Whale Fall By Elizabeth O'Connor - A Tale of Modernisation And Coming of Age

Set at the end of 1938 on a fictional island located off the coast of Wales, Elizabeth O’Connor’s debut novel Whale Fall follows 18-year-old Manod grappling with coming of age, modernisation and familial responsibilities. Manod is a bright young woman who will be unable to fulfil her potential if she stays on the isolated island, on which the only job for a woman is to become a wife. Manod contemplates a better life on the mainland, but is fraught with the responsibility of looking after her younger sister Llinos. The island is inhabited by 12 families, with the population decreasing each year as more inhabitants leave in search of work on the mainland. Manod lives with her father and takes on the role of caring for her 12 year old sister Llinos following her mother’s death. Only a handful of other characters are developed in the novel, such as Llew, the only other person born on the island in the same year as Manod, which serves to heighten the alienation which Manod experiences.

Life on the island is isolated from the mainland, most of its inhabitants speak Welsh and have little to no understanding of English. O’Connor shows life on the island becoming increasingly unsustainable, exposing the danger of the inhabitants’ reliance on fishing for their livelihoods, which becomes more difficult as the novel moves further into the Winter months. The poverty and precarity of survival on the island are heightened by the underlying threat of the potential for evacuation or conscription for the second world war. The isolated and traditional nature of life on the island is further emphasised throughout the novel with the islanders’ relationships with religion, folktales and myths.

A whale carcass washes up on the shore of the island, acting as a symbol of a change which lies ahead. Following this, two English anthropologists Joan and Edward come to the island to conduct research for a book they are writing about rural life on coastal islands. Their arrival presents Manod with the opportunity to act as a translator and learn more about life on the mainland, bringing hope for her future departure from the island. At the start of her stay, Joan represents the new life Manod could have on the mainland, showing her that women can attend University. However, the initial promises of freedom and education which Joan and Edward represent begin to dissipate after Manod has several sexual encounters with Edward. Manod begins to see through the anthropologists, who use the islanders as puppets for their research project. Manod’s realisation crystallises when she sees Joan and Edward making John, a fisherman, pose for photographs in which he is pretending to fish with the wrong technique, standing on the wrong part of the shore. Manod sees the anthropologists’ lack of concern for John, because despite his inability to swim, they make him pose in rough tide. Following this Manod comes to recognise Joan’s romanticisation of life on the island, exposing her ignorance to the challenges and harsh realities faced by the inhabitants in their struggle to get through everyday life. Following Joan and Edward’s departure, O’Connor represents Manod finding a sense of resolution in deciding to pursue a life on the mainland where she will ‘find work, buy a house’ and ‘never marry’.

O’Connor’s debut balances the beauty of life and tradition on a coastal island, set against its inhabitants’ struggles to survive. Although the novel portrays a specific historical moment and way of life, O’Connor also explores universal human experiences of the struggle between tradition and modernisation, feelings of alienation and the need to find your place in the world. Manod’s final decision to pursue a life on the mainland offers a final sense of resolution to the tensions she has faced throughout the novel.