Cal Literary Elements

Realistic fiction, historical fiction

Northern Ireland, the 1970s during the Troubles

Third-person narration from Cal's point of view

Dramatic and serious, matter-of-fact storytelling

Protagonist: Cal. Antagonist: the UVF, Crilly, and Cal's own guilty conscience

Cal struggles with his own guilt of killing Robert Morton while falling in love with his widow.

The climax occurs during Cal's arrest after being ratted on by Crilly.

Before we know about Cal's past, there is continual foreshadowing about the importance of Marcella in his life and her role in his feelings of shame and self-hatred.

Cal is sometimes painted as a victim of his circumstances, which can be seen as an understatement of his willing decision to participate in a terrorist group and act as an accomplice to robbery and murder.

Cal compares himself to Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame in order to convey his feeling of ugliness and inadequacy next to Marcella.

The descriptions of the abattoir that the author provides are nauseating and enable the reader to picture the grisly sights and smells which drive Cal to give up his job there and go back to unemployment.

Marcella turns to Cal because she is lonely after the murder of her husband; paradoxically she is turning to the man responsible for his murder for this comfort.

There is a parallel between the way in which Shamie and Marcella are victims of Cal's terrorist activities: Shamie is burned out of his home and his life is destroyed because of Cal's participation in the IRA, paralleling Marcella's own tragic ruin caused by Cal's actions.

The term "Union Jacks" is used to describe the British flag and thus a sign of the Loyalists. Throughout, people are also called "Catholics" and "the Protestants" to signify which side they are on in the political conflict.

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