Skellig Literary Elements

Children's fantasy; magic realism.

Present time (spring) in an English town.

The story is narrated in the first person by Michael, a 10-year-old boy.

Mysterious; suspenseful; anxious.

Michael is the protagonist, nurturing Skellig together with Mina. There is no human antagonist.

Will Michael's baby sister survive, and will Skellig get better?

After being nurtured by Michael and Mina, Skellig uses his power to revive Michael's baby sister when her doctors think they have lost her.

A number of elements seem to foreshadow the baby's death (e.g., the name of Dr. Death, her pale face, her dead straight hair, the color black), thus misleading the reader. However, when Michael's father asks the doctor how the baby is coming along, he answers, "Flying." This foreshadows Skellig's flying dance with the baby, saving her life. Later, Mina's mother cuts open a pomegranate and tells the story of Persephone; both elements are symbols of life and foreshadow the baby's survival.

"There's a man in our garage" (36) is an understatement, for when Michael says this to the crazy man on the bus, it doesn't even begin to indicate the magnitude of Skellig's presence.

1. There are several allusions to William Blake and his poetry, which are introduced by Mina and her mother. Both of them cite passages from his works to illustrate their points. For example, Mina references him when she highlights the importance of freedom and her negative opinion about formal schooling. Like Blake, she despises the thought of waking up early in the morning only to sit in a closed room where the teachers demand compliance with their ideas. Moreover, she tells Michael about Blake seeing spirits in nature, advising him to see the world with open eyes and an open mind. In the end, Michael sings one of Blake's songs with Mina, indicating that he has adopted her ideas of freedom and spirituality. The characters are mostly referencing Blake's "Songs of Innocence and Experience."
2. Mina's Mother references the ancient Greek story of Persephone, who was kept in the underworld for several months, leading to cold darkness on Earth and animals hiding away. Only when she was released did spring come back. Because of the outcome being parallel to the baby's development, Michael wanted to name his sister Persephone after she was released from the hospital.
3. There is an allusion to Icarus, son of Daedalus, who flew too close to the sun, fell into the sea, and died.
4. Michael learns about Odysseus and Polyphemus, characters of another Greek myth, in school.

See the separate "Imagery" section of this ClassicNote.

The most striking paradox is Skellig himself. He has wings, indicating that he is an angel, but he neither looks nor behaves like an angel. He wears dusty clothes, suffers from arthritis, likes Chinese food, and is rather defensive in the beginning. When Michael asks Skellig about his nature, he answers that he is "something like you, something like a beast, something like a bird, something like an angel," which puzzles Michael. Skellig is trying to say that he is similar to Michael and humans in general, who can be savage like animals, free like birds, and have a spiritual element in them.

1. Skellig's recovery runs parallel to the baby's struggle for life. In the beginning, Skellig and the baby are at the brink of death, trapped in the house on Falconer Road. The baby is brought to the hospital and nurtured by doctors and her parents the same way Michael and Mina bring Skellig to a safe place and take care of him, at times even feeding him like a baby. Toward the end, both Skellig and the baby choose life: Skellig regains his strength and finds his true calling, while the baby survives the surgery due to her heart of fire—i.e. her strong will to live.
2. The baby is described as birds are: with "tiny soft bones" and a place "where the wings had been" (39).
3. Mum and Dad taking care of their baby is paralleled with the blackbirds taking care of the fledglings.

N/A.

Describing the old garage, Almond writes "Even the bricks were crumbling like they couldn't bear the weight anymore. It was like the whole thing was sick of itself and would collapse in a heap and have to get bulldozed away." This personification depicts the building as a living organism that is about to die, emphasizing the derelict state of the garage.