Essay Questions

How is the irony of the title manifested in the structure of the novel?

The irony of the title lies in the suggestion that Henry is a star player in his own life story. Or, for that matter, in his world. This is not exactly true. The irony that lies between the ambition that Henry ascribes to and the reality of his situation is manifested through the tension created by Henry’s narration of his story and the events taking place. Hyperbole, exaggeration and mythologizing of those events through the perspective lens of Henry’s narration serve to illuminate the inherent irony of the title’s positioning of the main character’s status.

What literary techniques does the author use to intensify the psychological state of mind of his narrator?

Many scenes begin right in the middle of the action with information about what led to those moments filled in later. Disorientation is the key impact of this device. Another technique used to create this effect is the non-linear chronology. The author also eschews traditional narrative conventions like quotation marks. Consistent verb tense is also abandoned so that some parts are written as if remembrance while others as if occurring in real time. The overall effect of these techniques helps to lend the story a somewhat mythic quality that conspires against the grim realism. Henry’s view of himself as a heroic figure is juxtaposed against the tendency of the reader to read things differently.

What is significant about the first targets that Henry shoots with his rifle in his new role as an IRA soldier?

These are not Irish soldiers in the sense that they are fighting British soldiers, of course, but rather an unofficially recognized paramilitary group called terrorist by those who disagree with their cause and freedom fighters by those who do agree. Soldiers fighting for an Ireland independent of British rule, the natural targets are their political enemies: British soldiers and Irish loyal to foreign rule. The other men with rifles trained them upon members of the Sixth Reserve Cavalry Regiment dragoons. Henry enemy is of a more personal nature the first time he is handed the power and authority of destructive weaponry. His bullets rip not through flesh and blood, but the leather and fabric of boots and suits as well as the cakes and creams inside a dessert store. Henry kills not humans in the name of a political ideology, but “all I had been denied…commerce and snobbery that had been mocking” him.