Hey guys,

I know I'm in a different group and it's debateble if this actually belongs here, I'd still like to ask this question though.
We were asked this before in the very first lesson about Cal. It's been some time, some of our opinions may have changed.
My "hypothesis" is more of a question.

Could the novel be called a love story?

I'm excited what yall have to say about it.
Have have a fabulous sunday evening! ;)

In my opinion the novel is not a real love story. To call it a love story most aspects of the novel should be in line with the story between Cal & Marcella. But Cal's thoughts most of the time center on the moral conflict of supporting the IRA and helping them to kill innocent people. For me the evolution of Cal / his character is the main aspect of the novel. The love story between Cal & Marcella is a fact that supports his evolution and helps him start thinking on himself.
I guess that some parts of the novel seem like a kind of a love story, but the book in general is about Cal and his changing.

I totally agree with Milena. The love story between Marcella and Cal isn't the main aspect in the novel. I could imagine that the author just wanted to add an other fact than the conflict between Catholics and Protestans, to create the novel more diversified and interesting for everyone. The priciple "love story" almost works in books, movies etc., therefore the author connected the main conflict with this love story. But for me it is/was allways clear that the love story isn't the main theme of the book, so it can't called a love story. The novel focuses on the conflict between Catholics and Protestans and also on Cal's feelings and thoughts about the IRA (like Milena said), the love story maybe express how Cal become more self-confident and how/why he changed, so it supportes the main fact in some parts but it isn't really necessary for the main story.

I guess the question is, what is a love story or rather when can you say, that this is a love story. So we must think a little bit theoretical.
In nearly every book you will find a "love story". Two or more persons, who develop feelings for each other, equal if they are male or female. Because of that you can't say that every book is a love story. Like you allready said, the main plot should be about this love story. And we have to say, that "Cal" isn't just only about his love for Marcella.
I don't want to repeat what you allready said, because that wouldn't support this discussion, but to bring our topic to a new direction I would like to mention, what we should change, so that we can say that "Cal" is a love story.
For me, in the second part of the book, the signs for a love story are stronger than in the part before. The plot calms down and Cals conflict between him and the IRA gets in the backround of the novel. If you would cut the book in the middle, I would honestly say that you can call it a love story. The typical aspects (he is an unusual guy, not the smartest or prettiest one, who loves a women, older than him and who lives in good circumstances, he has a secret, the family would be against that love and so on...) are given, the general plot settings are perfect to create a love story. The only thing is, that the author has a different goal with his novel. That's why I would like to say, like you before, that Cal isn't a love story, but it has the potential to be one ;)

I hope you all don’t feel offended because I wrote about you in the third person – it just seemed more appropriate for an objective style.

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Concerning the fundamental question I agree with you all: Cal isn’t a “love story”, it’s about much more than that. However, I have another opinion on the explanation.

Firstly I contradict Berenike’s statement that the love story between Cal and Marcella isn’t “necessary for the main story”. In fact I do think their relationship fulfils an important, indispensable function. It seems like Milena also recognized this supporting function of Cal’s and Marcella’s relationship. She basically got the gist of it, although she didn’t point out the importance of it enough. Furthermore I do not share her opinion about what the main aspect of the novel is and as a consequence thereof I also take a different view on the basic function of their affair. Anyway, to discuss this in a well-founded way it’s necessary to first define what the “main aspect”, the essence of the novel is.

I consider “Cal” as a highly political novel. The goal of it is to give an insight and subjective view of the situation in Northern Ireland by deliberately focusing on one respectively a few person(s). The problems caused by The Troubles are omnipresent, also in Cal’s and Marcella’s relationship which becomes obvious, for instance, on page 135, l.24 when Cal wonders whether he could tell Marcella about his complicity in the murder of her husband without her telling the police. This whole problem has only been induced by the Northern Ireland Conflict and eventually transformed into an obstacle for their relationship.
In addition to that Cal is constantly scared of Crilly, Skeffington and the I.R.A. in general because “they shot deserters” (p. 81, l.19).
Altogether it becomes clear that the affair between Cal and Marcella is extremely affected by the political and social situation in Northern Ireland.

A last supporting aspect for my thesis, that The Troubles and all its consequences are the main theme of the novel, is the description of the story on the back of the book which exclusively focuses on the political situation in Northern Ireland.

Of course the novel deals with other interesting aspects such as the personal psychological development of a young man, namely Cal. Milena believes this to be the “main aspect of the novel”, which is naturally a possible way of interpreting the novel. However, I’m of the opinion that everything that happens in the plot should be contextualized with the Northern Ireland Conflict. It can be taken for granted that the “evolution of Cal/his character”, as Milena expresses it, is of high relevance. But why is it so important? I believe because it enables the reader to understand the impact of the situation in Northern Ireland in a more emotional way. If one reads a factual newspaper article about The Troubles which is filled with statistics, etc., highly emotional issues become abstract and it gets nearly impossible to really relate to the content. So at the bottom line I interpret the novel as a political one.

Now it’s possible to deal with the question of the function of the relationship between Cal and Marcella. As already mentioned I regard it as an indispensable part of the story.
The (sexual motivated) love and desire for another person is one of the human basic needs. Accordingly the acting out of it is from great importance to every human being. The function of a society is to ensure that its people are able to live a life as good as possible (of course there are also other aspects). The combination of these thoughts result in a potential (naturally fragmentary) definition for the value and quality of a society: The value and quality of a society can be measured by the possibilities of acting out the human sexual drive by having a relationship.

This theory came to my mind when I was thinking about the novels 1989 (George Orwell) and Brave New World (Aldous Huxley). First it may be hard to realize the similarities to Cal but in fact the basic structure is alike. Both of these novels are Science-Fiction literature in which the authors created a dystopia. 1989 deals with a surveillance society whereas Brave New World describes a callous engineered society. Anyway, the stories itself don’t matter concerning the analogy to Cal. The main point is that both novels 1989 and Brave New World aren’t “love stories”, though there are (sexual) relationships used to illustrate the spirit and the core of the society the characters live in. In 1989 the protagonist Winston Smith has a love affair which is suppressed and obstructed by the totalitarian regime while the protagonist of Brave New World, Bernard Marx, has to deal with a brainwashed girl and can’t fulfil his wish of having a faithful relationship because the technocratic government forces its citizens to be promiscuous.

The gist of it all is that the reader is able to recognize and understand the character of the society by analyzing the relationships. In both novels the relationship itself becomes a mirror of society.
As already explained above, in the novel “Cal” the pattern is basically the same: The relationship between Cal and Marcella is highly affected by The Troubles and therefore by the condition of the society.
So, concerning Lennard’s question it can be stated that Cal isn’t a “love story”. However, the relationship fulfils an important, indispensable function to illustrate the impact of the Northern Ireland Conflict.

As in each one of your posts your arguments were logical and style quite formal. It was a pretty good read, though I had to laugh a little bit when you tried to tell me that the value of a society can be measured in the possibilities for its people to have sex. Kind of a weird theisis, don't you think? When you present something like this, please elaborate a little more on it so we understand what you want to say.
You gave a very good answer to my question and I thank you for that.

I would not have agreed with the statement by Berenike either. Even though this is a very political novel the love story is what drives the plot and makes it possible to cover different controversial topics. The love between Cal and Marcella is heavily influenced by the Troubles, which lets the reader get involved in that conflict on his own. It helps him to see the conflict from the perspective of a young man madly in love with another woman. From this point of view the reader gets a whole new experience of the Northern Ireland conflict, one that's not covered in the media.

It's hard to find anything to add to your statement, Jonas. I fully agree with you, up to that point where you started talking about sexually measured societies.