Essay Questions

Describe religion in the book Are you somebody?

Nuala demonstrates throughout the book how religion and religious faith constituted a vital component of society, where most parts of the Irish country was Catholic at the time. The book begins in Ireland in the early 1900s. Children were educated in the church. Many attended convent schools, especially, women who were urged to enter convents. Mass was held on a regular basis. Although, it never helped people who were suffuring and turining into alcoholics.

Nuns, according to Nuala, were highly esteemed members of society. They were regarded as the "bride of Christ." Children, particularly females like Nuala, were frequently sent to convent boarding schools for education. Nuala detailed her experience at such a school. Her parents were informed that she had found men and frequently went away from home to dance with them.

Every Sunday, members of the society, including Nuala, attended church and simply thought that religion was something related to 'good Catholics and bad Catholics.' The society didn't know much about other faiths and religion that existed in other parts of the world, at that time.

Show the importance of family in the book.

Family is revealed to be incredibly significant to an individual in the novel, "Are You Somebody?", especially in early childhood. A person's family provided comfort, financial assistance, social standing, and a sense of connection. Nuala informs the reader about her family history, beginning with her grandparents. Families with more than nine children were common at that time.

For instance, Nuala says that after all the depression that her mother faced, she had to go through the cycle of feeding and clothing, and cleaning her nine children for years! We can analyze how the life of a typical housewife of that time was like her mother, who had no option but to read, drink, or suffer through her anxiety, depression and loneliness, on top of looking after her children.

Additionally, she mentioned," 1940s Ireland was a living tomb for women." Women of Irish families, then, suffered much within the patriarchal society of that time.

When Nuala said, 'Children are toughened early- sent out into the world with their cardboard suitcases, one-minute warm in the tribe, the next minute walking down the steps of some distant railway station into a world they must handle on their own.' She contrasts the warmth of the tribe when a child is at home with the coldness of the world when they depart to seek employment.

Describe the various forms of work in the book.

Nuala depicts numerous types of work that individuals did to make a livelihood in the book. The book is set in an era when Ireland's social structure is undergoing significant changes. She mostly gives various instances of formal and informal works. Learned individuals were frequently in official jobs, whereas their opposites were entrepreneurs or worked in informal settings.

She also brings up her job as a television producer for BBC while she was going through a bad phase of her life. She lived in an era where children were sent to face the harsh world on their own, at a very early age.

Formal jobs included journalism, which Nuala's father and his companion Gay were involved in. There are also many clerical and secretarial jobs mentioned in the book. This type of activity was common in the city of Dublin. Her father was also a traveler during the summers. He was also a linguist and a sportsman.

On the other hand, informal jobs included sewing shrouds, which Nuala's grandmother did, and working as a housekeeper.