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MacLaverty: CAL Back
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MacLaverty: CAL
The relationship between Cal and Shamie is not based on political attitudes, although they both have an opinion about the situation in their country, but therefore their behaviour depends on all the struggles they have to live through. Cal grew up in a world of civil war and crimes.
He experiences the system of unfairness all the time, and so he was raised to blame the Protestants to be guilty of the political conflicts. That's why he doesn't fight back when he gets involved in illegal affairs, but fights for Catholic rights.
Shamie, his father, is an old stubborn man whose principles are so strong that it seems to be impossible that he changes his mind, he isn't interested in friendships with Protestants at all. He swears at them, but is also famous and knows some Protestants, who like him, because in the text they say that he is a good man.
Cal is very important for some illegal jobs, because he can drive a car. He and his father live in a Protestant area, so they are constantly in a state of fear and danger. But the pressure gets even worse, when Cal finds a note one day that says that they should move out of their home, otherwise they will be attacked.
Cal and Shamie live totally apart from each other, although or perhaps that's the reason for it they live together in a small flat. Cal even fixed a bolt and Shamie did not like it. They don't talk much to each other, so there is always a kind of tension between them, which is comparable to the story Father and Son by MacLaverty. (Before the son says something to his father he thinks about it if it fits or if he shouldn't mention that at all). It becomes obvious when the cottage has been burned down and Shamie asks Cal several times with a voice full of shock and worries if he is in trouble and wonders if Cal tells him everything. There is also a touch of embarrassment in the atmosphere at the beginning. Shamie got him a job at first at the same place where he works - in the abattoir. Later Cal had to give it up, he couldn't stand the smell and got sick all the time. Certainly, Shamie became disappointed and embarrassed, because after Cal Crilly got the job. (That's how the story started). And Crilly isn't a good friend of them at all. Already in school Crilly was like a boss and Cal had difficulties to be on his side. Now he is extremely involved in crimes - above all he convinces Cal to do illegal things and to help him with doing attacks which are ordered by Skeffington - a Catholic terrorist group's boss).
Every day when Shamie comes home from work, Cal mostly prepared dinner so they eat together. After his tiring working-day the father wants to relax, they watch the news on TV together or sometimes discuss about politics. At the beginning of the story Shamie becomes angry, because for him it seems that they separate from each other more and more. After the fire-attack Cal moves out to take distance of daily conflicts, starts working on a farm and because he fell in love with the widow who is the wife of the man whom Cal assisted in killing he can't get rid of his guilty conscience. It seems like Cal isolated himself very much and can't even talk to his father correctly. As time goes by Shamie becomes mentally ill. Resulting from his loneliness he sits in a chair in the flat of his cousin and later he has to be taken into a mental hospital.
by Hucky 7th
Shamie Mc Cluskey is fighting to
live his life. For me his story is a tragedy. He is known as a
good man (page 5, ll.19 ) but he is a Catholic. The way he lives
seems to keep him alive avoiding not to get crazy about his life.
His first son died in a car crash and he hadn't enough money for
attending the funeral (page 27, ll.8 ). But that is not enough,
his wife died, too, and just because of being a Catholic the UVF
wants to burn down his home (page 21, ll.22). Any other man would
get his stuff together and move house, not Shamie, he stays( page
5, line 8 ): "No Loyalist bastard is going to force me out
of my home. They can kill me first." 
In this passage he seems to be very strong but the troubles just broke him. On page 10 for example the reader gets to know that in some way Shamie accepted the civil war because he tells Cal to ignore the "Yahoos" outside (ll. 4 ).
I think this is a good example of the schizophrenia of Shamie. On the one hand he can't understand it and fights for his honor for a little fairness in his life. He said that it caused him a lot of embarrassment that Cal quit his job at the abattoir and therefore Crilly got it (page 13 ll.11). But on the other hand he seems to be desinterested and it seems that he has already given up the fight. The case which broke him was the fire in his house (page 65). Shamie believed that he would lose his second son, too, and he would be alone.This experience was too much for him, he started to cry, maybe he cried for the first time in his life on the street. After this occasion he can't go on, he isn't able work on, that's why he spends so much time at his cousin's home just sitting in an armchair and thinking about his life. During this time he gives his fight up, caused by the fact that Cal, his last son, left him. Although Cal didn't die, it is really hard for Shamie, because he left without giving an address to him. From my point of view Shamie is the only one who tries to live an honest life and to fight toughly through. For me he is the character with whom the author shows the violence and the unfairness of war. This war makes even a good man break down.
Shamie's story shows that nobody with good principles can survive. On page 12 Shamie says "Waste not, want not" (line 29). The truth is that the war makes you to waste as much as you can because it will take the things away you don't waste. If you want to have something for the future, a house, a car, the war will take it all, sometimes even your life. Shamie still belives in goodness after all. That's why he breaks down and ends up in Gransha (page 126 line 22).
by Martin Janssen
© EN21L Gymnasium Ulricianum Aurich - Stand: 06-12-98
