike these plants, Leon was underfed, with no attention paid to his care

• Leon’s habits throughout the book also show a maladjusted young man:

  • He starts to steal, which reflects how he has had to take what he needs to survive

  • The way he sneaks into positions to overhear conversations comes from trying to understand what is happening in the world around him, which has been chaotic for him as a child

  • He then shows a clear fear of abandonment, which we can see has come from the treatment by Carol, who has abandoned him many times

What is de Waal’s intention?

• De Waal wants the reader to understand that Leon has struggled to get where he is and had to adapt to a situation out of his control:

  • We are reminded that Leon has not had the care and support that children need

• The tale of his neglect also tells us about the challenges facing the care system:

  • While those working in the care system are often seen as a foe to people in the story — Maureen, Leon, Tina — it could be argued that outcomes for Leon would have been better had he been taken into care earlier

  • He has missed a lot of school, will be left with mental scars of his childhood, and also not had the nutrition he needs as a growing child

Social injustice and discrimination

Throughout the narrative, we see how life is harder, or made harder, for minorities and those in poverty. There is clear police brutality and abuse of power, while Leon has been let down repeatedly by the system. Equally, Leon’s race affects the way he is treated in the care system and by social services.

Knowledge and understanding

• Carol, is let down by the system that allows her to struggle alone in her flat with postnatal depression and the other mental health struggles that she faces:

  • Her symptoms should have been recognised and managed by the healthcare services and the care system, but she is left to suffer alone:

    • This then impacts the children, who do not get the care they need

• Leon is treated differently due to his race:

  • The clearest example is the fact Jake is quickly adopted, as a white baby, whereas there is little expectation of such a swift adoption for Leon

  • He is often referred to by carers and others by his size, which can sometimes be seen as racialisation:

    • He is reduced to his physical attributes

• De Waal may have used the area around the allotment and where Sylvia lives to hint at the ghettoisation seen in the 1980s:

  • In this part of Birmingham, we see Leon describing people of different nationalities and ethnicities

• Mr Devlin is treated differently, often with suspicion, due to being Irish:

  • This comes from a place of anxiety around the IRA in 1980s Britain

  • Tufty abuses him based on stereotypes:

    • He insinuates that Mr Devlin is a terrorist, based only on his Irish background

    • Birmingham saw bombings linked to the Troubles in 1974

  • Mr Devlin also represents Irish feeling towards the Royal Wedding:

    • His attitudes contrast to the enthusiasm of others about the occasion

  • We also see he has some sympathy and understanding of Tufty’s struggles with the police:

    • As an Irishman, his mistrust of British institutions would be common for the time

    • We see him criticise, to himself, the police as having “small minds, big feet”, which suggests they are thoughtless and violent

• The abuse of power by the police is also a significant issue raised by de Waal in the novel:

  • The introduction of officers into the story immediately shows how the police abuse their positions

  • They come to speak to Tufty and Castro, and immediately go inside the shed and throw things around, and another officer tramples on the plant beds

  • They quickly tell onlookers that it is a “driving matter”, showing their comfort in lying to the public

  • They pretend to not be able to understand Castro just because he speaks with a little patois:

    • The officer then mocks them for their language, words like “brethren” and “idrin”

    • De Waal is emphasising systemic racism of the police here

  • He then refers to a group of Black people as a “pack of you”

  • The lead officer pushes Castro for no reason, foreshadowing Castro’s death in custody

  • They incite Castro, whom they then arrest for merely saying he supports the comments of the man they are looking for

  • When faced with Tufty holding his shovel for protection, the officer kicks it aside and states, “spades don’t scare me”:

    • This is a direct threat since it is wordplay on a racist epithet

  • The author uses this moment not only as a comment on the police’s abuse of power, but also as the moment Leon finds out the police cannot be trusted:

    • Having been raised mostly by white people, Leon has always been told to ask a police officer if he needs help

    • Now he questions whether he should

• Police brutality is a big factor in the novel’s climax:

  • Castro is killed by the police in custody:

    • The police “kicked him to death”, according to Tufty

  • This leads to the riots that Leon later gets caught up in, in which the police use violence indiscriminately

  • This is why Tufty was quiet when confronted by the police, why the men look away from the arrest, and why Mr Devlin ushers Leon to him when the officers confront Tufty and Castro:

    • They know the consequences can be dire, even fatal, and their lives are worth more than a bit of pride

  • It is also notable that de Waal chooses this incident to happen in public, with many onlookers, and in the middle of the day:

    • The police are brazen and unconcerned by witnesses, empowered by the corruption and a system that allows them to escape consequences 

What is de Waal’s intention?

