Essay Questions

What does it mean to be a conscientious objector?

This term is mentioned for the first time in the novel in the story of Ben Compton. The major character is a man named Ben who lived during the time of the First World War. During the First War, a large number of men were conscripted to the army. What this meant is that the men who were conscripted were forced to go and fight in the war. If those men refused, then they risked being imprisoned for a long period of time. Ben managed to avoid being conscripted by using a conscientious objector, meaning the character refused to go and fight in the army by claiming fighting in the army goes against his religious beliefs, freedom of thought or conscience. The right to refuse to fight in the war was included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, after the end of the Second World War but some countries offered this possibility as early as the beginning of the 20th century.

Why is abortion mentioned in many of the stories in the novel?

Most of the major female characters in the novel underwent at some point or another in their lives an abortion procedure. It is important to note that abortion was made legal in the United Stated only after the 1970s and as such, the female characters in the novel all underwent illegal abortions. The act of aborting a fetus is linked here with the power a woman has to make her own choices in life. Generally, women were not allowed to decide on whether they wanted to keep a baby or not on their own and needed their husband’s permission to get an abortion. The women in the novel take this decision on their own and in some cases is seen as their way of breaking free form the dominating male society in which they lived and continued to live. Thus, the narrator may have mentioned these instances to show just how hard it was for a woman to gain independence and how hard it was for women to be seen as begins capable of taking their own decisions.

How are the Irish presented in Fenian’s story?

Fenian is the son of Irish immigrants who settled in America after fleeing from his country. Fenian’s parents are mentioned only briefly and are presented as hard working people, Fenian’s mother having worked as a washerwoman and Fenian’s father working in a mill. The professions the parents had involved not much skill but was extremely hard from a physical point of view. Fenian’s mother died because of disease contacted while working as a washerwoman and this proves just how hard the job was. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, a large number of Irish men and women migrated to America, feeling the famine in their own country. These people who were looking for a better life were often mistreated and the subject of violence from the rest of the community. These reactions pushed many to join social movements, similar to what Fenian did. In this sense, Fenian can be seen as representing the Irish community in the first half of the 20th century and the way in which the Irish were treated.