Our Day Out Essay

Essay by sara2005 March 2003

download word file, 12 pages 4.6 1 reviews

Willy Russell was born in 1947 at Whiston near Liverpool. His school career in the 'D-stream' was undistinguished and as a result, he left school with one O-level in English language at the age of fifteen. As there was a strong tradition of story telling in his family, he had a vague notion of wanting to become a writer. He drifted into hairdressing but eventually left that job and began working in several industrial jobs before deciding to return to full-time education. During this time, Willy Russell soon decided to become a dramatist whilst at St. Catherine's college. It was around this time when Willy Russell began writing plays.

'Our Day Out' is set in the inner city of Liverpool. This area had a high amount of environmental problems that included derelict houses, vandalism and a vast amount of pollution and decay. Due to these circumstances, people started to drift away from the inner city and soon enough there was an increase of unemployment and poverty.

There were very little facilities available and as a result, only a few people continued to work in Liverpool. One example was education. There were only a limited number of good teachers and children who were willing to learn due to social and environmental limitations. A few children had difficulties learning and consequently were known as the 'progress class.' However, recent government initiatives to focus on deprived areas have started being implemented.

This leads us to Willy Russell's main purposes. His intention was to entertain his audience with a fine piece of comedy writing but also he wanted to inform people of the lack of education, attention and communication teachers had with children, particularly the progress class. Therefore, Willy Russell had a didactic purpose. 'Our Day Out' not only...