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• 1 2016-02-17T12:46:51-08:00 G. Grantley Dixon (Spoiler) 29 plain 2016-04-19T11:29:10-07:00 Grantley Dixon is an American journalist traveling on the Star of the Sea. It’s important to note that while Joseph O’Connor is the author of the book, Grantley Dixon is the narrator of the book as it’s a book purported to be authored by him within the book authored by Joseph O’Connor. Maria Beville describes the importance of Dixon's narration by saying: "Significantly, the novel takes on an epistolary structure which is ideal in O’Connor’s effort to represent the complex and enmeshed versions of history associated with this troubled period" (33). This is especially relevant when you consider how the history portrayed in the novel could relate to post-colonialism. According to Dixon's tale, he spent four years in London and interacted with some publishing companies there before traveling to Ireland. It’s important to note that Dixon has good intentions in his recording of the stories of human experience of the Irish while under the control of the British and suffering from the potato blight. He dislikes the injustices taking place in Ireland and chastises Merridith for his upper class lifestyle. His perspective is important to consider as he is neither Irish nor British but American, so he is voicing an outside perspective looking into the postcolonial issue. As far as the plot goes, Dixon has some secrets up his sleeve. Dixon himself, it turns out, has native American blood in his family, raising some interesting questions about his interest in documenting the struggles of a race (the Irish) being subjected to colonial rule by the British. In addition, at the book's climax, we learn that Dixon, our narrator, is responsible for the murder of David Merridith. Dixon had been having an affair with David’s wife, and was aware of David’s impending syphilis diagnosis. The agglomeration of both of these things gives Dixon motive enough to murder David. Another possible motive lies in the fact that David’s health insurance for his sons and wife wouldn’t be paid out in the case of death from syphilis but could be paid out in the event of a murder. So while Dixon ended Merridith’s life, he arguably saved his reputation, as Merridith died before his syphilis became public knowledge. Erin Conley relates sentiments in Dixon's narrative to aspects of post-colonialism relating to modern reflection: "Thus Star of the Sea is also multivalent because Dixon’s personal story is layered on top of his creation of Mulvey’s story—the more he builds up Mulvey as the murderer of an important first-class passenger on the eponymous ship, the more he reveals the process by which communally accepted stories—narratives about history—are made" (9). In understanding how communally accepted stories are made, one can begin to understand how voices previously silenced in the past can manifest themselves in both the present and the future. 
  
  Works Cited
  ​Beville, Maria. “Delimiting the Unspeakable: Gothic Preoccupations in Joseph O’Connor’s Star of the Sea.” Aeternum: The Journal of Contemporary Gothic Studies 1.1 (2014): 30-41. Print.
  
  Conley, Erin B. "Famine as a Function of Empire in Arrow of God and Star of the Sea." KU Scholar Works. University of Kansas, 22 May 2010. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
  
  O'Connor, Joseph. Star of the Sea. Orlando: Harcourt, 2002. Print.

  Researcher/Writer: Ben Deetz
  Web Designers: Madison Luke and Andrew Olsen

• 1 2016-02-17T12:49:32-08:00 G. Grantley Dixon (Non-Spoiler) 27 plain 2017-01-07T10:35:37-08:00 Grantley Dixon is an American journalist traveling on the Star of the Sea. It’s important to note that while Joseph O’Connor is the author of the book, Grantley Dixon is the narrator of the book as it’s a book purported to be authored by him within the book authored by Joseph O’Connor. According to Dixon's tale, he spent four years in London and interacted with some publishing companies there before traveling to Ireland. It’s important to note that Dixon has good intentions in his recording of the accounts of the Irish whom are under the control of the British and suffering from the potato blight. He dislikes the injustices taking place in Ireland. His perspective is important to consider as he is neither Irish nor British but American, so he is voicing an outside perspective that is looking into the postcolonial issue. 
  
  
  Works Cited
  O'Connor, Joseph. Star of the Sea. Orlando: Harcourt, 2002. Print.

  Researcher/Writer: Ben Deetz
  Web Designers: Madison Luke and Andrew Olsen