Self-Study Questions for Analysis of Short-Stories

GEORGE MOORE “Home Sickness”

1. Analyze the way pronouns and proper names are used by the narrator to
address the main character throughout his evolution as character.

2. “Health” is a main issue in the story. James Bryden goes back to Ireland in
search of health. Analyze how health is associated to the Irish way of life, to
America and to the element of nature. In what ways does this association
develop throughout the story?

3. Underline in the story and study the passages that present visual
descriptions of landscapes. How are they related to memory? Search for
verbs that describe different types of “memory” or “remembering” in the
story.

4. Why do you think the author uses the sense of the “visual” to address
Ireland’s impact on the character and “smell” for America’s? Isn’t this
peculiar?

5. Search for definitions of home sickness, nostalgia, and sense of place and
then compare with issues in the story.

6. Does Bryden romanticize Ireland? Do the Irish romanticize America? How

does the narrator introduce “reality of experience” to neutralize this
romanticism?

7. Think about this statement: “Margaret Dirken is Ireland”

8. Identify, underline and analyze the passages in the story about people’s or
the community’s obedience and submission to the priest. How are the
mechanisms of fear installed in the Irish community in the story?

9. What do you think about the end of the story when Bryden is old?