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 4, Pages 257-295Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 4: “Black”

Part 4, Pages 257-270 Summary

As Bridie and Julia get breakfast and make their way back to the Maternity/Fever ward, Julia thinks briefly about inviting Bridie to live with her and Tim. In the Maternity/Fever ward, Sister Luke reports that Mary has been breastfeeding her baby and that Honor’s baby has had two bottles. Julia thinks, “I had to grant the nun this much—her prejudices didn’t get in the way of her looking after patients” (258). Delia tells Julia that she’s going home that day. As Julia and Bridie tend to the patients, Groyne arrives with a wheelchair to take Delia downstairs, where she’ll be released from the hospital. After Delia leaves, Julia and Bridie ask Mary if her husband ever loses his temper. Mary says that he does sometimes, confirming that he is physically abusive toward her. Julia thinks, “Now that Mary O’Rahilly had confessed the truth, what in the world was I going to advise her to do?” (263). Julia and Bridie tell Mary that she must tell her husband to stop next time he becomes violent and that if he doesn’t she could threaten to move back in with her father.

Julia checks on Honor and realizes that she has died. Julia thinks, “Had my donated blood and all our efforts only rushed his mother into the arms of the bone man?” (264). Dr. Lynn returns to the ward and confirms that Honor has died, adding that they can’t be sure what accelerated her illness. Referring to Honor’s newborn baby, Dr. Lynn comments that he’s “nobody’s son, a child of the parish. I suppose he’ll be sent over to the institution where she was staying?” (265). Dr. Lynn says that she and her partner, Miss Ffrench-Mullen, plan to open a hospital for infants of the poor, along with a home in the country for the mothers.

Once Dr. Lynn leaves, Bridie offers to make a mark on the back of Julia’s watch for Honor. Groyne returns with a stretcher for Honor’s body. Groyne makes casual, joking remarks about Honor and her death, causing Julia to say, “Is it all a pure joke to you, Groyne? Are we just meat?” (267). He leaves with Honor’s body. After he’s gone, Bridie asks Julia why she dislikes Groyne. Julia says, “Don’t you find him grotesque? The constant ditties, the morbid vulgarity of the man. Went off to war but never got within whiffing distance of a battle, and now he swans around here, the greasy bachelor, doing his music-hall numbers on women in pain” (267). However, Bridie tells Julia that in fact Groyne isn’t a bachelor; years before the war, he lost his wife and children to typhus. Julia is ashamed for making assumptions about him.

Julia realizes that Honor’s baby still doesn’t have a name. She and Bridie decide to name the baby Barnabas White and perform a baptism themselves; any Catholic can perform a baptism if a priest is unavailable. Julia asks Bridie to hold Barnabas, standing in as godmother, and uses a glass of water to baptize him.

Part 4, Pages 271-295 Summary

After they finish baptizing Barnabas, Bridie drinks the glass of water, saying that she has been very thirsty all morning. Julia realizes that Bridie has flu symptoms, including thirst, dizziness, sleeplessness, a sore throat, and sneezing. Julia asks Bridie if she was telling the truth when she said that she already had the flu. Bridie admits that she lied on her first day because she wanted to help. Julia insists that Bridie take one of the empty beds even though she isn’t pregnant, thinking, “I couldn’t bear to send her off downstairs to Admitting, where she might have to hang around for hours” (273). After Julia takes Bridie’s temperature and gives her extra blankets, Dr. Lynn arrives and confirms that Bridie is sick. Over the next several hours, Julia continues to care for Bridie. Julia can tell that Bridie’s symptoms are getting worse, as her skin color changes from red to brown to blue. Eventually, Bridie dies. Julia’s is heartbroken as Groyne and O’Shea take Bridie’s body away.

Soon, it’s nighttime, and Sister Luke returns to oversee the ward at night. Julia decides that she will take Barnabas home and raise him. Julia remembers how Bridie said to her, “Your hob’s not to bear the babies […] it’s to save them” (285). Julia thinks, “I had this particular conviction that she’d want me to keep Barnabas White out of the pipe” (285). Sister Luke tells Julia that she can’t take Barnabas because of existing plans to take him to the mother-and-baby home. Julia insists that she wants to take Barnabas and says that she plans to take her annual leave, a week off, to begin caring for him. Once Julia must return to work, she hopes that her brother Tim will care for Barnabas during the day. Sister Luke tells Julia that she must get permission from a priest to take Barnabas.

