Having read the earlier stories in the collection, the reader is conditioned to find in “Ship Fever” that the disease, contagion, and quarantine of Irish emigrants reveal political and moral conditions. It is more significant still as a triumphant declaration of endurance, coming as it does at the end of a harrowing tale of what is known as “The Grosse Isle Tragedy,” the typhus epidemic on Grosse Isle, Quebec during 1847. This brave statement of existence and survival is significant by itself as a philosophical declaration of being. This story, which occupies ninety-seven pages of the 254-page collection, not only lends its title to the collection but also ends the collection, providing the final word: “’I am,’ Nora said” (254). The title story, “Ship Fever,” which focuses on the plight of Irish emigrants to Canada in 1847, is a longer, more sustained narrative in which the characters develop to a greater degree than in the rest of the collection. In these stories, Barrett adroitly teases out of the early investigations of modern science the moral and social conditions of humanity. National Book Award, explores the scientific research and medical practices of the nineteenth century. 1Andrea Barrett’s collection of short stories Ship Fever, 1996 winner of the U.S.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |