1. Carty from 'Away Days' is represented with popular notions of adolescence.
Throughout the film we see Carty involved between several identities and roles
and by the end of the film we see him resolve his role confusion and decide what
identity is most important to him and avoiding the ever-pending threat of
maladaption. We see Carty play the role of main male figure in the family,
football pack hooligan, artist, junior civil servant, boyfriend and of course as an
ageing teenager suffering from mood swings and fascination of risky behavior.
Carty tries to balance these roles throughout the story as he takes one role and
upsets his friends or family from the other identities of his life. At the end of the
story we see Carty hit by revelation as he finally pulls through adolescence and
decide he needs to be with his family and girlfriend and consider going back to
art college, rather than hanging around and getting into fights with the pack of
football hooligans.
Carty was originally fascinated by the pack and how they got into fights with
supporters with other teams but during the last fight of the film he doesn't
participate and is slashed in the face with a Stanley knife, this forever engraves
his completed journey of discovering who he is. He splits from the group and
begins walking away implying he has left the group and is returning to his family.
In the narrative we hear him repeat "How long had I waited for this day?" - he
said this at the start of the movie when he was about to join the pack, but he
repeats this at the end and this could be interpretated as him wondering why he
wanted that identity and regretting it. The slash on his face is an analogy for how
going through adolence makes a mark on someone's character and this also
signifies that the story is over.
Youth are often demonized in the mass media but in 'Away days' we see both
sides of the story behind the main characters rather than being forced to judge
character based on stereotypes. We Carty's life behind the violence and we seem
him struggling with family life and how he loves and cares about his sister and
how he continues to dress up formally and go to work consistently. We also see
Carty go and stand up for his sister without a second thought even when he
confronts the gang of men that roughed her up. He also defends his reputation
when he invites the pack to him beat the said gang. Although children and
teenagers in this movie are also closely associated with violence as in the pack
we see boys in a range of ages roughly ranging from around 10-22 whose back
stories we never learn of. The use of knives is prominent in the film as we see
various members equipping themselves with Stanley knives when the different
football fan groups collide. Acknowledging this, the main character Carty is
initially portrayed as a reckless teenager as we would see on the media but the
story progresses and we can relate to him and he becomes a more three
dimensional character.
Carty can not really be described as being let down adults in the film. Carty no
longer has a mother figure at the start of the movie and we see only very trace
amounts of interaction with his father who has barely any screen time. We do
however see interaction between Carty and the leader of the pack - Golden.
Golden acts like a real authoritative figure and he keeps Carty in his place within
the group. We see him head-butt Carty when he steps out of line and taunts
another group of footballers out in-front of the pack. It may be interpreted that

2. the idea has been flipped and youths let down adults because in addition to the
previously described scene we see Carty let down his sister multiple times. Carty
promises to take his sister out shopping but repeatedly misses the opportunity.
This is significant because Carty steps in and takes the prominent male model
and accepts those responsibilities in the family by caring for and avenging his
sister.
The idea of youth being represented as part of a subculture is very dominant in
this film. The pack are part of the football supporter sub-culture who often take
it to the extreme by attacking other groups from the same sub-culture. We could
even view different football supporter groups as their own sub-cultures within
the football sub-culture because of the conflict and tension between them. We
are aware of the dangers that the youths take when they take part in the
dangerous activities associated with their sub-culture however we don't see any
of the potential consequences occur. Interestingly there's no other youths in this
film other than Carty's sister and every youth in this film have been categorized.
We see how these groups operate and treat fellow members as Carty tries to join
the pack. Initially the group is hostile to Carty as he watches them pass by during
the early stages of the film but he is accepted when he proves his worth when
fighting another group of supporters.
Away days was based around the 1970s and in the Liverpool area which was
renounced for football hooliganism at the time. This theme is certainly reflected
in the film and in the culture the film represents. At the start of the story Carty is
eager and almost encouraged to get involved with the pack culture. When he
goes to the football stadium to meet up with Elvis he is surrounded by people
involved in this culture as well as the pack implying that there's a lot more
people involved than we see in the film. Carty is sucked into (voluntarily) the
chaos because of the rich abundance of it around him.