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Thema B

Charlotte McConaghy: Migrations

In this dystopian novel, the ornithologist Franny Lynch is on a research trip in Greenland. Seeking passage on a boat, she finds Ennis Malone, the captain of a vessel, in a bar.
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[...] Ennis and I sit at the window and watch the stretch of fjord that swallowed us. Behind us
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his crew members are getting steadily drunker and have taken over the set of Trivial Pursuit,
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which has incited numerous arguments. Léa doesn’t participate in the ribbing, but smugly
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wins most of the rounds. Samuel is reading by the fire. Any other night I’d be playing with them,
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and I’d be pushing and prodding to see the make of them. But tonight, the task. I need to get
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myself onto their boat.
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The midnight sun has turned the world indigo and something about the quality of the light
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reminds me of the land where I was raised, that special Galway blue. I’ve seen a fair helping
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of the world and what strikes me most is that there are no two qualities of light the same, no
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matter where you go. Australia is bright and hard. Galway has a smudgeness to it, a tender
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haze. Here the edges of everything are crisp and cold.
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“What would you say if I told you I could find you fish?”
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Ennis’s eyebrows arch. He’s quiet awhile, and then, “I’d reckon you’re talking about your birds,
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and I’d say that’s illegal.”
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“It only became illegal because of the trawling methods huge liners used to use, which would
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capture and kill all the surrounding marine life and birds. You don’t use those anymore, not
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with a smaller vessel. The birds would be safe. Otherwise I wouldn’t suggest it.”
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“You’ve done your homework.”
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I nod.
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“So what are we really talking about, Franny Lynch?”
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I retrieve the papers from my bag, then return to the stool beside Ennis. I place the papers
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between us and try to smooth out some of the wrinkles. “I’m studying the migratory patterns of
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the Arctic tern, looking specifically at what climate change has done to their flight habits. You
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know all about this, I’d say – it’s what’s killing the fish.”
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“And the rest,” he says.
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“And the rest.”
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He is peering at the papers but I don’t blame him for not interpreting their meaning – they’re
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dense journal articles with the university’s stamp on them.
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“Do you know of the Arctic tern, Ennis?”
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“I’ve seen them up this way. Nesting season now, isn’t it?”
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“That’s right. The Arctic tern has the longest migration of any animal. It flies from the Arctic all
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the way to the Antarctic, and then back again within a year. This is an extraordinarily long flight
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for a bird its size. And because the terns live to be thirty or so, the distance they will travel over
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the course of their lives is the equivalent of flying to the moon and back three times.”
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He looks up at me.
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We share a silence filled with the beauty of delicate white wings that carry a creature so far. I
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think of the courage of this and I could cry with it, and maybe there’s something in his eyes
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that suggests he understands a little of that.
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“I want to follow them.”
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“To the moon?”
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“To the Antarctic. Through the North Atlantic Sea, along the coast of America, north to south,
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and then down into the glacial waters of the Weddell Sea, where the birds will rest.”
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He studies my face. “And you need a vessel.”
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“I do.”
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“Why not a research vessel? Who’s funding the study?”
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“National University of Ireland, in Galway. But they’ve pulled my funding. I don’t even have a
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team anymore.”
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“Why?”
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I choose my words carefully. “The colony you’ve seen here, along the coast. It’s reported to be
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the last in the world.”
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He breathes out heavily, and with no surprise. Nobody needs to be told of the extinction of the
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animals; for years now we’ve been watching news bulletins about habitat destruction and
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species after species being declared first endangered and then officially extinct. There are no
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more monkeys in the wild, no chimps or apes or gorillas, nor indeed any animal that once lived
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in rain forests. The big cats of the savannas haven’t been seen in years, nor have any of the
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exotic creatures we once went on safari to glimpse. There are no bears in the once-frozen
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north, or reptiles in the too-hot south, and the last known wolf in the world died in captivity last
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winter. There is hardly anything wild left, and this is a fate we are, all of us, intimately aware
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of.
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“Most of the funding bodies have given up on the birds,” I say. “They’re focusing their research
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elsewhere, in places they think they can actually make a difference. This is predicted to be the
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last migration the terns will attempt. It’s expected they won’t survive it.”
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“But you think they will,” Ennis says.
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I nod. “I’ve put trackers on three, but they’ll only pinpoint where the birds fly. They aren’t
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cameras, and won’t allow us to see the birds’ behavior. Someone needs to witness how they
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survive so we can learn from it and help them. I don’t believe we have to lose these birds. I
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know we don’t.”
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He doesn’t say anything, eyeing the NUI stamp on the papers.
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“If there are any fish left in this whole ocean, the birds will damn well find them. They seek out
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hot spots. Take me south and we can follow them.” [...]
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He looks at me patiently. “There are protocols to fishing. Territories and methods, tides I know,
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ports I have to deliver to, to get paid. Crew whose livelihoods depend on the catch and delivery.
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[...]”
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“When was the last time you fulfilled your quota?”
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He doesn’t reply.
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“I can help you find the fish, I swear it.”
(952 words)
McConaghy, Charlotte (2020): Migrations. New York: Flatiron Books. pp. 21-24.

Assignments

1.
Outline Franny Lynch’s plans and how she is putting them into practice.
2.
Analyze how the narrator’s attitude towards nature and wildlife is depicted. Focus on narrative perspective and use of language.
3.
Choose one of the following tasks:
3.1
"Most of the funding bodies have given up on birds [...]. They’re focusing their research elsewhere, in places they think they can actually make a difference." (ll. 60-61)
Using the quotation and the narrator’s experiences as a starting point, assess the relevance of preserving particular species.
or
3.2
As an intern at the "World Future Council”, an organization that aims at promoting a healthy planet with just and peaceful societies, you have been asked to write an article for the organization’s website, commenting on the current generation of young people being the key to a more sustainable society.

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