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Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Long Long Way, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Youth, Naivety, and Growing Up
The Horrors of War
Family, Camaraderie, and Love
Political Conflict and Divided Loyalties
Resilience and Shared Humanity
Summary
Analysis
At “the withering end” of 1896, on a stormy winter night in Dublin, Ireland, a baby is born. The baby’s father names him William after the Orange King. In the Rotunda Hospital, where nurses’ uniforms are stained with blood like butchers’ aprons, William’s mother holds him to her breast. A small, thin child, Willie is a mere “scrap of song” but also “a point of light in the sleety darkness.”
The novel’s opening paints a bleak picture of the start of Willie’s life. An atmosphere of darkness and decline in the world overshadows the bright hopefulness of Willie’s birth, and the reference to butchers suggests death. This ominous beginning hints at further darkness, tumult, and death in the story of Willie’s life. Interestingly, Willie’s Irish father signals his loyalty to the British crown by naming Willie after British royalty—specifically, the 17th-century king William of Orange.
Themes
Willie is one of millions of boys in the world who have been born on the cusp of terrible, conflict-ridden times. Their ordinary, peaceful childhoods will be forgotten, and the stories of many of their lives will end in ashes and death due to the impending war.
Early on, the novel identifies itself as a story about the horrors and tragedy of war. Given that the novel is set in the early 20th century, this imminent war is World War I, a devastating conflict that indeed resulted in millions of casualties.
Themes
When Willie is six or seven years old, his mother takes him to Phoenix Park. There, the visiting King of England is reviewing the Dublin Metropolitan Police. Willie’s father is a member of the police. As an inspector, he sits atop a white horse during the marches and drills. In Willie’s eyes, the king is impressive, but his own father looks even more grandiose. Afterward, Willie believes his father always rides a white horse on duty, but this isn’t true.
By showing that the central governmental authority in Dublin answers to the King of England, this anecdote about Willie’s childhood alludes to the historical fact that Ireland was under British rule at the beginning of the 20th century. However, young Willie isn’t concerned with this political context. He’s more in awe of his own beloved father, who he views as a noble, heroic figure. Willie’s perspective is youthful, idealizing, and naïve.
Themes
Throughout his childhood, Willie receives loving attention from both of his parents. Willie’s mother adores his singing voice and often asks him to sing for her. Listening to Willie’s singing makes her remember her own childhood, feel young and whole again, and marvel at the power of words to evoke distant memories. Meanwhile, Willie’s father—a tall man in a dark uniform—scoops Willie up after his bath every day and says that Willie will soon make a fine policeman himself. Every year, as Willie grows, his father also marks his new height on the wall.
Words and songs are important to Willie’s mother because they seem to have a healing, invigorating power. During his formative years, music becomes a strong positive force in Willie’s life, too, because he associates music with his mother’s love. Willie also learns that the best way to make his father proud is to grow tall and follow closely in his father’s footsteps—expectations that deeply impact Willie because of how much he loves his father.
Themes
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The year Willie turns 12, his mother dies giving birth to his youngest sister Dolly. Four years later, Willie’s family moves from their house in Dalkey into their new quarters in Dublin Castle. Now 16 years old, Willie misses his mother and cries in bed thinking of her, although he hides his tears from his three younger sisters. Willie also cries privately about his height, which is a source of sadness for his father, too. Willie will never grow to be six feet tall, the height required to become a policeman. Despairing of his short stature, Willie becomes an apprentice to a builder named Dempsey.
Willie’s love for his parents becomes tainted by grief in two ways. First, his mother’s death fills him with sorrow. Second, his father’s disappointment in him embarrasses and dismays him. Additionally, Willie loves and cares for his younger sisters but feels that he can’t express his grief in front of them. As Willie’s love for his family becomes intertwined with pain and sadness, his family relationships grow more complicated.
