The Green Isle of the Great Deep by Neil M. Gunn
"The Green Isle of the Great Deep" is a novel by Neil M. Gunn that serves as a sequel to "Young Art and Old Hector." Set against the backdrop of World War II in the Scottish Highlands, the story explores themes of individuality, freedom, and the struggle against oppressive systems. The narrative follows the journey of a young boy named Art and an old man named Hector as they venture into a mythical realm known as the Green Isle, a place associated with Celtic beliefs regarding the afterlife.
The plot initiates with a community's discussion on the dangers of indoctrination, reflecting the anxieties of the time. As Art and Hector navigate this enchanting yet troubling landscape, they encounter inhabitants who are under the influence of a totalitarian regime that suppresses their awareness and freedom. The duo's experiences highlight the tension between obedience and rebellion, particularly through Art's defiance and Hector's gradual submission.
As the story unfolds, the fruit of knowledge becomes a symbol of enlightenment, revealing the consequences of control over personal freedom. Ultimately, the novel culminates in a confrontation between true authority and the deceptive structures of power, leading to a profound awakening for the inhabitants of the Green Isle. The intertwining of myth and reality invites readers to reflect on the nature of freedom and the resilience of the human spirit amidst societal constraints.
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The Green Isle of the Great Deep
First published: 1944
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy—dystopia
Time of work: The 1940s
Locale: The Green Isle of the Great Deep
The Plot
The Green Isle of the Great Deep is a sequel to Young Art and Old Hector (1942), one of Neil M. Gunns many novels glorifying boyhood, set in the Scottish Highlands crofting communities. Elements of both Christian and Celtic mysticism inform the earlier work, and in The Green Isle of the Great Deep, a young boy and old man decidedly enter a mythic realm. Through their efforts—and with last-minute assistance from God” paradise is rescued from encroaching totalitarianism.
The novel begins naturalistically with a conversation among members of a small Highland community, gathered around a hearth during World War II. Provoked by newspaper reports touching on concentration camps, they anxiously discuss the idea of “breaking minds,” that is, the forcible indoctrination to a set of beliefs known to later generations as brainwashing. The conflict that propels the plot is thus introduced.
That conflict is allegorized once the protagonists, Old Hector Macdonald and young Art Macrae, enter the Green Isle of the Great Deep (the name of the Celtic land of the dead). While initiating Art into the practice of poaching along the river, Hector plunges with him into the water, recapitulating Gunns experience of nearly drowning, described in his autobiography as a “dream lying between life and death.” The companions find themselves in an idyllic landscape whose inhabitants seem strangely hollow.
The newcomers are directed to report to the capital, the Seat on the Rock, and to stay at inns along the way. Guided by Arts intuition, they instead sleep in fields at night and eat the abundant fruit they find. They are befriended by a couple, Mary and Robert, who are disturbed by their eating the fruit. This fruit is revealed to be the fruit of the tree of knowledge, of enlightenment and moral awareness. It is withheld by the keepers of the Seat to “relieve” the Green Isles inhabitants of the burden of freedom. Food manufactured for them makes the fruit poisonous and the people submissive to a mechanized existence.
When the companions arrive at the Seat and encounter the agents of the Perfect Administration, Art instinctively flees. Hector, weary and confused, cooperates with the regime. This pattern repeats throughout the narrative: Art stubbornly resists the Administrations efforts to control him, and Hector increasingly breaks down under the remorseless probing of his thoughts and motives by its agent, Questioner. As Art, aided by the ever-nurturing Mary until her arrest, continues to elude his captors, he develops into a legendary figure. The boys defiance and his ability to eat the forbidden fruit threaten the underpinnings of the Administrations programmed society.
When Art finally is caught, marking the storys culmination, his companion is an old man believed to be Hector. The old man is in fact God, summoned from his meditations by a desperate Hector, who insists on an audience. The Perfect Administrations sophistry fails to justify itself to true authority, but Hectors audience is far from the ordeal he had feared. The novel closes with the awakening of the inhabitants of the Green Isle from their spiritual deadness and also with the end of their collective “dream.” Hector and Art are saved from drowning, and the last scene joins the first in bracketing the allegory in reality.