I found this interesting guide to Star of the Sea for Book Clubs
Source:
www.josephoconnorauthor.com/for-book-clubs-star-of-the-sea.htmlThought it might be interesting
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
HISTORY
‘Nothing had prepared him for it: the fact of famine. The trench-graves and screams. The hillocks of corpses. The stench of death on the tiny roads.’
Does the situation in Ireland in the book remind you of events in more recent history? (You could look at Chapter XXIX in particular.) Do other historical novels you have read also illuminate the present? How does Joseph O’Connor use the different narrative methods of the book to reflect on ideas of historical accuracy and objectivity?
TERRITORY
‘But they have two score and upward of words for land, depending on what sort of land is being spoken of. ‘Tear’ is one of them (pronounced in a fashion so as to rhyme with ‘year’). ‘Tear mahurr’ is ‘my father’s land’. He took from the pocket of his greatcoat a handful of soil which he shewed me. It was a handful of his father’s land at Connermara.’
Why is land so significant to the characters in Star of the Sea?
‘Yet there was an all but religious tranquillity among those who walked the decks at night: the angrier the sea, the icier the rain, the more palpable the solidarity among those withstanding them together. An admiral might chat to a frightened cabin boy, a hungry man of steerage to a sleepless Earl.’
The setting on board ship allows Joseph O’Connor to bring together many different characters from different backgrounds but there is still a physical division between the steerage and first class passengers. What do the various characters feel about this division? How do issues of class effect the characters in the novel?
GENRE
‘There was something so intensely ordinary about him. It could never have been guessed that he meant to do murder’
Even though we know from the first chapter that there will be a murder on board the ship, Joseph O’Connor keeps us in suspense right to the end of Star of the Sea. Would you say that this is a crime novel? Look carefully at the different forms the narrative takes (e.g. newspaper articles, letters, journal entries etc.). What do you consider to be the author's purpose in presenting the book in this way, and what do these differing narrative forms bring to the novel as a whole?
RACE
‘“THE MISSING LINK: A creature manifestly between the gorilla and the Negro is to be met with in some of the lowest districts of London and Liverpool by adventurous explorers. It comes from Ireland, whence it has contrived to migrate; it belongs in fact to a tribe of Irish savages: the lowest species of Irish Yahoo. When conversing with its kind it talks a sort of gibberish...” Punch magazine, London, 1862’
Discuss the various descriptions of Irish people in the book. Is it significant that the Star of the Sea is an ex-slave ship? Are the English painted as ultimately responsible for the devastation of the famine? Discuss Dixon’s experiences of racism; in his attitudes to the Irish, his youth, and his later experience of trying to adopt a child. Consider the ideas of patriotism explored in the novel: Look at Merridith’s feelings about Ireland and Mulvey’s patriotic ballads. Why is the book’s subtitle Farewell to Old Ireland?
THE PAST
‘As for his past, it was attached to him like a mooring rope. The further the ship travelled, the more he felt its pull’
Mulvey travels from Ireland and around Britain before joining the rest of the characters on their long voyage to America. Would you say that the characters on board the Star of the Sea are trying to escape something or are searching for something? Discuss Merridith and Mary’s relationship. Would you agree that retribution for past wrongs is a strong theme of the book?
REPRESENTATION
‘In his frayed, spineless dictionary Mulvey looked up the English verb ‘to compose’ – to calm, to produce, to set up printer’s type, to decide what is printed, to write or create, to adjust or settle, to put together. The man who put together could also take apart. There was nothing such a wizard could not do.’
Merridith is an artist, Dixon is a writer and Mulvey is a composer of ballads. Look at the ways in which each of these men represent the situation in Ireland. Mulvey learns to represent himself in different ways to his best advantage throughout the novel. Discuss the idea of identity evoked by his actions.
RELIGION
‘Was there any shred of truth to it, after all, the pietistical absurdity of life after death? Could the story be metaphor for some other, more scientific reality? Would the sages of the coming times be able to decode the allegory? And if such a truth existed, how did it work? Where was Heaven? And where was Hell?’
There are many, many deaths in the novel and much pain: discuss the role of religion in the times of terrible suffering depicted in the novel. Look at the way different characters perceive religion in the book - The Star of the Sea is another name for Mary, the mother of Jesus, Captain Lockwood often reveals his religious faith in his journal entries and Mary Duane’s response to Catholicism is depicted particularly potently in Chapter IX.
IN BRIEF
‘“The way that rascal writes, it makes one want to sing.”’ Critics have compared Star of the Sea to the work of Charles Dickens. Why do you think this comparison has been drawn? In what ways is this novel very different from a traditional Victorian novel?
Who would you say is the villain of Star of the Sea and who is the hero? Why? Discuss the narrator of the book and his representation of himself in the story.
Discuss the role of secrets in the book.
Look at the different forms of love described in Star of the Sea. Why is the symbol of the Liable Men an H enclosed in a heart? Look carefully at the various family relationships in the book; in particular at the Mulveys and the Merridiths.
Discuss the way the female characters in the book are depicted
