Symbolism - The Crow

Chapter three in I'm the King of the Castle depicts the image of Charles Kingshaw being followed and attacked by a crow in the cornfield. The crow in the novel symbolises Edmund Hooper. The crow "circled" over Kingshaw, as if it was watching Kingshaw and looking for the right timing to attack. This mimics Hooper's actions to harass Kingshaw, such as Hooper watching Kingshaw through the window in his room at the top of the house. The diction also illustrates the image of a predator hunting its prey. Like the crow, Hooper shows predatory and intimidating traits towards Kingshaw. In the beginning of the novel, when Kingshaw first came to Warings, Hooper threatens Kingshaw by throwing a note with his warning message. This is shown in the beginning of chapter two; "Hooper dropped the plasticine, it fell straight as a stone. This suggests Hooper's predatory instinct to protect his own territory from an "invader"; Charles Kingshaw. Additionally, Hill uses similar violent and predatory words such as "dived", "slapped" and "wheeled about". Such dictions suggest Kingshaw's position where he is trapped and suffocated by the crow, and unable to escape from it. 

Additionally, the fact that the crow was "the largest crow" that Kingshaw had ever seen make the crow resemble Hooper. The superlative "largest" implies the crow's dominating, thus intimidating features. Also, it suggests an advanced, overwhelming terror that Kingshaw has never experienced before, due to the intimidating size of the crow. "he had never faced this sort of hostility" connotes Kingshaw's devastating panic towards Hooper, which links to the similar descriptions used to depict the crow.

The "shining black" crow also suggests Hooper's consuming nature, as the colour "black" usually represents death and emptiness. Its juxtaposition with "butter-coloured cornstalk" emphasizes the contrast between the peaceful and harmonised nature and the dark and violent evilness of the crow and Hooper which causes conflict and discord between Kingshaw and Hooper. Furthermore, "scarlet" suggests the crow's bloodthirsty characteristic, since the colour scarlet, or red generally connote blood and death. Also, the colour can be a symbol of shame (e.g. scarlet woman), which implies the shame that Kingshaw is feeling from being attacked by "a rotten bird". ("What could a bird do?" - Charles Kingshaw) 

The crow "digging into his skin" also imitates Hooper. The crow's claws permeating into Kingshaw's shirt symbolise Hooper attacking Kingshaw not only violently, but also emotionally harassing him. Moreover, it also connotes that Hooper permeates into Kingshaw's life, as the two boys are to go to the same school, and become brothers after their parents get married.

Intertextuality - The Raven by. Edgar Allan Poe

• "perched above my chamber door" (TR) - The raven is looking down on the persona, watching. -> The crow circles around Kingshaw, as well as Hooper whom watches Kingshaw from his room.
• "tapping at my chamber door" (TR) - This phrase appears twice throughout the poem. The raven taps the door until it is let in by the persona. Suggests the raven's remorseless and unceasing traits, which is similar to the crow which keeps circling around Kingshaw until it attacks him.