preview

A Star Called Henry

Decent Essays
Open Document

Henry Smart seemed to evolve into a man who was remarkably similar to his father. In Doyle’s A Star Called Henry, both Henry and his father committed heinous crimes on behalf of a higher authority, but Henry justified his actions by cloaking himself in the Irish flag. Henry Sr. relied on a wooden leg for both transportation and savage purposes and Henry Jr. adopted his father’s leg both physically and for his own violent agenda. Additionally, Henry Sr.’s staple fashion choice was a coat covered in dirt and blood. Eventually, however, Henry Jr. wore a coat of his own, which too, was coated in the grime of his own maniacal actions. He eventually threw the coat out, suggesting, in the end, that he had become his own man. Thus, while it appeared …show more content…

originally worked as a hit man for the infamous Alfie Gandon and soon his son took on a variation of the same role. The elder Smart posed as a bouncer at a Dublin brothel, but all the while he was secretly knocking off the enemies of Alfie Gandon. Gandon himself described Henry Sr. as “a loyal and obedient servant” who willingly murdered, no questions asked. Henry Jr. also worked as a hit man for Gandon seemingly taking his place in the unofficial family business. Though the two actually served the same man in Alfie Gandon, they served in varying circumstances. While Henry Sr. was simply a hit man for a powerful crime lord, his son killed in the name of the Irish Republic. Henry Jr. justified his actions through the protection of the Irish flag and his nationalist agenda, but eventually realized that the battle he was fighting was not his own. He was fighting for the advancement of power for the upper class Irishman. He was simply a pawn in a rich man’s game, just like his father. The epiphany that Henry Jr. has about his place in the Irish independence movement pushes him to change his violent ways and escape his father’s path. To avoid becoming a heartless thug, Henry rids himself of his father’s, and his own, past demons by viciously murdering Alfie Gandon in the Dublin brother where his father worked. The death of Gandon was the first step in allowing Henry to begin forging his own identity uninfluenced by his

Get Access
Related
Get Access