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Literature / A Girl Called Blue

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A Girl Called Blue is an Irish children's book by acclaimed writer Marita Conlon-McKenna.

Set during the 1960s, at the height of the Catholic Church's influence in Ireland, it is about a girl nicknamed Blue.

Her full name is Bernadette O'Malley, and her nickname comes from the blue blanket she was wrapped in when she came to Larch Hill, a children's home run by nuns in Dublin. She knows nothing about her mother but longs to. The details are locked in a filing cabinet in the office of Sister Regina, the stern head nun.

However, the book is more of a Slice of Life showing Blue's friendships with the other girls Jess, Mary, Lil and her surrogate little sister Molly, her mentorship under the kindly Sister Monica, her desire to be fostered and conflict from her inherently wild and rebellious spirit.

Tropes:

  • The '60s: The book is set in the mid-60s, at the height of the Catholic Church's oppression of the Irish people. In the first chapter, Blue recalls being taken to see Mary Poppins, Jimmy Mooney sings a Beatles song, Mary's brother Tommy dresses as Elvis Presley and four girls likewise dress as the Carnaby Street chicks.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: When Blue describes her experience trying to catch the Maguires' pigs, Jess is said to be crying laughing.
  • Africa Is a Country: Sister Monica is said to have been a missionary in Africa, but not which specific countries.
  • Alcoholic Parent: One of the new girls Sarah Murphy is in Larch Hill because her father is an alcoholic who attacked her mother.
  • Alone in a Crowd: At on point, despite being surrounded by her friends, Blue feels more alone than ever.
  • Animal Motifs: Sister Monica is often compared to a monkey for how unlike the other nuns she is.
  • The Baby of the Bunch: Molly is only six, and Blue acts as a surrogate big sister to her.
  • Beach Episode: Chapter 14 revolves around the children getting one week at Brittas Bay for their summer holidays. The next chapter has it turn sour when Jess seemingly drowns after going too far out in the water.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: The good characters are described in flattering terms, such as the kind-hearted Nurse Ryan whereas the mean Joan is described as having a round face and buck teeth. Jimmy Mooney and his mother however don't get the most glowing physical descriptions, but are very good people.
  • Big Bad: Sister Regina, the head nun, who at first appears merely stern and strict, but ends up hurting Blue so much during an attempted punishment that she ends up in hospital.
  • Big Sister Instinct: Blue's friend Mary dotes on her little brother Tommy, who's her only living relative.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The nuns are described as being very good at presenting fake smiles to the public but being utterly rotten behind closed doors.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Blue ends the story with one friend dead and two having left Larch Hill, forced to spend most of her days in isoolation, never finding out about her birth mother. However, Jimmy and his mother do their best to look out for her, and dote on her for the weekends they're allowed to take her on, saying she can live with them when she's old enough to leave Larch Hill.
  • Break the Cutie: In the first chapter, Blue gets stood up by the family that were going to take her out for a biannual visit, and hardens her heart.
  • Breaking the Fellowship: By the end of the story, Jess has drowned, Mary is transferred to another home, Molly has gone back to live with her family, and Lil is the only one of Blue's friends still at Larch Hill, with even Blue barely seeing her since she's in isolation.
  • The Bully: A girl called Joan Doherty loves to jeer anyone smaller than her. She's especially mean to Molly after her bed wetting and later gets into a fight with Blue that the latter is entirely blamed and punished for.
  • Cool Old Lady: Sister Monica, an older nun, and the kindest of them. Blue's narration sometimes notes that Sister Monica might be her Only Friend.
  • Death of a Child: Poor Jess is lost at sea while swimming.
  • Deliberate Values Dissonance:
    • The sheer amount of work the children are forced to do at Larch Hill, treated more like prisoners. Not to mention Sister Regina's regular use of the leather strap.
    • The Maguires try to foster Blue literally just to have a live-in servant.
    • The nuns hold so much power and are able to get away with so much because no one dared question the clergy in those days.
    • The Reveal is that Jess is actually Eileen's biological daughter, but she was convinced to put her into the home where the nuns would give her a "better life", and let Jess think she was just a distant relative.
