Hugo Hamilton is the author of the Speckled People a novel about identity, heritage, and of where a person belongs in society. Hamilton describes his background, his mother’s background and his father’s background. Within these three stories Hamilton explores his understanding of heritage and the place that you come from. Hamilton’s childhood as written in his book is a memorial to the understanding of language, beliefs, and values that relates to anthropology of culture.
When reading the first two paragraphs of The Speckled People it is easy to be struck by the child like simplicity of the writing. It occurs to the reader that the narrator is indeed a child. One might wonder why Mr. Hamilton chose his child self to tell his story. It also is curious as to why he choses to tell his life story in the form of a novel. There has been so much written about “discovering the inner child” or “embracing the child within” that one might be tempted to surmise that the author was attempting to heal from a tragic past, discover himself, or attempt to tell his story through the eyes of an innocent child without the political bias and views of an adult. The Speckled People is a life-story that needs to be told through the eyes of an innocent, naïve, observant, child devoid of adult baggage and sophistication and told in the manner of a novel. A child can love a German mother and her culture without loving the Arian Brotherhood or being a fascist. He can endure the teasing and taunting of other children, he can even stand trial for being a Nazi, because he realize his mother and her family tried to save the persecuted in their country. A child could love a country for its food, people, language, and culture without loving its politics. A child can also just simply love his mother for what she is, German.
When reading the first two paragraphs of The Speckled People it is easy to be struck by the child like simplicity of the writing. It occurs to the reader that the narrator is indeed a child. One might wonder why Mr. Hamilton chose his child self to tell his story. It also is curious as to why he choses to tell his life story in the form of a novel. There has been so much written about “discovering the inner child” or “embracing the child within” that one might be tempted to surmise that the author was attempting to heal from a tragic past, discover himself, or attempt to tell his story through the eyes of an innocent child without the political bias and views of an adult. The Speckled People is a life-story that needs to be told through the eyes of an innocent, naïve, observant, child devoid of adult baggage and sophistication and told in the manner of a novel. A child can love a German mother and her culture without loving the Arian Brotherhood or being a fascist. He can endure the teasing and taunting of other children, he can even stand trial for being a Nazi, because he realize his mother and her family tried to save the persecuted in their country. A child could love a country for its food, people, language, and culture without loving its politics. A child can also just simply love his mother for what she is, German.
The author also narrates the story of how he grew up in Dublin in the 1950s and 1960s with his brother Franz and Sister Maria and later siblings like Ciaran. The names of his siblings are as speckled as he is, both German and Irish (Gaelic). Hamilton’s three stories: his own, his mother’s and his father’s dwells a lot on the lives of his parents and the background information that he obtains about them as he grows up. The child-narrator sees and hears about the sadness, spiritual hunger, beliefs, secrets, hurt, conflicts, histories and beliefs of his parents. He talks about incidents that reveal the social shortcomings and double standards of Ireland, though without understanding the issues that lie behind such incidents. Hugo feels his father’s panic over the inevitable loss of the Irish identity by the death of a language no longer widely used. He feels the depression of their young Connemara nanny Aine after she was forced to give up her illegitimate child in London is He observes and reports many incidents as a child without knowing their significance. The reader, with a little knowledge of the time period, is able to draw the right conclusions, although as the author matures he begins to understand all the various events he has narrated.
The author grows up in a home in Dun Laoghaire, divided by two cultures and languages, German and Irish, and in turn largely cut-off from the English speaking outside world of South Dublin. The author describes his home as a separate country. The story depicts a struggle between the author/narrator and his father over what language to use. Father, named Sean, is a campaigning Gaelic speaker with a mission to regenerate the Gaelic language. He pretends England never existed, that it left no lasting cultural or linguistic impact on Ireland. He is a committed old fashioned nationalist who exerts firm control over his children’s lives. He believed that he could start a transformation of Ireland into a sort of Connemara version of Germany with his hard work ethic, his amateur inventions and inspired imports of German products. In other words his father who yearned for a truly Irish Ireland respected and wished for part of the German culture. What appears to be a mystery at the beginning of the book is cleared up later. Why would Sean who wants old Ireland back marry a German speaking bride? It the reader wonders if Sean actually would like a Speckled Ireland even though he worked so hard against it. Hamilton realizes that his entire family is coming to grips with their cultural differences. As a young boy Hamilton explores the differences and similarities of two cultures
The author grows up in a home in Dun Laoghaire, divided by two cultures and languages, German and Irish, and in turn largely cut-off from the English speaking outside world of South Dublin. The author describes his home as a separate country. The story depicts a struggle between the author/narrator and his father over what language to use. Father, named Sean, is a campaigning Gaelic speaker with a mission to regenerate the Gaelic language. He pretends England never existed, that it left no lasting cultural or linguistic impact on Ireland. He is a committed old fashioned nationalist who exerts firm control over his children’s lives. He believed that he could start a transformation of Ireland into a sort of Connemara version of Germany with his hard work ethic, his amateur inventions and inspired imports of German products. In other words his father who yearned for a truly Irish Ireland respected and wished for part of the German culture. What appears to be a mystery at the beginning of the book is cleared up later. Why would Sean who wants old Ireland back marry a German speaking bride? It the reader wonders if Sean actually would like a Speckled Ireland even though he worked so hard against it. Hamilton realizes that his entire family is coming to grips with their cultural differences. As a young boy Hamilton explores the differences and similarities of two cultures
and languages one of German and one of Irish decent. His views of being German as lost to an identity that would rather be identified as an Irish. Hamilton’s story line is also about homesickness; for a dream of Ireland, and the lost Germany. He yearns for a homeland of his own where he can be himself and create his own culture.
In additional to culture, in Chapter 1 of Speckled People, Hugo starts out by describing the history that surrounds his childhood. Hugo describes: WWII and Ireland by the sea, with the visualization, conflict, and simplicity indicative of a child’s thinking. Although the young Hugo would rather identify himself as Irish he can’t quite erase thoughts of Germany and to be a German to be scary and a negative of life.
Ireland and being Irish is the right path to follow. This path seems positive, living free, and alive. Hugo Hamilton‘s story of the quest for self identity is mixed with German/ Irish conflicts but finally results in assimilation. His goal is to understand who he belongs to, who he is, what he should be, and understanding the different between his mother and father’s backgrounds.
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