Julia leaves to find Father Xavier. Julia tells the priest, “His mother died on my watch earlier today. I have a conviction that this task is laid on me” (287). The priest grants permission but points out that others might wonder how Julia, a single woman, ended up with a baby. The priest suggests that “maybe it’ll be best if you let the neighbours think he’s a cousin from another country?” (288). Julia responds, “I’ll think about that” (288). Julia returns to the Maternity/Fever ward and finds Mary and her baby with a nurse she doesn’t recognize, and Barnabas is gone. Mary tells Julia that Sister Luke took Barnabas. Julia runs outside to the street and finds Sister Luke holding Barnabas and heading in the direction of the mother-and-baby home. Sister Luke tells Julia that she doesn’t think Julia’s in a healthy state of mind. Sister Luke says, “That poor girl today, I know it must have been upsetting” (289). Julia responds with Bridie Sweeney’s name, and adds, “One of twenty slaves kept at your convent” (289). She continues, “Neglected. Brutalized all her life. What was Bridie to you but a dirty orphan—free labour, and you took the wages she earned too” (289). Sister Luke asks what Bridie and baby Barnabas have to do with one another. Julia thinks, “I didn’t know how to answer. All I knew was that their two souls were tethered in some way. One barely born, one gone too early; they’d shared this earth for a matter of hours. It was some kind of bargain, that was all I was sure of; I owed this much to Bridie” (290). Sister Luke comments that people will think Julia had a baby out of wedlock or may even think Tim is the father. Despite all Sister Luke’s objections, Julia convinces her to hand Barnabas over. Julia hopes that Tim will be okay with her bringing Barnabas home. With Barnabas in her arms, she heads home.

Part 4, Pages 257-295 Analysis

As Bridie rapidly grows sicker, Julia uses the trick she taught Bridie toward the beginning of the novel to gauge illness. As people die of the flu, their skin turns red, then brown, then blue, then black. At first, watching Bridie, Julia sees a “pink sheen across her freckled cheeks; two spots of colour high on her cheekbones. She’d never looked prettier” (270). However, once Julia realizes that Bridie is showing signs of influenza, she notes, “It struck me that the dots of colour were more red than pink, almost gaudy; face paint on a Christmas pantomime” (272). Hours later, Julia sees that “[h]er cheeks were nut brown all the way to her ears; you couldn’t call it any shade of red” (278). Eventually, Bridie’s “lips were turning a beautiful shade of lavender, almost violet” (279). Moments before Bridie’s death, Julia thinks, “Bridie was the colour of a dirty penny” (280). The various shades—red, brown, blue, black—are also the titles of the novel’s four sections. These colors symbolize how quickly the virus can infect and kill someone.

Even though Julia has only known Bridie for a little over two days, Bridie has had a powerful impact on her life. Not only did the women begin a romantic relationship, but Bridie taught Julia things she didn’t know about the world. For example, Groyne’s crude jokes and outspokenness always repulsed Julia, who found him “grotesque.” However, Bridie took the time to ask Groyne about his family and discovered that his wife and children died of typhus years earlier. Julia realizes, “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” (268). In addition, Julia gives Groyne credit for coming into work early every morning and helping at the hospital instead of wasting his life away. In this moment, Bridie teaches Julia not to make assumptions about others.

Bridie also opens Julia’s eyes to the injustices that happen at many homes for unwed mothers and orphans. After Bridie dies, Julia can’t stand the thought of Barnabas going to one of these homes. Barnabas’s mother, Honor White, now deceased, was unwed, poor, and had no family. In addition, Barnabas has a cleft lip, which means no family would be likely to adopt him. Julia decides to take Barnabas home and raise him herself to honor Bridie, even though she must fight with Sister Luke and get Father Xavier’s permission. Julia doesn’t want Barnabas to have the same malnourished, abusive childhood as Bridie. Julia thinks that Bridie’s soul and Barnabas’s soul are “tethered in some way. One barely born, one gone too early; they’d shared this earth for a matter of hours. It was some kind of bargain, that was all I was sure of; I owed this much to Bridie” (290). Only knowing Bridie compels Julia to take Barnabas home and raise him as her own, revealing the immense impact that Bridie had on Julia’s life.