A Socratic Revelation: Sebastian Barry’s Roadmap to Understanding Identity

Abstract

Critics have suggested that Sebastian Barry’s works provide a platform for omitted narratives within the Irish story. While I agree, I argue that Barry goes further, presenting the readers with a “structural paradigm” for understanding political identity. Grounded in Socratic thought, this paradigm establishes the connection between citizen and state, whereby the internal order of a state is directly linked to the internal order of its citizens. In the absence of such ordered citizens, the state is unlikely to possess a cohesive identity. For Barry, individual self-awareness is requisite for Ireland’s establishment of a unified identity. This Socratic “roadmap” towards understanding political identity is best seen in the turbulent nature of the principal characters in A Long Long Way, On Canaan’s Side, and The Temporary Gentleman.