• De Waal is highlighting historical injustices and discrimination, but also injustices and discrimination that people still face

• As a social realist novel, the story is a commentary on the social issues discussed:

  • De Waal’s book shines a light on the struggles of Black and Irish people in 1980s Britain, especially in Birmingham

  • She also has experience of the care system, and uses the book to encourage discussion:

    • The novel depicts the way social services are viewed negatively, and become the opposition for people 

    • It also highlights that it is a service that is stretched to breaking point, which has limited positive outcomes for those in care

• The police brutality is another issue that was relevant at the time of the novel, but still at the time of publishing, and today:

  • The author highlights what things were like in the 1980s not only to shine a light on it, but to help others understand it

  • Black people were killed in custody then, but continue to be so to this day

Family and heritage

Throughout the narrative, we see how a sense of security and belonging affects different people. For Leon, this security and sense of identity equates to having a stable family unit, something that is taken from Leon at the outset. However, by the end of the novel, de Waal seems to be suggesting that a chosen family can provide these things as well as, if not better than, one’s biological roots.

Knowledge and understanding 

• Leon is incredibly loyal to his family 

• What Leon really wants is to belong to a happy family unit:

  • However, this is not something he can achieve, even though he strives for it throughout the narrative

• From the time Leon meets Jake, he feels a desire to teach him and guide him:

  • That continues at home, where he takes up the responsibility to care for him once Carol struggles

  • He is content to go without as long as he can keep Jake safe and secure

  • His separation from Jake pains him most, and he feels he has been personally harmed when Jake is taken from him

• He also forgives Carol all her ills and continues to see her as beautiful and full of life until the end:

  • He is quickly angry with anyone who speaks negatively of his mother

  • He loves Carol unconditionally, as he does Jake, and feels an unbreakable familial bond with them both

• When split from his family, Leon loses his sense of belonging:

  • This is marked by physical movement, not once but twice, as he then moves to Sylvia’s when Maureen gets ill

  • Despite the love and support he gets from Maureen, Sylvia and those at the allotment, Leon spends his time plotting a dramatic rebuilding of his family unit

  • We see his fear that Jake will not remember him, or that he will be crying without him, and that Leon is the only person who knows how to stop that

• The allotments give him a sense of community and care that he has never felt before:

  • With his mother always inconsistent, and his father gone, Leon has never known stable family

  • At the allotments, he finds himself with two role models and father figures, Tufty and Mr Devlin

  • For the first time, he experiences the benefits of people working together

  • When Mr Devlin gives Leon a patch of the allotment, it is him showing Leon that he is part of the community and accepted

  • He also tells Leon that they will do some planting “together. Later”, showing they have a continuing and lasting relationship

• Leon clearly misses his father, but accepts him as gone:

  • With Tufty and Mr Devlin, he finds two father figures and grows under their guidance

  • In Tufty, he also finds a Black role model:

    • We hear more about Leon’s father’s West Indian roots once Leon meets Tufty and his friends

  • The symbolism of the growing plants shows how these two nurture his growth

• Leon is mixed-race, but has been raised by his white mum, and then moved into the home of his white carers (Maureen, then Sylvia):

  • Tufty’s poem, ‘Ode to Castro’, sparks something in Leon, and he starts to feel affinity with his Black heritage

  • He internalises it and repeats lines alone, at home, showing he understands this is part of his identity:

    • He feels strengthened by the stirring words, bringing them up again in the face of danger in the riots

What is de Waal’s intention?

• Throughout the novel, de Waal shows us that those with belonging and community are happier than those left isolated:

  • Carol and Leon suffer with isolation:

    • Carol, in particular, seems to struggle without a romantic interest in her life

    • Leon then flounders as he feels alone, suffering in school, stealing, feeling abandoned and lost

• De Waal also uses the novel to remind us that family does not have to be biological:

  • Leon thinks himself lost without Carol and Jake, so much so that he does not notice the new family he is building

  • His hurt over Maureen and Sylvia possibly moving shows he loves them

  • Tufty and Mr Devlin both fill a vacant fatherly role

  • The novel suggests that chosen families and non-biological bonds can be as nurturing and meaningful as biological ties

  • The story also shows us the influence kindness and openness can have on young people

• She may also be showing us how important it is for Black people to experience and understand Black culture:

  • Leon is patronised and racialised by social services, raised by a white mother, and then sees his white brother taken from him:

    • These experiences teach him that a white child has things better

    • He has not been shown or guided positively about the colour of his skin

• When Leon sees Tufty’s proud Black identity, sees him and his friends discussing their race and their treatment, he gains a sense of pride

• De Waal could be showing us that he needs to see representation to feel confident about his place in the world

Loss 

My Name is Leon is a story driven by Leon’s loss. He is traumatised by loss from the start of this novel and it is something that marks his journey throughout the narrative. However, at the end of the novel, he gains family and community, which suddenly fills him with happiness and security.

