A Star Called Henry
HOMEWORK ON “A STAR CALLED HENRY”
Kilmainham Goal:
`The birth of the Irish nation did not take place in the GPO
but in Kilmanham Gaol`
-Mona Plummett –
`Nationalism is an infantile disease.
It is the measles of mankind’
– Albert Einstein –
1) Look at photos of Kilmanham Gaol and comment on the two quotations.
The two quotations talk about the Irish nation and the Kilmainham Gaol.
The first one shows that the Irish Nation was born in the Kilmainham Goal and not in the GPO, where the fight against the British army on Easter Morning 1916 took place.
The second wants to show that nationalism was a childish disease of the mankind.
A disease mostly everyone has got in his life is the measles. So, this means that nationalism is important for the mankind and indispensable.
The photos of the Kilmainham Gaol I found in the internet show that the cells in the jail were open so the inhabitants could go out and talk to each other. This is also shown in the film ‘In the name of the father’. So, they were able to talk about their impressions of the actions and the republic.
Most of members of the Easter Rising of 1916 died in this gaol! Because of this most of the people know it as the ‘birthplace’ of the nation.
It was necessary for the republic of Ireland that there was an important action: This was the Easter Rising. And also if so many people died in it, it was necessary for the nation, which is shown in the second quotation.
3) Compare the circumstances of the birth of the Irish nation to the circumstances of Henry Smart (Juniors)’s birth. Explain whether you see any parallels.
The most remarkable parallel are the complications of both ‘birth’:
When Henry was born Melody had to push very hard and a long time. The birth of the nation took also a long period of time.
The result was also mostly the same: Henry is describes as the ‘gloomy baby’, the pride and hope of all the people. It’s the same with the nation: The people had hope and were quite pride of what THEY did.
Before Henry was born there were a couple of abortions in Henry and Melody’s life. There were also lots of tries to have a nation in the Irish history, but they couldn’t manage to be free and independent. But in the end, both managed to get a ‘baby’.
Here is a video I found in the internet – They show the Kilmainham Gaol, which is a museum now.
Please also listen to the music in the background: A song about the people who fought for Ireland and it’s liberty.
How well do you know the novel?
Put your knowledge to the test.
PART 1 (up to page 92)
Please answer the questions by taking notes. Make sure to always refer to relevant pages in the novel. Upload the results on your blog!
1.What is the address of Henry and Melody`s first “home”? Why do they feel privileged to be living there?
Silver Alley 57
They feel privileged to live there because it is their first home together, they are proud of being together. They can escape to this room from their everyday problems they are confronted with in the Dublin slums.
2.“Do you have a name bigger boy? / Yeah. / Yes, mother. You`re not my mother” à What is the conflict about and how does it end?
The nun doesn’t want Victor and Henry to attend her school because they are poor and seem to be strangers.
Henry, who has never learns to talk respectfully with a nun, can’t understand why he should call a stranger ”mother”. He doesn`t believe in God or Jesus as he didn`t have a Christian upbringing. His parents never told him that.
It ends with Henry’s hitting of the nun with the wooden leg of his father, which he’s carrying with him all the time. The two boys escape from the school.
3.What importance do stories have in Henry Smart`s life? How does this connect him to Dolly Oblong?
Henry senior tells stories about his life all of the time. Stories about where he lost his leg, for example. His son Henry never knew if they were true, even if Henry Smart was his real name. This is the connection to Dolly Oblong: She also invents herself new all of the time. Nobody knows if the stories are true, there are so many stories about her.
Both of them lie a lot – you never know, what the truth is.
4.On what occasion do Henry and Melody experience a new kind of love?
When little Henry was born and he survived, because Henry senior thought that his children`s death was his fault until then. The birth showed him that he wasn’t to blame. It made him to a new man and he felt alive again.
Also Melody felt happy about that. They became a real little family.
5.Under what circumstances does Granny Nash discover her reading skills?
When Henry was born, she put newspapers on Melody’s mattress protecting it from getting soiled in the process. When Henry was there, she took the newspapers and realized that she likes to read.
6.What does Henry mean when telling Victor about “the times before the bad times”?
7.The Smart boys and their father are trapped in a garden when being chased by the police. How do they manage to escape?
