The Pull of the Stars

“Not just the hospital, I reminded myself—the whole of Dublin. The whole country. As far as I could tell, the whole world was a machine grinding to a halt.”

Because of the pandemic, many businesses have had to close, and many people are dying. Julia sees these effects throughout Dublin as she commutes to work—and reminds herself that the whole world is affected.

“The bone man was making fools of us all. That was what we kids called death in my part of the country—the bone man, the skeletal rider who kept his grinning skull tucked under one arm as he rode from one victim’s house to the next.”

As a nurse working in a hospital during the 1918 pandemic, Julia sees death all around her. Throughout the novel, she pictures the bone man, a character from folklore who personifies death, coming after her patients and acquaintances.

“What a peculiar job nursing was. Strangers to our patients but—by necessity—on the most intimate terms for a while. Then unlikely ever to see them again.”

This passage illustrates Julia’s relationship to her patients throughout the novel. Though she knows some patients only for a few days, she sees them at their most vulnerable and learns intimate details about their lives.

“It’s like a secret code, Bridie Sweeney said with pleasure. Red to brown to blue to black.”

As people die of the flu, their skin color changes from red to brown to blue to black. The author uses these colors as the novel’s section titles. Later, Julia sees Bridie’s skin color changing in a similar way as she dies.

“Her twelfth? The young woman’s tone was so appalled, I didn’t mention that only seven of the Noonan children were alive. I said instead, Do you know that saying, She doesn’t love him unless she gives him twelve?”

Julia comments on the tendency among Irish women to bear lots of children despite, in many cases, their poor living conditions and poverty. These issues contribute to Ireland’s high infant and child mortality rates.

“I pointed to my face and made it serene. If a nurse looks worried, patients will worry. So guard your face.”

Julia explains to Bridie that she must remain calm even if a patient’s condition is shocking or worrisome. Julia knows that her duty is not only to administer medical care but to help her patients stay as calm and relaxed as possible even if their situation is dire.

“The silence as she held her breath and bore down; there was nothing like it. I realised something then: no other job would ever satisfy me.”

Julia is a skilled and experienced nurse. Even though she has seen many tragedies and deaths among her patients, she realizes the importance of helping people and appreciates her job.

“Dr. Lynn nodded impatiently. They have me running between half a dozen wards today, Nurse Power, and you seem awfully capable, so I authorise you to dose any of your patients with alcohol or, for bad pain, chloroform or morphine. I was filled with gratitude; she’d untied my hands.”

As a nurse, Julia must listen to the doctors and can’t make certain decisions, such as administering drugs, without their permission. This frustrates Julia because, given her years of experience and sometimes her greater familiarity with the patients, she sometimes feels that she’s more equipped to make a call than the doctors. However, Dr. Lynn recognizes Julia’s skill level and gives her permission to administer painkillers to patients, for which Julia is grateful.

“No, some flu patients are dropping like flies while others sail through, and we can’t solve the puzzle or do a blasted thing about it.”

Here, Dr. Lynn emphasizes just how much is still unknown about the virus while also emphasizing its deadliness. She reassures Julia that Julia is doing the best she can even when she can’t save every patient.

“So many veterans, such as my brother, had come back damaged goods though they hadn’t a scratch on their bodies, only invisible bruising of the mind.”

After serving in World War I, Julia’s brother, Tim, returned to Ireland mute. Though nothing is physically wrong with Tim, Julia knows that his inability to speak is a side effect of trauma from the war. This passage illustrates the cruelty of World War I and alludes to how the war often took a profound psychological toll on veterans.

“I couldn’t think of anything to do for what ailed her. No medicine for that grief.”

Delia’s baby was stillborn, and Julia sees Delia start to cry when she remembers that she lost her baby. Even though Julia tries to give her patients as much comfort and medical attention as she can, she knows she can never completely soothe a person’s grief.

“My aching awareness of every muscle was so entirely unlike the blankness of death. I should be glad to have sore feet and a back that grumbled and fingers that stung at the tips.”

Even though Julia suffers from exhaustion after a long day’s work, she remembers that she’s lucky to be alive, especially during a time when so many people are dying.

“Strange times to be an invalided veteran in Dublin. An old fella might shake Tim’s hand to thank him for his service, and the same day a widow might sneer at him for a shirker because he still had all his limbs. A passer-by might shout that it was filthy Tommies who’d brought the plague home to these shores in the first place. But my guess was that yesterday, some young green-wearing, would-be rebel had called him a pawn of the empire and pelted him with rubbish, because that’s what had happened before.”

1918 is a time of political unrest in Ireland. Here, Julia reflects on the ways that people treated her brother, Tim, a veteran, after he returned from serving in World War I. Some criticize him for fighting on the British Army’s behalf because they believe Ireland should be independent from the British empire. Others might accuse those who fought oversees of bringing the virus back with them—or think that Tim didn’t fight hard enough because he doesn’t have any visible, physical injuries. This passage illustrates the various political opinions of Irish people at the time and the difficulty of being a World War I veteran.

“I saw red. Look around you, Mr. Groyne. This is where every nation draws its first breath. Women have been paying the blood tax since time began.”

