Setting

Published in 2011, the short story “No Angel” by Bernie McGill takes place in contemporary Northern Ireland as indicated by the references to Belfast (l. 24) and an iPod (l. 27). The actions span from December to May, a few months in which the narrator has encounters with her dead father.

However, part of the narrative is rendered as a backstory from the 1980s, a time when the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland was still very heated.…

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Physical setting

The elements of physical setting include the house and places from the narrator’s hometown in Northern Ireland, as well as scenes that take place in Belfast. The narrative opens in the narrator’s bathroom:

The first time I saw my father after he died, I was in the shower, hair plastered with conditioner, when the water stuttered and turned cold. He was at the sink in front of the misted-up mirror with the tap running, his back to me. …

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Social setting

The conflict in Northern Ireland refers to the conflict between Irish nationalists and Irish unionists. The nationalists (a Catholic minority) wanted Northern Ireland to be part of the Republic of Ireland. The unionists (a Protestant majority) wanted Northern Ireland to continue to be a part of the United Kingdom.

The roots of the conflict are prior to World War II, but the most violent stages of the conflict took place in the 1960s. The conflict continued to be open and caused numerous causalities until 2003.

Coming back to the short story, the social setting illustrates aspects related to Irish society in the 1980s and the 2000s. In the 1980s, people in Northern Ireland, like the narrator and her family, lived under constant pressure. The always had to watch themselves because one never knew when a conflict with someone from the opposite side might arise: “Those were the times when people walked about careful, eyes to the ground.” (ll. 80-81).

In this Irish against Irish context, the attitude of the narrator’s brother was considered arrogant and defiant. Even though he was not directly involved in the conflict, he ended up being beaten to death in a brutal way: “…had never learnt caution the way most people had in our uneasy mixed community.” (ll. 74-75); “You'd think, then, he'd have seen it coming, what hit him in the face. A mallet, the coroner said, the type that was used to bash in fenceposts.” (ll. 82-83)

Furthermore, people who did not want to get involved in th…

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