Under the bush there was a hole and they jumped into it. They went underground and moved within Dublin`s sewage system
8.What does Dolly Oblong smell of? Does Henry Smart like the scent?
She smelled like peppermint and Henry liked it a lot. He always had that smell in his nose.
9.Why does Dolly think that she contributes to public prosperity (“It is good for the city, the country and the Empire.”)?
The men coming to her brothel pay a lot of money for the girls and they buy other things with that money. It goes from one hand to another. This is good for the economy.
10.Name some reasons why Henry Smart is attracted to Dolly Oblong.
- She’s a gorgeous woman, she looks fantastic.
- Henry thinks that she could rule the world easily, she’s got certain might.
- He thinks that she’s Alfie Gandon, this makes him belive in her might, too.
- Dolly is only beautiful in HENRY`s eyes. In fact, she is bald.
11.When is little Henry`s birthday?
It’s the 8th of October.
12.Why was he considered to be “the glowing baby”?
He was quite big and healthy. The people, especially women, looked at him and they were happy again. There was hope, again, when they watched little Henry. He made them belive in wonders again.
13.What makes Henry Smart a good bouncer? When does he go slightly over the top?
His bodylanguage was unmisunderstandable, everyone knew that he wasn’t soft to you. He was quite fast in hitting the people. And his ‘tocktock’ was also famous. The people knew ‘that bouncer with the wooden leg in front of Oblons bothel’.
14.What message does Henry Smart deliver when attacking his victims?
He always said ‘Alfie Gandon says hello’ to his victims. His showed that he delivered something for him. In most cases he said with this ”keep out of his way” or ”pay that money fast” or even if it was to bad he delivered the dead.
15.How does he dispose of the bodies?
He sent them into different rivers in Dublin. But he never sent a whole body into one river! He was creative: A leg into the east the other into the north. No way was to long for him.
Some bodies he gave the pigs to eat, so that the people indirectly ate it.
16.What does three-year-old Henry mean when saying that he “invaded Dublin”?
When he was three, Henry ran on to the streets of Dublin the first time. He was impressed by all th noises and things to see. He saw women there and fell in love thousand times. He felt in love with the streets and he learned to go through it.
17.When does King Edward VII visit Dublin? Which monarch had been the previous visitor?
It was the day, when Henry and Victor escaped with their father, in July 1907.
Queen Victoria was also in Dublin, some people still knew.
18. How do the Smart boys offend the King?
They told him to ‘fuck off’.
19.On what occasion does Henry Smart finally lose his coat?
While he was standing in front of the brothel, the police came and they fought. Henry escaped from his coat and left the place.
But the policemen had the coat and also the names of to victims of a brutal murderer.
20.Why does Henry regard himself and his brother as “little princes of the streets”?
The two children knew how to survive on the street. They knew where to find a place to sleep, where to find food or how to find someone, who’s giving you some. They knew a lot about Dublin and how to survive there.
21. What does Henry mean when saying about himself and Victor “We survived but never prospered.”?
It means, that Henry and Victor knew how to life there, in the streets of Dublin, they knew how to survive, but they also knew that their situation would never change into something better. They accepted their lives.
22. Find passages in the novel which make it obvious that Melody has become an alcoholic.
23. On what occasion do Henry and Victor learn some Gaelic?
Miss O’Shea says ‘welcome’ to the two in the Gaelic language, this is a word Henry never forgets.
24. How does Miss O`Shea make Henry excel at sums? What examples does she use?
She lets him find his own way. Henry needs to have an example for it from his all day life. For example dogs or bottles of porter.
25. Which event in Henry`s life does George V`s coronation coincide with?
The day, when Henry’s crowned, Victor died. He was ill and had a cough.
26. What is meant by “the cough of the city” and on what particular occasion does Henry refer to it?
When Victor died, he talks about ”the cough of the city”, because everyone in Dublin was coughing, because of the coldness and the air. When they were walking through the streets they heard all the people coughing. It was normal.
28. Which flag is burned by Arthur Griffith and Constance Markievicz?
The Union Jack.
Add at least five more questions and ask two partners for the right answers. Whose responses were the quickest and the most precise? Make an assessment.
With what did the children paint a war paint in their faces?
Name some ‘jobs’ Henry and Victor did, in order to get food and money.
What is Henry carrying with him all the time?