Themes
When Willie is almost 17, his father sends him to bring two pheasants to Mr. Lawlor, who lives in a tenement under Christ Church Cathedral. During the Dublin lockout, Mr. Lawlor received a severe head injury from a policeman in the fighting on Sackville Street. As a supporter of James Larkin, Mr. Lawlor was in the crowd when Willie’s father led a baton charge against the civilians gathered to hear Larkin speak. Now, Willie’s father often brings food to Mr. Lawlor to try to make amends with him.
Willie’s father and Mr. Lawlor appear to be on two opposite sides of a rising conflict causing unrest in Ireland. This conflict is the Dublin lockout of 1913, a historical dispute in which employers “locked out”—or refused to employ—striking workers. As a lower-class laborer and supporter of workers’ unions, Mr. Lawlor clashes against Willie’s father, a middle-class policeman whose job is to suppress agitators and maintain the status quo. That Willie’s father desires to be friendly with Mr. Lawlor suggests that he feels guilty about the recent police violence against civilians.
Themes
When Willie arrives at the tenement where Mr. Lawlor lives—a room shared by four families—he sees Mr. Lawlor’s 13-year-old daughter, Gretta, for the first time. Instantly, Willie finds Gretta beautiful and thinks of her as “his princess.”
Mr. Lawlor’s residence in a slum tenement showcases the poverty many workers in Dublin faced in the early 20th century. Meanwhile, Willie’s romanticizing view of Gretta and her beauty betrays some of his youthful naivety as he falls in love for the first time.
Themes
Mr. Lawlor walks in and asks Willie what his business is. Learning that Willie is the son of James Dunne, the chief superintendent, Mr. Lawlor expresses his bitterness toward the police. He asks Willie what he thinks about policemen assaulting citizens. When Willie says he doesn’t know, Mr. Lawlor replies that every man should have his own opinions, saying, “I don’t care what a man thinks as long as he knows his own mind.” Mr. Lawlor thanks Willie but refuses to accept any of his father’s gifts. He also recalls that four people died during the riot on Sackville Street. Willie didn’t know this, and he’s shocked and disturbed by Mr. Lawlor’s words.
As a young man, Willie hasn’t yet formed his own opinions about the world. By arguing that Willie should know his own mind, Mr. Lawlor teaches Willie to think for himself rather than let other people dictate or influence his beliefs.Mr. Lawlor also challenges Willie’s naïve worldview by revealing the truth about the violence of the Sackville Street riot. Willie’s shock exposes his previous ignorance about the conflict in Dublin, and it also signals the start of his disillusionment.
Themes
Mr. Lawlor loses his job as a carter and joins the army to support himself and his daughter. Willie’s father continues sending Willie to deliver food and gifts to Mr. Lawlor, despite Mr. Lawlor’s protests. Willie uses his visits as an excuse to spend time with Gretta while Mr. Lawlor is away. Willie is in love with her, but he keeps his crush a secret from his family. He’s afraid his family will disapprove of their relationship because Gretta is poor. Willie thinks Gretta is as beautiful as an angel, and his love for her is enough to make him weep.
Mr. Lawlor’s unemployment reflects the historical reality that many Irish workers faced after the Dublin lockout ended in January 1914. Meanwhile, Willie’s developing romantic relationship with Gretta becomes increasingly important to him. Willie’s idealizing love of Gretta demonstrates how sentimental he is.
Themes
After Willie turns 17, the war starts, and Willie decides to join. He can’t articulate why he wants to go. He tells Gretta that he needs to protect innocent people from the Germans, that he wants to please his father, and that he intends to follow his own mind. Skeptical of Willie’s reasoning, Gretta tells Willie that her father’s principle about knowing one’s own mind is just an idea he got from St. Thomas Aquinas.
Willie’s naïve reasons for going off to war demonstrate that he doesn’t know his own mind yet, despite his claims to the contrary. His motivation to fight is based on wartime propaganda, and his decision has more to do with his father’s mind than his own, since Willie desperately wants his father to be proud of him. Gretta tries to argue that “knowing one’s own mind” isn’t good justification for Willie’s decision by pointing out that, ironically, the idea isn’t even her father’s own original thought. However, Gretta’s logic doesn’t override Willie’s emotionally driven choice to join the war.
Themes
