The Pull of the Stars

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Pages 1-44

Part 1, Pages 45-92

Part 2, Pages 93-123

Part 2, Pages 124-161

Part 3, Pages 162-204

Part 3, Pages 205-231

Part 4, Pages 232-256

Part 4, Pages 257-295

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Part 1, Pages 45-92Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1: “Red”

Part 1, Pages 45-59 Summary

A young woman, Bridie Sweeney, arrives in the Maternity/Fever ward to help Julia. Julia is disappointed that the night nurse, Sister Luke, couldn’t find someone more qualified. Julia thinks, “[U]nqualified; uneducated, by the sounds of her accent; and with a clean, new-hatched look like nothing had ever happened to her. I could have slapped this Bridie Sweeney from sheer disappointment” (45). Julia asks Bridie if she has already had the virus, which would mean that she’s immune. Bridie promises that she “[g]ot over it ages ago” (46). Next, Julia shows Bridie how to change the sheets on Ita’s bed and notices that Bridie is friendly with the patients. Julia thinks, “The young woman had a nice bedside manner, I decided; that couldn’t be taught” (47). While showing Bridie various medical supplies, Julia explains that the virus has no cure—they must simply let it run its course. Bridie asks Julia why Ita’s face is a scarlet color. Julia explains that the faces of people infected with the virus can change color, from red and brown to various shades of blue and violet. Bridie says, “It’s like a secret code […] Red to brown to blue to black” (48).

Julia continues to show Bridie how to sterilize the medical tools. Delia complains again about being in the ward while pregnant, and Bridie admits that she didn’t realize the women were pregnant. Julia realizes that Bridie didn’t know what the word “Maternity” on the door meant, and Julia is again “taken aback by her ignorance” (50). Teaching Bridie how to properly wash her hands, Julia explains, “Our only modern defense is asepsis—that means keeping germs from getting into patients. So now do you see how cleaning one’s hands thoroughly could save a life?” (50). Julia asks Bridie to make tea for them and the patients, explaining that the patients can have tea and biscuits as often as they’d like, and thinks, “[O]ur poorer mothers came in here with too little flesh on their bones, and in Maternity our policy was to feed them up as much as possible before their time of trial” (52).

Ita grabs Bridie’s hand and holds it against her stomach. Bridie is surprised to feel the baby kicking. Bridie admits that she thought a baby wasn’t alive until the moment it was born. Julia pulls a book from the shelf and shows Bridie a picture of a fetus inside a woman’s body. This shocks Bridie at first, and Julia realizes that “she thought this was a drawing of a woman who’d been sliced in half” (56), so she explains, “No, no, it’s a cutaway—sketched as if we can see right through her” (56).

Part 1, Pages 60-92 Summary

Groyne, one of the orderlies, brings a new patient into the Maternity/Fever ward. The young woman, Mary O’Rahilly, is 17 and pregnant with her first child. Julia asks Groyne when they can meet the new doctor, Dr. Lynn. Groyne describes Dr. Lynn as “a vicar’s daughter from Mayo gone astray—a socialist, suffragette, anarchist firebrand!” (60). He explains that Dr. Lynn was deported and arrested in Britain for protesting in favor of Ireland’s independence, adding with disdain that she’s a Protestant. Julia responds, “Well […] I suppose it’s hardly a time to be picky” (61).

After Groyne leaves, Julia and Bridie help Mary change into a hospital gown and get into the third bed. Mary says that she thinks the baby is due next month, in November. Julia asks Mary about the pangs she’s been feeling, but because Mary is a first-time mother, Julia has trouble assessing how close she is to giving birth. Nevertheless, Julia assesses, “She’d had a perfectly healthy pregnancy until she’d caught the grippe” (64). Mary asks Julia when her belly button will open up to deliver the baby, and Julia explains where the baby will be born, saying, “Think of where it got started. I waited, then whispered: below” (68). Julia comments that Mary’s mother should have explained how babies are born, but Mary says her mother died giving birth to one of her younger siblings; neither her mother nor the baby survived. Julia confesses that her own mother died the same way, while giving birth to her younger brother, but that her brother survived.