Why were Henry and Victor so good in catching rats?
-Was I alive?- he asked me once. … – Yeah, I said, You were just a baby – . Is this a lie? Why does Henry say this?
A star called Henry, Chapter 1 & 2
A Star Called Henry, Chapters 1 &2: First impressions & food for thought
- Even before being born the narrator tells the story of how his parents met and recounts the events preceding his birth. Have a close look at pp.10-25, collect information on the following aspects (cf. grid below) and be particularly aware of the way the narrator presents his and his parents` story. Use an extra sheet
| Aspect(s) to focus on | How is this aspect presented to the reader? |
| a) His mother`s name | Melody Nash; she’s got a melodic name but she never had a melodic life. |
| b) His grandmother`s origin | The narrator hears something in her voice, less than an accent. |
| c) Melody and Henry – love at first sight? | No, he was dirty and he vomited, but she thinks he’s quite handsome. He fell in love when he heard her name, a wonderful name, which tells a good story. She fell in love while talking and walking with him. |
| d) His mother`s looks | ‘She was never beautiful’ (p. 11; line 22), for example: she had no beautiful teeth because in the slums they had no good food. He was never shining and pretty. |
| e) His father`s leg | It was wooden. He told them lots of stories about where he lost the real one. Henry II does not know what the truth was. He used it as a leg and also for killing people. |
| f) The wedding party | They had a little party in the room of Melody’s parents. They had some bread and beer. Many women tried to tell Melody things about being married, about having sex and children. Melody felt unconfident. Then some guys from the street tried to steal the food and Melodys mother pricked one of them. |
| g) 57, Silver Alley | The first room of Melody and Henry. There was a window, but they could just see the bale from the slums, when they looked out of it. They had a mattress, a chair for everyone, a tea-chest as a table and one for their things. |
| h) His father`s work | He stood in front of Dolly Oblongs brothel, in order to let the ‘good’ guys come in and to let the aggressive guys stay out.But he did also deliver ‘messages’ for Mr. Gandon. Means: he went to some houses, ticking with his leg, so that the people were scared and not standing in the way of Mr. Gandon again. He also killed people for him. |
| i) The killing of Mr Costello | Henry went there, hiding in the dark. He hit Costello with his leg and cut his gorge. He said: ”Alfie Gandon says Hello.” |
2. If you were to tell the story of your parents` life before you were born, what details could you be certain of, what other aspects would need research? Who would you ask? What obstacles might be in your way? (This task is not compulsory!)
There are some things my parents told me about themselves. But I don’t know whether they are true. So could ask my grandparents and other people who both of them know.
For example: My parents never liked each other when they went to school. This is the truth because they, my parents, and also many other people told me this.
3. Do you like to read biographies or see films about famous people`s lives (bio pics)? Why? Why not? If you had to write your own biography, what would the first paragraph be about? In case you`d rather not be in the lime light, think of another person to focus on.
Well, I think I never watched a film about a famous person of read a biography. Perhaps because they have a certain idea; in most cases in order to let the person look better. For example they want to state that the person had a very hard life. And I think in most cases they imagined some new aspects which are not true.
I think my first paragraph would be about the time before I was born. Maybe a bit about my parents. Because it shows in which time I was born. This is important for the reader, he has to know it because I think that this has coined me.
For example is it important for my biography to mention that my parents were quite young when I was born (17 and 19), this is a fact, I would like to mention because it shows had my live started different to other people.
So, I would do it the same way as Roddy Doyle did it.
4. Turn back to the very first page of the novel and assess the situation Henry and his mother find themselves in. Compare your findings with the results from your grid in #1, paying special attention to the hopes and dreams the characters might have had when they started out. You can also lend a voice to Henry Smart as a father and Granny Nash as a mother and grandmother. Go about the task like this
| Melody: “I had hoped that I would have a lot of beautiful babies… | but now I know that I ‘ll have more stars than babies.” |
| Henry, the son: “I had hoped that my childhood would be happier… | but now I know that I’ll never be a child. There are no children in Dublin.” |
| Henry, the son: ”I had hoped that my mother would love me as her child, as her Henry… | but now I know that I’ll always be ‘the other’ Henry.” |
| Henry, the father: ”I had hoped that my family would have a better future… | but now I know that it’ll never get better.” |
| Melody: ”I had hoped that my life would be better, marrying a good man, living in a good house… | but now I know that this is my future, living here, counting my stars.” |
5. Retrace the stages Melody and her son go through before, during and after the birth. Use emoticons to express the actions and feelings of the different characters. Who is the most and least active? Who is pleased with the situation and who isn`t…? Once you`ve accomplished this task, go back to your emoticons and try to find adjectives to give a more precise impression. The grid below can help you when structuring your thoughts. Don`t forget to mention the relevant pages!
