William Rannals

Religion vs. Nationalism

Throughout Barry’s The Secret Scripture it seems clear that he is creating a dichotomy between Catholics and Protestants, Northern and Southern Ireland, and Ireland and England. The separations also include different militaries which support different groups of people. With all of these different separations of people, what is Barry trying to display as the most significant?
On page 115 Dr. Grene states that “My parents were Catholic, which might have stood in their favour, except that they were English Catholics, a people in the eyes of my in-laws more Protestant than the Protestants themselves.” This quote reinforces the idea that being an “English” Catholic is worse than being a Protestant. So this quote seems to make country more of a deciding factor than religion. Then on page 129 Roseanne explains the owners of Café Cairo who are Quakers would hire anyone, even Roseanne who “unpromising as (she) looked, was a Presbyterian, and so suited to the job.” Roseanne continues to explain that “openhearted as the Quaker owners were, there were no Catholic girls employed there.” So here it seems as if the division between Protestant and Catholic is the most significant.
Fr. Gaunt, the Catholic, fires Rosanne’s father, the Protestant, then hires a Catholic, and then tries to marry Roseanne to the same Catholic. Then we have the “Free Starters and the “other lot” on page 38. So what is the most important or most significant division? Does religion or country or military or any individual group trump the other divisions? Are Barry’s choices of importance congruent to historical separations?

Nick Cooley

Angels, Burning Rats, and Clock Hands

In his A Glossary of Literary Terms, M.H. Abrams defines magic realism as consisting of “an ever shifting pattern, a sharply etched realism in representing ordinary events and descriptive details together with fantastic and dreamlike elements, as well as with materials derived from myth and fairy tales” (196). Magic realism can also be said to deliver supernatural events in “seamless deadpan,” give hints to the reader the reality will be stretched, subverted or in some way altered, and be used to “broaden understanding” and the reader’s experience (class notes). By these standards, can The Secret Scripture be labeled as magical realist? How does it alter potential readings of the novel? Certain events in the novel— the haunted house in Southampton (6), the Indian Angel (10), the frost in Roseanne’s room (24), the burning rat starting the orphanage fire (72-3), the clock hands in Joe Clear’s (88)—seem to conform to the characteristics of magic realism despite it being known as a South American literary tradition? Does magic realism export (or has it been exported)? Are there other explanations to the dreamlike/fantastic presentation of such scenes? Is it as simple as “insanity”?
Bethany Davis
April 7, 2009
English 404
Discussion Starter:
The Secret Scripture

Why Tell a Story?

In this novel, The Secret Scripture, the two main characters are slowly telling their stories in the seeming hope of achieving some sort of redemption for their past lives. Dr. Grene wishes to forget the pain he believes he has caused his wife and Roseanne believes in the magical and redemptive power of storytelling as can be seen earlier in the novel, (p. 11). This theme of storytelling can be seen to continue throughout the novel. Dr. Grene is desperate to discover Roseanne’s story, why? I think it goes beyond simple Dr./patient curiosity. On page 121, Dr. Grene states, “I would like in some way to find the heart and thread of her story.” This desire to know her story goes deeper than a simple reason for admission. Why is there this connection between Roseanne and Dr. Grene? Roseanne even admits that the truth is that she is writing her story for him, (p. 126.) Is it the fact that they are both haunted by their pasts? Or simply by the fact that they are both so deeply connected to the Asylum?
Why is there such a need for one’s life and past history to be made into a story in this novel? Even when recounting Ireland in its past Dr. Grene makes it into a story, describing it with, “the savage fairytale of life in Ireland in the twenties and thirties,”(p. 135). Not only do these characters both feel a need to tell their story, they both have difficult times actually communicating it. Roseanne and Dr. Grene tell almost nothing to each other, and write their true thoughts and histories in books. Is this action that is demonstrated in both of the main characters showing the power of literature to convey truths that people are unable to communicate out loud?