65 pages • 2 hours read
Paul MurraySkippy Dies
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2010A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Navigating Adolescence as a Teen and as an Adult
Adolescence is the foremost element of the narrative. The novel features the messiness, complexity, and discovery that mark one’s teen years. Murray hints that this life stage does not end when one grows out of their teens. Rather, people return to the state of adolescence as they continue to learn the hardest lessons of life.
Ruprecht Van Doren enters the narrative in the state of idealism and wonder emblematic of childhood. His life is set toward a clear trajectory: If he maintains his interest in science, he can guarantee a life that resembles that of his hero, Professor Hideo Tamashi. Similarly, Daniel “Skippy” Juster finds himself caught in the whirlwind of first love. He is so enamored by Lori that he can temporarily distract himself from the things that distress him. When he starts talking to her and finds that she likes talking to him too, he is emboldened to pursue a relationship with her.
However, both their personal journeys are threatened by things that are too overwhelming for them to handle. Skippy turns to his relationship with Lorelei “Lori” Wakeham to escape the way he feels about his mother’s illness and his trauma from sexual abuse. When he comes to realize that Lori may be using him to hide her relationship with Carl, he finds that their relationship is adding to the pressures of his life rather than lightening its load. After Skippy dies, Ruprecht gradually becomes disillusioned with science, losing faith in it every time he is told that science cannot bring Skippy back to him. He fears the total loss of Skippy from his memory and struggles to deal with the possibility that science cannot explain everything.
Murray draws a parallel between these two characters and Howard Fallon, the history teacher stuck in a kind of second adolescence. Fresh off a failed career in finance, Howard finds himself dealing with the monotony of life as a teacher. When Aurelie McIntyre enters Howard’s life, however, she presents the possibility of a reset. He develops a crush on her, much like the relationships of his students. When Aurelie suddenly leaves the school, Howard breaks up with his girlfriend, abandoning his past life for the promise of a new one. He then discovers that Aurelie has a life of her own, going on an extended holiday with her new fiancé. Howard realizes that from Aurelie’s perspective, there was never the promise of anything serious with him. He was, in a sense, like her teaching job: a temporary break from her regular life.
When Howard calls Halley to apologize, she tells him that he must learn to deal with boredom as a reality, not as a thing to escape from. Skippy and Ruprecht are forced to engage with the complicated realities of their lives as well, though Skippy submits to death as the ultimate escape from the reality that overwhelms him. Meanwhile, Ruprecht exhausts his relationship with science until he finds himself faced with a similar conclusion. It is when he and Lori connect over their shared grief that he finds himself brought back to a state of grace. She quotes Paul Éluard to him, a remark that resonates with his quest to explore other worlds. It hints at a restoration of the idealism that characterized his childhood, although it can’t be the same with everything that Ruprecht has gone through.
In portraying these characters dealing with fraught situations for the first time, Murray displays how people can experience the complexities of adolescence at any stage of life.
The Intersection of Personal Tragedy and Communal Grief
Skippy’s death has a widespread effect on the Seabrook community. It impacts not only those who walk through the halls of the school but also those at its periphery, such as the employees of Ed’s Doughnut House. However, Murray is sensitive to the expressions of grief that manifest in each of his characters. Ruprecht, for instance, deliberately sabotages his performances in class and in concert rehearsals as his friend group dissolves. Lori, meanwhile, turns to her drug addiction to soften her frustrations with her family’s materialism. Even Carl, who antagonized Skippy while he was alive, experiences his own kind of grief, haunted by visions of an undead Skippy. That manifestation ultimately convinces him to set fire to Father Green’s office door, killing him and destroying the school.
Skippy’s death forces each of these characters to reckon with the apparent meaninglessness of the world around them. Ruprecht engages with the possibility that science is not the answer to everything, especially as it becomes clear to him that there is no way to reach Skippy through the veil of death. Lori likewise tries to distance herself from the guilt she feels over losing Skippy so shortly after her relationship with Carl came to light, which caused her to turn Skippy away. She knows that her desire for Carl was real even through all the frustrations she felt with him, but she knows that her love for Skippy was also real. She cannot reconcile these facts with his death by suicide. Carl, meanwhile, is reeling from the compounding effect that the death of Skippy has on his self-esteem.
However, Murray points at the possibility that memory and the bonds of friendship formed after death are strong enough to overcome grief. He aptly uses Howard, the history teacher, to show how communal grief has affected others in the past. He tells his students that after World War I, scientists who had previously shunned the idea of a spirit world turned to it in desperation, seeking the opportunity to speak to their lost sons who were taken from them on the battlefield. When Ruprecht leads Lori and his friends to reach Skippy in the spirit world, he tries to succeed where those scientists failed. Consequently, the quartet’s concert performance transforms from an attempt at an impossible act to an overwhelming expression of their shared grief. Ruprecht later learns, through his connection with Lori, the truth of the lesson that Howard really wanted to teach about the war’s Irish regiment: “That they stayed friends, that they looked out for each other, most agreed, was what kept them from cracking up altogether” (557). This resonates directly with Lori’s invitation to Ruprecht to stay around a little longer.
Critiquing Institutional Norms and Abuses
Skippy Dies serves as an indictment of the institutions that cast long shadows on Irish society. The Catholic Church has a history of abuse that has affected its relationship with Catholic communities all over the world, especially Ireland. While Murray uses this difficult relationship as a pretext for the conflicts in his novel, he also draws attention to the corruption that plagues institutions that have become secularized, setting the stage for a nuanced critique of social norms and behaviors.
The novel is set against the backdrop of transition at Seabrook College. The shift from clerical management to layman administration allows those in power to distance themselves from the clerics’ fraught history. Throughout Part 1, it is heavily implied that Father Green has a history of abuse dating back to his days as a missionary in Africa. His attitudes toward desire weigh heavily over each of his interactions with Skippy. Even when it is made explicit, the novel expresses his reasoning that if he can consummate his desires one more time, he may be able to finally overcome them. This line of thinking bears undertones of addiction, as Father Green cannot simply atone for his sins; he must also commit them once more to internalize his repulsion for it. This behavior resonates with the drug addiction that permeates other parts of the novel. In Skippy’s case, this addiction is endemic to the systemic abuse he suffers, even at the hands of a secularized school.
Before it is explicated that Coach Tom sexually molested Skippy at the previous swim meet, Murray hints at the unusual nature of their relationship. Tom exhibits favoritism toward Skippy, including him in the team roster despite his lagging performance and giving him his own medication. No one suspects that Tom might have anything to do with Skippy’s growing distress, largely because Tom is still considered a successful outcome of Seabrook’s educational program, going from a star athlete to one who heralds future generations of athletes. However, when it becomes clear that Tom did in fact abused Skippy, it clashes against the narrative that Tom’s image contributes to the school. Acting Principal Greg Costigan is thus quick to suggest that the matter be dismissed. One of the priests on the school board furthermore suggests a discrete handling of the matter, citing similar cases in the past. Both secular and clerical factions within the administration agree on resolving the case on their own terms, rather than seeking justice on behalf of the offended. Ironically, Father Green is the only member of the clergy who expresses resistance to their decision.
The ending of the novel leaves the resolution of these abuses open. Greg is formally installed as principal, having ceded full control over the school from the Paraclete fathers. Tom’s transfer is likewise fulfilled, and Greg reaffirms the narrative that the coach is one of Seabrook’s best and brightest stars. The reader, however, knows the extent of their crimes and is left to judge them with an awareness of their actions. Murray suggests that people should remain critical of such institutions with a history of abuse and corruption.
