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Family, Camaraderie, and Love
Themes and Colors
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.
As a historical novel, A Long Long Way incorporates into its narrative many historical events that took place in Ireland during World War I. At the turn of the 20th century, all of Ireland belonged to the United Kingdom, and Home Rule—the issue of Ireland’s self-governance—was a major source of tension in the country. Unionists were loyal to British rule, while nationalists desired freedom from it. Moreover, the nationalist movement split between followers of John Redmond, who believed contributing to the Allied forces’ war effort would help Ireland achieve Home Rule, and a smaller group of Irish Volunteers, who sought a more militant path toward liberty.
Crucially, through the character of Willie Dunne, the novel focuses on how this broad political context impacts people on a personal level. As a young Irishman, Willie struggles to know where his loyalty should lie. On one hand, Willie’s unionist father, James Dunne, expects him to perform his duty to “King and country.” On the other hand, Willie’s firsthand experience of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin and his friendship with nationalist Jesse Kirwan make him more sympathetic to the insurgents’ cause. Over the course of the novel, Willie gradually adopts nationalist sentiments, creating a rift between himself and his father. At the same time, Willie realizes that many Irish people view him as a traitor for fighting in the British Army at all. Soon, however, British soldiers begin to treat all Irishmen with suspicion and prejudiced disdain. This ultimately leads Willie to feel that both Ireland and England have abandoned him. Thus, A Long Long Way explores how the fight for Irish independence makes the question of an Irish soldier’s loyalty a difficult one, especially given the nonsensical nature of World War I. Importantly, the novel doesn’t imply that there is a perfect solution to the complicated problem of where Willie should place his loyalty, nor does it indicate that any character’s loyalty determines their moral goodness. Rather, the novel suggests that the value of deciding one’s loyalty is in forming and staying true to one’s own beliefs, even if this means facing resistance or backlash for thinking for oneself.
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Political Conflict and Divided Loyalties ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Political Conflict and Divided Loyalties appears in each chapter of A Long Long Way. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Political Conflict and Divided Loyalties Quotes in A Long Long Way
Below you will find the important quotes in A Long Long Way related to the theme of Political Conflict and Divided Loyalties.
Chapter 4
Quotes
Soon the places were filled with new men from home. Flocks and flocks and flocks of them, thought Willie. King George’s lambs. It was just a little inkling of a thought.
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Chapter 6
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So James Patrick, a man of six foot six, stood his son William, a man of five foot six, into the steaming zinc bath […] and he started to lave his son from head to foot, cascading the water neatly over everything. And the lice must have been flying from Willie Dunne just like those poor men in Sackville Street from the batons, and soon the water speckled with them, little writhing white creatures.
Chapter 7
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“I’m not going to shoot you,” [Willie] said. “Are you a German?”
“German?” said the man. “German? What are you talking about? I’m an Irishman. We’re all Irishmen in here, fighting for Ireland.”
Chapter 11
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We got the news now about the three leaders shot. Some of the men think it is a good thing. Myself, I cannot say what I think hardly. How I wish I were at home now and was able to talk these matters over with you. I wish they had not seen fit to shoot them. It doesn’t feel right somehow. I don’t know why. What does John Redmond say about it? When I came through Dublin I saw a young lad killed in a doorway, a rebel he was, and I felt pity for him. He was no older than myself. I wish they had not seen fit to shoot the three leaders.
Chapter 12
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“But I won’t serve in the uniform that lads wore when they shot those others lads. I can’t. I’m not eating so I can shrink, and not be touching the cloth of this uniform, you know? I am trying to disappear, I suppose.”
Chapter 16
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“You can know your own mind and your father can know his.”
“But my father and me always had the one mind on things. That’s the trouble, I think—I don’t even know. I’m confused, Father.”
Chapter 18
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“I don’t fucking want [the medal]. You earned it just as much, you stupid cunt. Anyhow, Willie, it has a little harp on it and a little crown, and I reckon between the two it might get you home safe.”
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Chapter 19
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“It’s a funny, dark world out at the war, Papa,” said Willie slowly. “It brings your mind to think a thousand thoughts, a thousand new thoughts.”
“I won’t stand here and listen to your villainy!” shouted his father.
Chapter 23
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Between your own countrymen deriding you for being in the army, and the army deriding you for your own slaughter, a man didn’t know what to be thinking. A man’s mind could be roaring out in pain of a sort.
So far, so far they had come that they had walked right out to the edge of the known world and had fallen off into other realms entirely in the thunder and ruckus of the falls. There was no road back along the way they had taken. He had no country, he was an orphan, he was alone.