Delia cries out suddenly that she needs to use the bathroom. Realizing that she’s in pain, Julia wonders if Delia could be going into labor eight weeks early. Julia thinks, “[S]he was so reluctant to stay in the hospital, she’d be likely to deny any hint that she might be slipping into that state. And wasn’t this flu becoming infamous for expelling babies before their time?” (70). Julia examines Delia and discovers that she’s in labor.

Julia asks Bridie to disinfect the thermometer she recently used to take Ita’s temperature, hoping to distract Bridie so that she won’t appear scared while watching Delia. Julia tells Bridie, “You know what part of the nurse is the most important? […] I pointed to my face and made it serene. If a nurse looks worried, patients will worry. So guard your face” (73). She sends Bridie to find a doctor while she tries to alleviate Delia’s pain by pressing hot compresses to her skin and telling her to change positions. Bridie returns and says that the doctor is on his way.

A general surgeon, Dr. MacAuliffe, arrives. Julia is disappointed at his youth and his inexperience with pregnant women. Dr. MacAuliffe gives Julia permission to administer chloroform to Delia for the pain and tells Julia to call him once she can see the baby’s head. Julia wishes he’d stay, knowing it won’t be long before the birth. She lays out the tools she’ll need to deliver the baby. Once Delia is clearly giving birth, Julia tells Bridie to find Dr. MacAuliffe and begins tending to Delia. Bridie returns and says that Dr. MacAuliffe is in Men’s Fever and that they’ve sent him a message. Forced to deliver the baby themselves, Julia and Bridie instruct Delia to push. The baby, a girl, is born, but Julia realizes that she’s stillborn.

After telling Delia that her baby was born dead, Julia lays the baby in a basin and covers her with a cloth. She now must wait an hour or two for the afterbirth, but she becomes worried once she sees the extent of Delia’s bleeding. Julia realizes that the afterbirth is not coming out on its own and that she must remove it herself to keep Delia from bleeding to death. However, Julia has only performed this procedure on an orange. Telling Bridie to hold Delia in place, Julia dons clean gloves and manually removes the afterbirth. She feels “the unmistakable feel of the womb contracting under my palm. The bleeding was stopping. I wouldn’t need to dose her with ergot or plug her with a tin’s worth of gauze. This was over, and I hadn’t lost the mother” (92). At that moment, Dr. Lynn appears.

Part 1, Pages 45-92 Analysis

Julia has almost 10 years of experience and is knowledgeable and good at what she does. When Bridie arrives to help her, Julia takes the time to instruct the young volunteer how to properly sanitize tools, change sheets, and wash her hands. When Bridie comments that she already knows how to wash her hands, Julia points out that women can die of childbed fever, and explains, “Our only modern defense is asepsis—that means keeping germs from getting into patients. So now do you see how cleaning one’s hands thoroughly could save a life?” (50). Julia is careful to wash her hands and keep her tools sanitized, which shows how seriously she takes her work. Even though Julia thinks Bridie is inexperienced and uneducated, she notices the kind way that Bridie speaks to the patients and thinks, “The young woman has a nice bedside manner, I decided; that couldn’t be taught” (47). Julia even tells Bridie that keeping a calm face helps patients feel at ease, explaining, “If a nurse looks worried, patients will worry. So guard your face” (73). She understands that being a good nurse includes the way she speaks and behaves toward her patients as well as her medical background. Julia successfully performs a difficult and dangerous procedure on Delia by removing her afterbirth. This shows both Julia’s knowledge as a maternity nurse and her ability to act quickly and efficiently in an emergency.

These pages also introduce the titles of the novel’s four parts: “Red,” “Brown,” “Blue,” and “Black.” When Bridie notices that Ita’s face is a scarlet color, Julia explains that a person’s face can change color when they contract the virus. Julia explains, “They go dark in the face if they’re not getting quite enough oxygen into their blood. It’s called cyanosis, after cyan—the shade of blue” (48). She adds that the face can turn various shades of red and later “darken to violet, purple, until they’re quite black in the face” (48). Bridie remarks, “It’s like a secret code […] Red to brown to blue to black” (48). These stages reflect a person’s becoming increasingly sick. Similarly, the parts in the novel progress from “Red” to “Brown” to “Blue” to “Black” as the novel’s events become increasingly grim.