    • Jimmy Mooney can't adopt anyone because of his marital status - his wife ran off with another man and took their son. Divorce wouldn't be legalised in Ireland until 1995.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Blue and Mary travel all the way to Galway to find Tommy, but Blue only realises once they're there that they haven't thought of what to do with him.
  • Disappeared Dad: Molly's father is still alive but in Liverpool trying to find work, which is why she's in Larch Hill. He sends for her towards the end, and she gets to live with him.
  • The Dog Bites Back: After the headlice incident, Blue arranges things so that the nuns catch them as her own form of payback.
  • Don't Split Us Up: Some drama in the last part of the book is Mary's little brother Tommy getting moved to a boy's home once he turns eight, and Mary wanting to run away to find him.
  • The Dragon: Sister Agnes, described as Sister Regina's lackey, and a Child Hater who had no problem enforcing discipline.
  • Family of Choice: After her disastrous last weekend with the Maguires, Mary and Blue's other friends reassure her that she doesn't need them because they are her real family.
  • Fostering for Profit: The Maguires take Blue for some weekends, but she soon realises they just want someone to do housework for them. Mrs Maguire has sympathetic reasons, since she has a bad back, but still wants a twelve-year-old to do free labour.
  • Friend to All Children: One of the older girls, nicknamed Big Ellen, is very gifted at taking care of babies and toddlers, and hopes to become a nurse when she's old enough.
  • Friendship Moment:
    • After Blue and Lil are caught having broken into Sister Regina's office, Blue immediately lies to say that Lil had nothing to do with it and accepts all the blame.
    • When Blue returns from the infirmary, Joan has taken her bed in the dormitory, but all the other girls stand up to her and order her to move so Blue can have hers back.
  • Genki Girl: Blue's best friend Jess is described as chatty and energetic, with one sequence where she starts doing cartwheels while she and Blue are supposed to be cleaning the hallway.
  • Growing Up Sucks: Blue gets told that her age counts against her when it comes to finding a placement, since most families want a baby or small child rather than a preteen.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Sarah Murphy is said to have beautiful long golden hair that makes her look like an angel, and she has the personality to match; praying for her injured mother every night before bed.
  • Happily Adopted: Blue hopes that this will happen to her with the Maguires, but it doesn't work out. In the end, although she isn't adopted by Jimmy and his mother, they do visit her twice a year and say she can live with them once she's old enough to leave Larch Hill.
  • Hope Spot:
    • Blue gets to spend some weekends with a family called the Maguires, hoping she'll be adopted by them. She soon realises they're more interested in having extra help around the farm, and the boys are cold to her.
    • There's one chapter devoted to the girls' summer holiday in Wicklow that's light-hearted. Then in the next, Jess drowns in the sea.
    • Blue also looks like she'll have an ally in Nurse Ryan asking how she got burned, but she's too scared of what Sister Regina will do if she's caught telling.
  • I Am Not Pretty: Any time a family loses interest in her, Blue wonders if it's because she isn't pretty enough.
  • Karma Houdini: Sister Regina receives no comeuppance for the horrors she inflicts on all the children in Larch Hill. If she's still alive in the 90s and 2000s when the church's abuse was finally publicly exposed in Ireland, she might face public disgrace or some formal punishment, but it's impossible to say.
  • Kick the Dog: Sister Regina disapproves of Blue's costume for the fancy dress parade and, even when Blue admits she had no clue they wouldn't like it, decides to punish her excessively and even takes away her National Geographic magazine.
  • Lies to Children:
    • The nuns tell Blue that her mother was a "poor country girl" who gave her to them because she couldn't take care of her. She later finds out she was actually abandoned in a disused building, found by police and literally no knowledge of her birth mother.
    • Blue herself tells one to Lil, even though they're the same age. Lil wants to know about her mother and Blue reads that she moved to England and wanted no contact with her daughter, so she lies that she didn't find anything.
  • Missing Mom: Blue is desperate to find out about her birth mother. She never does. Molly's died, Lil's fled to England and wants no contact with her, and Jess's is actually Eileen, the 'distant relative' who's been taking her on weekends.