This quote encompasses Julia’s response to Groyne’s comments that he doesn’t believe women should have the right to vote—one of the political debates taking place at the time—because they don’t serve in the war like men. Julia points out that even though women don’t fight in the war, they play other important roles in society, such as bearing children, a difficult and dangerous task.

“So many rules I was getting used to breaking, bending to an unrecognizable degree, or interpreting in the spirit rather than the letter of the law. Only for the duration, of course, for the foreseeable future, as the posters said. Though I was having trouble foreseeing any future. How would we ever get back to normal after the pandemic? And would I find myself relieved to be demoted to mere nurse under Sister Finnigan again? Grateful for the familiar protocols or forever discontented?”

While Sister Finnigan is away, Julia oversees the Maternity/Fever ward. Even though the work is difficult, Julia is a skilled nurse and enjoys her job. She wonders if she’ll ever enjoy going back to a role with less responsibility. In addition, she struggles to imagine a time when the pandemic will be over and how the world will recover.

“That baby will suck the marrow from her mother’s bones and still have less chance of surviving her first year than a man in the trenches.”

Dr. Lynn explains that infant mortality rates are extremely high in Ireland due to widespread poverty and poor living conditions. Her comparison of a baby’s and a soldier’s chances of survival shocks Julia. In addition, this passage illustrates one reason that Dr. Lynn opposes British rule: She feels that the British empire doesn’t do enough to protect and help the people of Ireland.

“Here’s the thing—they die anyway, from poverty rather than bullets. The way this godforsaken island’s misgoverned, it’s mass murder by degrees. If we continue to stand by, none of us will have clean hands.”

Dr. Lynn has gotten in trouble with the authorities for taking part in protests demanding Ireland’s independence from the British Empire. While Julia tries to stay out of politics, she disagrees with the protesters’ occasional use of violence. Dr. Lynn explains that many Irish people are already dying due to poverty due to the British Empire’s lack of proper governing. In Dr. Lynn’s view, the situation has gotten so dire that sometimes violent means are necessary.

“I’d been assuming that Honor White was simply the stoic type, but perhaps she was putting herself through this labour in a spirit of grim penance for what the nuns called her second lapse, her second offence.”

When Honor White arrives at the hospital, she’s holding a rosary and refuses to drink any whiskey for her pain because it goes against her Catholic views. Julia guesses that Honor is putting herself through penance for her second pregnancy out of wedlock. This moment highlights the stigma against pregnant women—especially if they’re unwed or on the older side—in such a Catholic country.

“The line I found most laughable was the one about lying down for a fortnight; who could afford or manage that without a houseful of servants?”

One of the notices posted around the hospital recommends that anyone sick with the influenza stay in bed for two weeks. Julia finds this advice ridiculous because doing so would be virtually impossible for anyone with a job, a family, or other responsibilities. The notice reveals how little the authorities know about the influenza and the widespread poverty that prevents most people from resting or receiving care when they need it.

“I looked up and found the Great Bear. I told her, in Italy, they used to blame the influence of the constellations for making them sick—that’s where influenza comes from. Bridie took the notion in stride. As if, when it’s your time, your star gives you a yank—And she tugged as if reeling in a fish.”

This passage reveals the origin of the term influenza and links back to the novel’s title, The Pull of the Stars. Bridie pictures the stars pulling a person back into the universe when they die. In addition, this passage illustrates how much is still unknown about the influenza strain and how no clear or scientific explanation can explain when someone will die of it.

“At the mirror, using my comb to neaten myself, I met my eyes. I was old enough to know my own mind, surely, and to be aware of what I was doing. But I seemed to have stumbled into love like a pothole in the night.”

During their night on the roof of the hospital, Julia and Bridie kiss, and Julia realizes that she has fallen in love with Bridie. This moment is a turning point in their relationship, and Julia learns something about herself.

“I was so ashamed. I’d assumed Groyne had made it to this point in his life unscathed because he’d come home from the war with a steady grip, an unmelted face, his conversational powers unimpaired. I’d never managed to look past the jokes and songs to the broken man. Hale and hearty and in torment; trapped here without those he loved, serving out his time. Groyne could have drunk away his military pension, but no, he was here every day by seven a.m. to carry the quick and the dead.”

Throughout the novel, Julia dislikes Groyne’s judgmental attitude and vulgar sense of humor. However, Julia learns from Bridie that Groyne’s wife and children died years ago from typhus. Julia realizes that he has suffered in his life as well and that she shouldn’t have made assumptions about him. In addition, Julia gives Groyne credit for arriving at the hospital every day and working hard.

“Your job’s not to bear the babies, Bridie had told me, it’s to save them. Well, maybe save just one. For Bridie. I had this peculiar conviction that she’d want me to keep Barnabas White out of the pipe.”

Throughout the novel, Julia receives criticism for being unmarried and without children of her own at 30. However, Bridie reassures Julia that her role tending to pregnant women in the Maternity ward is important. In addition, Bridie teaches Julia about the cruelties that occur in homes for unwanted and orphaned children. Because of this knowledge, Julia decides to take the orphaned infant Barnabas home and raise him herself.