| Stage(s) | Melody | Henry | Baby Henry | Granny Nash | Mrs Drake |
| page 26 before Henry’s birth(death Henry and Lil) | Scared, sad, crying for dead babies. Thinks that they are stars now. | Sad; thinks that it’S his fault that the children are dead. sorrowful; felt guilty. | _ | _ | _ |
| page 27 birth | laughing and pushing | scared on the strets.Hoping and wishing that the baby’s going to live. | _ | Helping with the birth.Spraying bad air, with saying things and standing in the way. | Helping with giving birth.Midwife |
| page 29 Little Henry’s there! | Happy, feeling a family. | A new man, because he thinks that it’s not his fault. | Strong and healthy baby. | no action | Taking to father, cooking, helping with the household. |
| Conclusion: Analysis of feelings and actions: | Growed with the whole situation.Having a real family. | New man with the living child. | Making Melody and Henry happy again, making a family. | Not helping a lot, not wholehearted there. | Taking the role of Grandma Nash with cooking and giving good words. |
6. Write an imaginary announcement of birth for Henry, the Glowing Baby to be published in the Evening Mail. It would be nice if you could write a little poem. Make sure to include all the characteristics that make Henry such a special child.
And also in the bad times,
God gives us miracles.
He’s there to give us hope,
He’ll make you smile –
God bless you, little guy.
Henry and Melody Smart, born Nash proudly present:
HENRY S. SMART
born the 8th of October 1901 – 7.22 h
12 pound!
He’s one of the biggest;
– the healthiest –
A miracle on his own –
God pleases you, little son!
7. Compare the two different parenting styles shown by Melody and Henry Senior.
It seems to me, that Henry Senior is the typical father, loving him and teaching him. He talks to him, when he cries.
Melody, is his mom, but she never teached him. There is no speech of her in the first chapters.
I think, that Melody lets him do, what he wants, because she’s like obsessed from the stars. Henry tries to make a good man out of Henry II.
8. What is the argument about the two Henrys` names actually about? In what way does the outcome prove to be fatal both for the couple and the family as a whole?
Henry’s father wants to name him Henry as a proof of love to Melody. He’s proud of Henry II and the birth is a sign for him that he’s not to blame for the death of Lil and Henry. Now, the believes that it’s in the nature that babies die.
But Melody believes that her son Henry (the dead one) isn’t really dead. She thinks he’s a star in the sky and she thinks she already has got a Henry.
Melody is also not able to accept, that her dead children won’t come back. This is too hard for her.
Henry, the first can’t understand this, he’s more consequent and is not believing in the ’star-imagination’.
Melody hides her face nad her teary – Henry gets angry and defines that his son should be called Henry.
Melody becomes more and more desperate because of this, Henry notices this and both are getting more and more lonely and unhappy.
They both love the little Henry a lot, but they never call him ‘Henry’, this is what’s making Henry II evil and he begins to fight for his right to be Henry.
He carried a cotter between Melody and Henry, so that they drift away from each other. And because of this, Henry, the first, meet Dolly Oblong and falls in love with her.
9. Name aspects of young Henry`s behaviour that show that he is a fighter and a survivor. How are these qualities brought across in the novel? Analyse the language used as well as the narrative perspective.
It begins with the dialogue between Melody and Henry because of the name. Henry the second is hungry and thinks that his parents don’t care about him. The’s not noticed… He begins to scream and he said ”What about meeeee!’ (page 40; line 16) to the reader – Surely in the situation he could not speak, but in the flashback he was older.
He also showed in his childhood that he wants to establish himself. When Henry the first tried to make him stop screaming, he did not stop. And also here the narrator tells you, as a reader, the thoughts of young Henry.
