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Joseph O Connor's The Star Versus The Sea

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The Star Versus the Sea Voyages at sea are known to be unpredictable, and the journey of the ship in Joseph O’Connor’s novel Star of the Sea is no exception. The story follows an unnamed narrator aboard the Star as a storm roughly overtakes the ship, shaking it to its foundation and assaulting passengers and crew members alike. The distressed tone heightens as everyone on deck struggles not to be swept overboard while battling the ferocious wind. Throughout the passage, the narrator’s thoughts and emotions are filtered through a special type of third person narration known as free indirect discourse. This style is utilized to completely immerse the reader, placing them in the heart of the story. O’Connor’s tactful usage of free indirect discourse, …show more content…

The typography describes the ferocity of the storm raging around the narrator. He witnesses the buildup of an oncoming wave as it is “Rolling. Foaming. Rushing. Surging,” (5) and preparing to descend upon the unsuspecting ship. This description of the frenzied movement of the sea mimics the plight of the frightened passengers on board the ship as they scramble to safety. O’Connor incorporates the irregular feature of sentence fragments into the passage in order to emphasize how formidable the storm is proving to be. These incomplete sentences hone in on the senses so that the reader can almost hear “[T]he groaning of the boards,” (4) on the ship. A plethora of telegraphic sentences is added while the narrator expresses his lack of fear at the oncoming storm. Unlike most of the passengers aboard the ship, the narrator feels that “[T]here is no need for concern” (23) since the storm is only “[A] matter of the season” (24) and it will soon pass. He feels as if there is no need to batten the hatches, “But the Captain had ordered everyone to remain below” (25). The rhetorical shift demonstrated in this line switches the focus of the mood from the narrator’s unconcerned perspective to that of the cautious Captain. Overall, the structural aspects in this excerpt relay the narrator’s experiences while aiding in the shift in

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