44 pages • 1 hour read
The Wonder
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Themes
The Lasting Legacy of English Colonialism in Ireland
Content Warning: This section discusses child loss in the novel.
English colonization of Ireland began in the late 12th century, increased dramatically in the 16th century, and was formalized in the 17th century by English statesman Oliver Cromwell. Set in the mid-19th century, when Ireland was formally a part of the United Kingdom, The Wonder explores the lasting legacy of English colonialism in Ireland through the experiences of its primary characters, particularly Lib Wright and William Byrne.
Wright embodies the English colonial mindset. She is initially dismissive of Anna’s claims and views the people of Athlone with condescension, reflecting the historical English attitude of superiority toward the Irish. When she arrives in Athlone, Wright observes that “by English standards it was no more than a sorry-looking cluster of buildings” (7). Wright’s criticisms of rural Ireland are based in her belief in its fundamental inferiority to London: She dismisses Dr. McBrearty as a “provincial doctor” and Athlone as a “puny hamlet.” Her attitude underscores deeply ingrained colonial prejudices that persisted in the relationship between the two nations.
Wright’s suspicion of Anna’s Catholic faith also suggests her colonial thinking: By the 19th century, colonial powers had long worked to suppress Catholicism and promote Protestantism in Ireland and England. When Wright first sees Sister Michael, she regards her as if she is another species: Wright “flinched a little […] because she hadn’t seen the like in years” (8). This reflects Wright’s suspicion of Catholics, and the colonial thinking patterns that lead her to view them as foreigners.
Wright’s romantic relationship with the Irish Byrne in the final part of the novel suggests that she is overcoming her prejudices. Wright and Byrne’s happy ending takes place in Australia, another English colony: Byrne cannot escape the reach of English colonialism. Throughout the novel, he acts as the mouthpiece for the novel’s harshest criticisms. He explains to Wright that during the Great Famine, “half the country wouldn’t have died if the landlords hadn’t kept shipping away the corn, seizing cattle, rack-renting, evicting, torching cabins […] or if the government at Westminster hadn’t thought it the most prudent course of action to let the Irish starve” (165). His words reflect both 19th-century and modern historians’ opinions on the lasting legacy of English colonialism in Ireland.
Redemption and the Importance of Second Chances
The Catholic concept of redemption from sin through sacrifice is essential to Anna’s fast: It explains both her motivation for fasting and her willingness to die. Anna’s fast reflects a firmly-held belief in an individual’s ability to redeem a soul through personal sacrifice. As she explains to Wright, “‘if I say the prayer, fasting, thirty-three times every day’” then God will “‘fetch Pat into heaven’” from purgatory (233). Anna is willing to die to save her brother; she believes that souls need to be redeemed through any means possible, and that she and her brother have sinned and will be condemned to hell without her sacrifice. If she sacrifices herself, she believes God will “have mercy on Pat. And on me too, even” (234).
Anna believes in both the possibility and the necessity of redemption through personal sacrifice. Ironically, John Flynn and the other members of the committee believe that Anna’s fast will redeem the reputation of Ireland and the Catholic Church, even though they are allowing her to die. Flynn describes Anna as “the very thing we need in these depressed times […] a beacon shining across these fields. Across the whole benighted island!” (153). He rejects Wright’s request to end the watch, claiming that it will be “to the Church’s glory when Anna’s proved to be living by spiritual means only” (239). The committee’s willingness to sacrifice Anna to redeem the reputation of Ireland and the Catholic Church is a dark mirror of Anna’s willingness to sacrifice herself for Pat. In contrast to Anna’s benevolent if misguided motive, their motive is selfish and tantamount to child abuse.
The novel presents second chances as a secular alternative to the explicitly Catholic theme of redemption. Lib Wright demonstrates the importance of second chances. Before the events of the novel begin, Wright is forced to begin a new life when her husband of one year “took his leave” (244) after the death of their daughter. Wright describes her decision to join the nurses traveling to Crimea as “reckless,” but the novel suggests that this new beginning was essential in shaping Wright’s character—“realizing that it was possible to fail and start again” gave her strength (210).
The Unique Trauma of Child Loss
The Wonder portrays the death of a child as a profound form of trauma that leaves a lasting impact. Through Anna O’Donnell’s fast, the novel explores the unique trauma of child loss, as Lib Wright is reminded of and reckons with the loss of her own daughter. Throughout the novel, Donoghue depicts Wright as a woman who struggles to control her grief. Although the loss of her infant is not revealed until the end of the novel, a number of small moments highlight the extent of her trauma. References to children and death destabilize Wright’s emotions. When Dr. McBrearty asks if she has ever “nursed a child,” Wright is “thrown, but only for a moment,” and responds by talking about her professional history (12).
Although Wright tries to hide the painful loss of her child from strangers, she cannot fully contain her grief. As Wright grows closer to Anna over the course of the novel, her emotional responses to mentions of child loss grow stronger. When Byrne tells her about the children who died during the Great Famine, she has a physical reaction—“memory seized Lib like a cramp. The weight in her arms; sweet pale flesh, still warm, not moving” (169). Ultimately, the trauma of losing her child leads Wright to steal Anna away from her parents: Having watched a child die, “I can’t do it again” (262). The trauma of child loss helps to explain Wright’s actions.
Anna’s parents, Malachy and Rosaleen O’Donnell, also experienced the loss of a child before the events of the novel begin. Reflecting on their son Pat’s death, Wright speculates that “such a wrench might have worked a strange alteration” in the O’Donnells—“instead of clinging to her last child all the more, perhaps Rosaleen had found her heart frost-burnt […] having no more left to give” (162). Later, Wright imagines the day Anna first refused food—“perhaps it had been a horror as overwhelming as the illness that had carried off their boy the autumn before. The only way Rosaleen O’Donnell could have made sense of these cataclysms was to convince herself that they were part of God’s plan” (213). Wright’s assessment reflects her own loss, which colors the way she interprets the world.
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By Emma Donoghue
