THE GATHERING

Below are a series of questions concerning Anne Enright's The Gathering. Feel free to draw from them or develop your own.

For this week’s blog, you might want to do some research on the economic phenomenon known as “The Celtic Tiger.” Take into account the incredible poverty that has pervaded the novels we’ve read, and explore the effects of “wealth” and “materialism” on these characters.

While The Gathering doesn’t necessarily focus on the Catholic Church, it does bring up issues of child molestation. For this blog, you might want to do some research into the wave of molestation scandals that rocked the Catholic Church in the 90s (and sadly, are still haunting us today). Some of you may have recalled the infamous incident of Sinead O’Conner ripping a picture of the pope on Saturday Night Live. Click on the link below to watch this video (youtube won’t allow embedding for this particular video):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYw8JR1N90o

Do some research to contextualize this video and explore why O’Conner would do such an incredibly politically symbolic act. Explore how The Gathering might be a part of a generational stand against child abuse in Ireland.

You might also want to research alcoholism and Ireland for this blog and explore how it relates to the novel. How does drinking take on symbolic proportions in this text?

In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man we explored issues dealing with time and temporalities. Return to Tobias Boes’ essay, “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and the “Individuating Rhythm of Modernity,” and explore the ways in which The Gathering plays with time, history, and narrative.

The Gathering is in part a portrait of an Irish family. How would you describe the dynamics of this family? What might be symbolic of this family dynamic?