  • Morality Pet: Molly becomes Blue's. She looks out for her when suffering from bed wetting, makes a costume for her at the fancy dress party, and tells her a story before bed every night.
  • Nobody Likes a Tattletale: Dermot Maguire frames Blue for stealing his mother's cigarettes, hiding them under her pillow. She pretends she doesn't know who put them there because "she wasn't a telltale".
  • Not Like Other Girls: Blue says she isn't the "pretty, girly type".
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Sister Monica tells Blue late in the book that they are incredibly similar, and outlines a few coincidences that their lives both shared.
  • Nun Too Holy: Most of the nuns are strict at best and abusive at worst. Sister Regina is the worst of them. Truth in Television for 1960s Ireland. She's so bad that when Blue is badly burned trying to defend herself from an attack, Sister Regina tries to pretend she has no injuries and has to be cajoled by Sister Carmel into letting her go to hospital.
  • One-Steve Limit:
  • Only Known by Their Nickname:
    • Blue is only known by that to distinguish her from the other Bernadettes, nicknamed after the blue blanket she was delivered in and her blue eyes. She also has friends Jess (short for Jacinta rather than Jessica) and Lil (short for Lily), and only the nuns call them by their full names.
    • Larch Hill is also technically named St Brigid's, but it's nicknamed because of the larch trees outside it.
  • Orphanage of Fear: Larch Hill is a strict place, and Blue is miserable there. It's not technically an orphanage, as some of the children there have living parents, and just a children's home.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil:
    • A child friendly example. To punish Joan for her bullying of Molly, Blue waits until the girl is asleep, and makes it look like she wet the bed, humiliating her in front of everyone the next morning.
    • After Sister Agnes is responsible for cruelly cutting all the girls' hair because of lice, Blue makes sure to hide some lice in a handkerchief and put them on Sister Agnes's veil, praying to God that she'll find herself infested too.
  • Pet the Dog: Sister Carmel is quite nice to Blue after Jess drowns, offering her to have the remaining things in her locker.
  • Potty Failure: Poor Molly keeps wetting the bed, and gets teased for it by the other girls. Blue helps her get over it by waking her in the night whenever she has to, and helping her to the toilet.
  • Reassigned to Antarctica:
    • Sister Monica says that she was sent to Africa as a missionary as a punishment, but she ended up liking it, and says she wouldn't trade the experience.
    • There's also talk about a vague other children's home up in Donegal that there's some talk sending people to amongst the gossip. Mary and her brother get sent there towards the end.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Mrs Mooney says that Jimmy's wife ran off with another man, taking their child with her. Blue then becomes his replacement daughter in spirit.
  • Rooting for the Empire: In-universe. When the girls are shown a Western film, and Blue feels sorry for the Indians, to the point of cheering for them against the cowboys.
  • Sweet and Sour Grapes:
    • Things work out for Mary when she refuses to leave Tommy after they've run away to Galway. They're both 'punished' by being sent to a children's home in Donegal, but Blue is relieved to learn they're still together.
    • They also arguably work out for Blue in the same event. She goes back to Dublin rather than get caught by the staff in the boys' home, and ends up making allies in Jimmy and his mother, ensuring her future family.
  • A Taste of the Lash: One of Sister Regina's favourite punishments is to hit the children with a leather strap. Blue is left in hospital when Sister Regina discovers her having broken into her office.
  • Traumatic Haircut: A chapter deals with headlice being found at Larch Hill, so the girls have their hair cut. Special attention is given to a girl called Sarah Murphy, with beautiful long hair who begs not to cut it. The Maguires add insult to injury when Mrs Maguire says Blue's looked better longer, not knowing the reason.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Blue is being taken out by a family called the Hickeys at the beginning of the story. No reason is given for why they won't be taking her out anymore, other than Sister Monica saying that Mrs Hickey "is not that well". Blue's description of her is flattering, so she's possibly mentally ill.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Sister Monica reassures Blue that her costume was great, after she's been punished by the other nuns for it.

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