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O Connor's The Star Versus The Sea

1225 Words5 Pages

The Star Versus the Sea Voyages at sea are known to be unpredictable, and the journey of the ship in Joseph O’Connor’s novel Star of the Sea is no exception. The story follows an unnamed narrator aboard the Star as a storm roughly overtakes the ship, shaking it to its foundation and assaulting passengers and crew members alike. The distressed tone heightens as everyone on deck struggles not to be swept overboard while battling the ferocious wind. Throughout the passage, the narrator’s thoughts and emotions are filtered through a special type of third person narration known as free indirect discourse. This style is utilized to completely immerse the reader, placing them in the heart of the story. O’Connor’s tactful usage of free indirect discourse, …show more content…

Visual imagery is applied to create vivid mental images of what is happening to the ship and how these events are affecting its passengers. O’Connor depicts a woman’s “terrified sons bawling into her skirts” (27) as a wave “smashed into the side of the bucking Star” (7). This striking image reveals the terrifying nature of the storm. The auditory imagery in the passage furthers this point by displaying the frightening sounds of “terrified screams” (10) as a woman almost falls overboard and the “skreek of metal on metal” (14). Tactile imagery is shown as crew members are rescuing the endangered woman; “gripping the slimy rope” (21) and pulling her back to safety. Even though the narrator is nonplussed by all of this, he does admit that there is something different about this storm, and he has never “felt rain quite like it” (3). This peculiar feeling stays with the narrator until he returns to his quarters, changes into dry clothes, and has “eaten all his soup” (30). This singular gustatory image changes the mood of the passage from threatening to comforting. The narrator is safe in his quarters, finally away from the perils of the storm. His prediction is finally affirmed when the news is later brought to him that the storm has calmed down. The Star had not been beaten by the

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