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Newton's Runner Friendship Quotes

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Runner is a book that demonstrates the values of friendship.' Discuss. Perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of Robert Newton's coming-of-age novel, Runner, pertains to the values of friendship demonstrated throughout the novel. These values are predominantly explored through Charlie Feehan, the fifteen-year-old main protagonist living in the struggle town of Richmond, his best-friend Norman “Nostrils” Health, and his girlfriend Alice Cornwall. One such value of friendship that is demonstrated to be of major importance throughout the novel is loyalty, and how important it truly is to a friendship. Furthermore, the novel also demonstrates how vital support is as a value of friendship, and how it can both amend and create them. On top …show more content…

This significant value is demonstrated through Charlie and Nostrils’ encounter with Johnny Barlow - a rival Fitzroy bully - and his gang. During this encounter, Charlie and Nostrils are playing football at Barkley Gardens, when they are suddenly confronted by Barlow and his gang. Nostrils sees the group before Charlie, but instead of running off, demonstrates the true meaning of loyalty, “he waited.” Nostrils was, therefore, willing to put himself in a greater risk of getting caught and brutally injured by Barlow and his gang, in order to stay by Charlie’s side. This is a clear depiction of the great importance of the value of loyalty to a friendship, as this allowed Charlie to realise just how much Nostrils was willing to sacrifice for the friendship, which in turn ultimately strengthened the bond between the two. Furthermore, later in the novel, after winning the Ballarat mile, Charlie reveals that he has used his winnings to buy a timber yard. However, as opposed to just keeping it to himself, Charlie demonstrates the true quality of being loyal, choosing to make Nostrils an equal partner, and rename the yard, “The Heath and Feehan Timber company.” This is a significantly important demonstration of loyalty, as although Charlie used his own hard-earned money to buy it, Charlie chose to name it after both Nostrils and himself, even putting Nostrils’ last name - Heath - before his own. Charlie does this to, “make up fer,” all the self-sacrifices that Nostrils has made for him, and in turn demonstrates the value of loyalty himself. This significantly helps to amend the friendship between Charlie and Nostrils, and helps to unburden Charlie from the great feeling of guilt caused from abandoning Nostrils at an incident in Fitzroy Gardens that left him in a critical condition. In fact, this demonstration of loyalty is depicted to be of such value to the

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