RESOURCES: Classic text revisited

Smith is an "out-law" - he always was, and he always will be. He does not want people from the other side to try to understand. They never will: they never can. Smith prefers the policeman who arrested him in the pouring rain, when the banknotes from his burglary of a chemist's shop flooded out of the drainpipe where he had hidden them. At least the policeman was "honest" in his pursuit of Smith, and Smith would have done the same in his position.

Written in 1959, Sillitoe's classic (which most people probably know better through the film) seems very dated now in its literary style, although it remains an exciting read. Sillitoe juxtaposes the expectations placed upon the long distance-running borstal boy with flashbacks to his earlier life and how he ended up inside. It is a portrayal of the "us and them" mentality: "They don't see eye to eye with us and we don't see eye to eye with them, so that's how it stands and how it will always stand." Smith gains a small Pyrrhic victory in the act of losing, but his life will always be about devil-may-care, don't give a damn, and cunning. Those of us who work with young people have all met someone like Smith and we, like the governor, may also find that, ultimately, our "rehabilitative" endeavours are equally in vain.