Knowledge and understanding

• Even before Leon and Jake are taken into care, Leon’s devotion to his brother could be seen as his reaction to the loss of his mother to depression:

  • With life becoming more chaotic, Leon tries to control what he can and keep hold of something precious

  • Losing Jake sees him more outwardly emotional, and he struggles ever to understand it

• Leon struggles with the permanency of his loss and tries to reverse it all:

  • He thinks of ways to change things, like offering to “be” Jake for his mum, in case it is Jake’s absence that keeps Carol away

  • He then plans ways to find them and bring them together, gathering supplies and the addresses of both Jake and Carol

• Leon’s stealing is emblematic of his problems with loss:

  • De Waal uses this to show how Leon is acting out in his stress and grief:

    • Many children show similar behaviour when going through turmoil that they do not truly understand

  • She also allows us to see Leon trying to grasp back control:

    • Stealing represents a kind of reclaiming after having his family and life stolen from him; it is his way of taking something back

    • He also feels like he can steal because he deserves some good things after suffering

• When Maureen goes to hospital, Leon experiences a loss of security again:

  • He starts to imagine her passing, fearing abandonment once more

  • Once at Sylvia’s, he starts going off to the allotments but telling her he’s visiting the park

  • He lies about it, acting a bit more recklessly without Maureen around him:

    • A disregard for rules and safety can come with trauma

• Mr Devlin still struggles with loss:

  • We see that he keeps many pictures in his shed from happier times

  • He mourns the loss of his son, and is attached to a wooden carving of him:

    • Leon taking this devastates him, seeing it as a betrayal

    • He possibly sees Leon in the image of his own son, so this feels more painful as he had opened himself up to care about him

• We see from his drinking and mumbling to himself that Mr Devlin is also carrying trauma

• His spiky exterior has likely grown as a protection, keeping people out so he cannot be vulnerable to them

• We also see that Tufty softens to him when he realises what the pictures and dolls represent, and why he is sad:

  • Tufty empathises and starts to understand Mr Devlin

• Carol’s mental health struggles include depression and neglect, though her reactions to men’s rejection highlight her fragility and self-image:

  • For her, these are major losses, which shape her sense of self-worth

  • We see her shout at Leon when she blames him for Jake’s father ending their conversation

  • She does mourn for the loss of her children, and mourns the loss of her ability to care for them

  • Carol seems to mourn for the loss of who she was, or who she thinks herself to be:

    • Men reject her and she sees herself ageing, with two kids, and alone

    • She is angry at Leon’s suggestion that she needs to be cared for

• Tufty is emotional at the loss of Castro:

  • While the indignity and outrage of it angers him, he is hurt by the loss of his friend

  • He looks for aggression from Mr Devlin where it isn’t, lashing out at the situation

  • He is also mourning the loss of his security, as he hoped he could find a peaceful way to enforce change, and then sees violence and brutality burst that notion

• It is when Leon thinks Maureen is abandoning him that all his losses stack up, and he can no longer handle his emotions:

  • His outburst and then threats to Mr Devlin and Tufty come from a build-up of all the loss we see throughout the story, much of it from years before

  • “Every face he has ever seen starts crowding into the shed” is a sign that all his anger and resentment at people is flooding out

  • He tells them, “no one cares about me”, as another person he loves and thought loves him seems to be happy to abandon him 

What is de Waal’s intention?

• De Waal shows us in My Name is Leon that loss has a profound impact on us all, but especially children:

  • Leon is changed by his experience of loss:

    • We see changes in behaviour, with his stealing, him struggling at school, and his thoughts of violence towards social workers

    • He is also scarred by his experience with Carol and Jake, causing him to jump to conclusions and spiral when he overhears Maureen and Sylvia talking

  • Mr Devlin is also a different man, suffering with alcoholism and isolating himself, whereas clearly he was once involved in caring for children

• Loss can also present itself in different ways:

  • By not having a strong connection to the paternal side of his family, Leon loses a part of his identity

  • He only recovers that by meeting Tufty, and Tufty’s friends

• De Waal could be reminding the reader that the pain of what pushes young people into care stays with them:

  • It is seen as good news that Leon finds a stable place with Maureen

• There is also a possible message about not letting ourselves be isolated after loss:

  • Mr Devlin struggles alone, but is brighter and cleaner once he opens himself up to a relationship with Sylvia

  • Leon almost refuses to accept a new life with Maureen, but is happier when he opens up to his new life

  • Maureen also feels the loss of her own children moving out of home, and fills that gap with foster children, which keeps her happy

Sources

De Waal, K. (2016), My Name is Leon, Viking