10. Characterise the different types of relationship Melody has with the two Henry’s (pp. 42f.). How does Henry II try to assert his position? Write an interior monologue[1] for his mother
[1] A passage of writing presenting a character’s inner thoughts and emotions in a direct, sometimes disjointed or fragmentary manner. This definition is taken from answers.com.
Summary of the excerpt – 11th September:
The excerpt from Roddy Doyle’ novel: ”A Star called Henry” talks about the first meeting of Melody Nash and Henry Smart, the parents of the protagonist.
Melody Nash, a young girl working in a factory, is walking on the street. Henry Smart, drunk and with just one leg, is also walking there. They run into each other and Henry falls down . As it seems as if he’s sleeping on the ground, she tries to help him, talks to him to get him awake. After a while he gets awake and vomits on the ground. The two talk to each other and she makes a flattery on him.
When Melody tells him her name, he falls in love with her.
SCHOOLWORK ON “A STAR CALLED HENRY”
Principals of the proclamation: Pros and cons:
Having analysed and understood the underlying principles of the Irish Republic, you should now turn to the pros and cons of the Irish treaty. Read the arguments, try to understand them and come to a conclusion as to which side is more entitled to represent Ireland.
PROS-PROS-PROS-PROS-PROS-PROS-PROS-PROS-PROS-PROS-PROS
- The treaty gives Ireland freedom and independence (Arthur Griffith)
- The treaty gives Ireland the chance to develop her own life in her own way (Sean MacKeon)
- There is no alternative to the treaty (Gavan Duffy)
- The people of Ireland benefit from the treaty (Gavan Duffy)
- Ireland is given freedom to achieve freedom (Michael Collins)
- Without the treaty the irish people can not develop their own political understanding (Richard Mulcahy)
-> The treaty helps Ireland to achieve freedom and independence!
CONS-CONS-CONS-CONS-CONS-CONS-CONS-CONS-CONS-CONS
- does not reconcile Irish national aspirations with association with the British government (E. de Valera)
- conflicts between British and Irish won’t end because of it ->Irish don’t want to be saved materially at the cost of their national honour (E. de Valera)
- gives away allegiance and perpetrates partition -> Irish would become slaves of the British (Sean MacEntee)
- whole Ireland should be independent, not only parts of it (Cathal Brugha)
- surrender of all Irish national ideals (Mrs Clarke)
- would let the Irish deviate from the ‘’straight uncompromising path of the Irish” (Sean Ruttledge)
- would do nothing to establish a Republic Ireland (Mary MacSwiney)
Conclusion:
We prefer the PROS, because the line of argumentation is convincing!
Henry’s Easter Rising – Our Poster
Compare A.S.C.H. and A.A.:
1.) My father, Malachy McCourt…
When I was a child I would look at my father, the thinning hair, the collapsing teeth, and wonder why anyone would give money for a head like that.
Malachy sounds similar to Melody and their circumstances are the same: they are both described as poor people. Melody is shown as if she was never beautiful and so is Malachy.
2.) Like his father before, he grew up wild, in trouble with the English, or the Irish, or both. He fought with the Old IRA and for some desperate act he wound up[1] a fugitive[2] with a price on his head.
My mother, the former Angela Sheehan, grew up in a Limerickslum…
Both stories play in Ireland and deal with similar circumstances: IRA and the poverty in the slums.
3) Little Pat, my uncle, was never the same after. He grew up soft in the head with a left leg that went one way, his body the other.
The uncle has just one leg and also Henry, the father, lives with a wooden leg.
To find in ‘A.S.C.H.’: page 12, l.3 ‘Where is your leg gone,Mister’
4) My mother’s troubles began the night she was born. There is my grandmother in the bed heaving and gasping with the labor pains, praying to St. Gerard Majella, patron saint of expectant mothers.
…
And the child was named Angela for the Angelus which rang the midnight hour, the New Year, the minute of her coming and because she was a little angel anyway.
Love her as in childhood
Though feeble, old and grey.
For you’ll never miss a mother’s love
Till she’s buried beneath the clay.
In ‘A star called Henry’ is Henry’s birth described and in Angela’s Ashes the birth of Angela. In both there is the grandmother and a midwife involved.
To find in ‘A.S.C.H’: page 26-29)
Mrs.elephant 
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