39 pages • 1 hour read
Seamus DeaneReading in the Dark
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Supernatural
Aspects of the supernatural suffuse daily life in Derry, and this is emblematic of the fear and suppression that is present in Irish culture. Though Ireland is mostly Christian in the novel, it has pagan roots, which still filter into the culture. The Irish believe that there is a certain permeability between the spirit world and the human world and that this barrier can be crossed. For example, the Irish believe that fairies can enter the human world to steal children. The narrator notes, “If we ever met anyone with one green and one brown eye we were to cross ourselves, for that was a human child that had been taken over by the fairies” (5). Similarly, the Irish also believe in ghosts. When the narrator is on holiday in Donegal, he encounters the Field of the Disappeared, which hosts ghosts. He says, “any who heard their cries on those days would cross themselves and pray out loud to drown out the sounds” (54). Here, these supernatural beings have power over humans, so humans must always be on guard and make sure that they do not deviate from their religious beliefs and practices.
This supernatural aspect of Irish culture is even present in Ireland’s Catholicism. Some Irish Catholics believe that demons exist and can inhabit spaces and people. In one instance, a priest traps a demon in a window, and, according to the story, “if the snib was broken open, the devil would enter the body of the person like a light, and that person would then be possessed and doomed forever” (9). Thus, people should not go near the house since it is the site of a haunting. On a deeper level, the house is a site of trauma, which is prevalent in the narrator’s family and the community in general. In this way, the supernatural connects people to the past trauma and wrongdoing that they have suppressed.
Abject Living Conditions
Abject living conditions are another prominent motif in the novel. Life in Derry is challenging, and the narrator’s family suffers from a socio-economic standpoint. Deane provides imagery to illustrate the trying conditions that the family contends with. For example, to demonstrate how hard the winters are, the narrator describes one particularly difficult winter in this way: “It was desolate. No water, no heat, hardly any money, Christmas coming” (7). His parents struggle to keep the family afloat, and their outward appearances reflect this. For example, the narrator observes his parents’ feet in one section and notes that his mother’s “low heels […] needed mending” as well as “my father’s work boots” (14). Here, the shoes are a symbol of the family’s lack of resources as well as his father’s position as a manual laborer.
Illness and death are prominent aspects of the abject living conditions in Derry. From a young age, the narrator is surrounded by family deaths. Early on, his little sister Una dies. When she goes to the hospital, the narrator is aware of her impending death because serious illnesses in his community cannot be treated and have dire consequences. In fact, the narrator becomes so accustomed to illnesses that he turns them into a game of sorts: “I loved the names of the others—diphtheria, scarlet fever or scarlatina, rubella, polio, influenza; they made me think of Italian football players or racing drivers or opera singers” (13). To cope with illnesses, the narrator displaces them from their role as bringers of death and infuses them with some degree of humor. In this way, illness and death are normalized in Derry where they are both prevalent.
The Color Red
The color red often symbolizes political conflict in the novel, especially in the first half of the book. While Deane describes the bonfires of Derry, the narrator notes, “the night sky reddened around the rising furls of black tyre-smoke that exploded every so often” (32). The redness of the fire is indicative of the divisions between the Nationalists and Unionists. This conflict permeates everyday life and even influences expressions. For example, when talking about political turmoil in the past, the narrator’s father says, “it was all blood under the bridge now” (47). Here, he puts his own spin on the expression “water under the bridge,” and he changes the word “water” to the charged image of red blood. Here, violence permeates his experience of a politically fraught community.
Red also represents personal conflict and loss. Due to their lack of medical care, the narrator’s family must contend with a lot of illness and death. When the narrator’s little sister Una is sick, the narrator notes, “The lino itself was so polished that there were answering rednesses in it too” (13). Here, redness permeates the narrator’s home, and he sees its reflection in many places, such as the linoleum. Furthermore, when the narrator’s mother suffers psychotic episodes, she often repeats, “Burning; it’s all burning” (144). Here, the redness of fires permeates her imagination as she associates it with her personal trauma.
