Skellig Darwinian Spirituality
Compatibility of Darwinian Science and Blakean Spirituality: Healing through Physical and Metaphysical means in Skellig
Role of medicine in society has drastically grown and developed over the course of history having impact from our conception till our eventual death. The critically acclaimed novel, Skellig by David Almond medicine is a major motif that serves as the catalyst for the plot and theme of the novel. Medicine in the novel is presented such that it leads into two seemingly contrasting realms in terms of the healing that is observed with the physical and the spiritual aspect of healing. However, despite these contrasting aspects to medicine it is used seamlessly to create a positive outlook in the novel which leads to the healing …show more content…
of Michael’s sister, Joy, and Skellig, the mystic figure that gains the strength to rise to heaven. Ultimately, David Almond makes use of medicine and spirituality as a tool which parallels the distinct approaches of healing in both the physical and metaphysical sense. He accomplishes this through the epistemological discussions by having doctors with the knowledge medicine science and the contrasting non-scientific spiritual observation of healing in the novel.
The role of medicine in Skellig can be considered with two schools of thought. The first healing through being contemporary medicine or the conventional modern medicine based on the scientific knowledge and using the Darwinian school of thought. However, this definition of medicine is not inclusive or representative of non-conventional medicines, which have had significant basis in many spiritual and indigenous groups. Despite the lack of rigour scientific rigour the definition, this is an unorthodox definition of healing would be a system of healing or treating illness related to non-Darwinian science and the more Blakean spirituality and alternative healings.
Skellig is a novel of a ten-year-old who must cope with his ailing sister with a hole in her heart, and the mysterious and lonesome creature named Skellig that is trapped between living and spiritual realms of the world. Skellig confirms his supernatural by describing himself as “something like a beast, something like a bird, something like an angel.” (Almond 167) Michael grows up in a society where modern medicine science based on Darwinian principles is incompatible with the Blakean spirituality. This is observed with conflicting school of thought through “descriptions of Skellig’s physical appearance serve as an elegant, if unusual, a metaphor for the relationship many people have with Christian belief and practice. While it would be convenient to say that the rise of scientific belief, and more particularly Darwin’s theories of evolution, are the sole reasons for the conflicted attitudes regarding Christian belief, that would be incorrect” (Stewart 310). The reader gets to appreciate that modern medicine and spirituality can be compatible with the physical and metaphysical perspective to healing. This is observed with the both, a more metaphysical healing that is observed with Skellig and more the physical healing of Michael’s sister, Joy.
David Almond foreshadows the events of Michael’s nursing of Skellig with this short sentence in the introductory paragraphs of the novel:
“I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon. It was the day after we moved into Falconer Road. The winter was ending… He was filthy and pale and dried out and I thought he was dead. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I’d soon begin to see the truth about him, that there’d never been another creature like him in the world” (Almond 1).
This quotation from foreshadows that physical and spiritual healing that Skellig will incur in the in novel and, as a result, be given the strength to rise to heaven. Almond uses a reference to falconry when Michael moves from Random Road to Falconer Road. A falconer is a person who trains a bird of prey which foreshadows the events of Michael and his friend, Mina. They care for the winged creature who must gain the strength to rise to heaven. The quotation also implies that there is a truth that will come from his interaction which Skellig which include the contrasting of physical and metaphysical healing. The name, Michael itself is a biblical reference to the archangel which represents humility before god which is exemplified by his character and care of Skellig.
Almond incorporates both a physical and metaphysical aspects to Skellig as he transitions from being trapped in the living world to gain the strength to rise to heaven. The primary struggle for Skellig is that he is debilitated by arthritis which he personifies in the following passage: “I’m nearly nobody,” he said. “Most of me is Arthur.” He laughed but he didn’t smile.
“Arthur Itis,” he squeaked. “He’s the one that’s ruining me bones. Turns you to stone, than crumbles you away” (Almond 31).
This personification of arthritis exemplifies the debilitating condition Skellig is currently in and this traps him spiritually. However, he is cared for by Michael and Mina which allowing for him to heal physically and to build strength such he can be able to use his wings to rise to heaven.
This physical healing ties in with the metaphysical healing which can be argued as a key focal point of the novel. The reader observes Almond tying the physical and metaphysical healing through Mina’s description of calcification and linked to “ossification” of the mind when she says, “It [calcification] is linked to another process by which the mind too, becomes inflexible. It stops thinking and imaging. It becomes hard as bone. It is no longer a mind. It is a lump of bone wrapped in a wall of stone. This process is ossification” (77). Despite, Mina’s definition of “ossification” in the literal sense is incorrect, figuratively it captures the essence of Skellig’s “pessimism which translates into an inability to think or imagine.” (Bullen and Parsons 132) The complexity of Skellig is not solely in the physical immobilization caused by his pain, but the lack of will to fight the suffering that has kept him flightless. Unlike Skellig, Michael and Mina’s resilience as a key qualities children are a catalyst for trying not to keep Skellig as an earthbound angel but one that can heal, both physically and metaphysically into an angel that can rise to heaven. Bullen and Parsons states this in the most effective manner, “By solidifying into “Arthur,” he is caught between life and death, heaven and earth, flesh and spirit” (132).
The healing of Skellig found this point will put the fields of modern medicine based on Darwinian medicine against Blakean based spirituality. Blakean spirituality plays on the centrality of giving privilege to less scientific and more traditional knowledge based on spirituality. This is noted with Michael’s interactions with Dr. MacNabola and a patient at the hospital as well as the unorthodox approach to healing that is observed with Skellig. During Michael’s initial visit to the hospital to see his sister he goes out to Ward 34 to see if Dr. MacNabola had anything “good for arthritis. Dr. MacNabola replies in a cold manner by saying “Deep injections right into the joint… Then the saw… Bits cut out and new bits put in… Stitch it up, good as new” (Almond 67). The doctor even recommends cod-liver oil and Skellig’s requests for aspirin would seem to alleviate the pain associated with arthritis, but Skellig’s issue is more than physical it is metaphysical. The recovery of Skellig should be associated with Michael and Mina’s care for Skellig which is suggested when Michael asks Dr. MacNabola in a later encounter in the novel “Can love help a person to get better?” (Almond 161) to which the conversation continues in the passage below:
[Dr. MacNabola replies,] “What can we doctors know about love, eh?” He winked at the student with the notebook and she blushed. “‘Love is the child that breathes our breath/Love is the child that scatters death.’” “William Blake?” I said.
He laughed.
“We have an educated man before us,” he said.
He smiled properly for the first time. “Tell your friend that I hope he and I never have to meet.”
(Almond 161)
This quotation implies that doctors cannot know a thing about love by Dr.
MacNabola. He has implied that healing for physical means for Skellig will not resolve his illness and he ironically acknowledges “the potential for healing through spiritual rather than scientific means—he has made it possible for the science that he represents to have equal validity with the supernatural world Skellig embodies” (Sahm 124). Blakean spirituality also appears when Dr. MacNabola’s makes reference to the William Blake. This opens a debate about the compatibility of spiritual views and scientific views which in major circumstances conflict with each. However, David Almond demonstrates that they can complement each other and can work synergistically when the other is insufficient in resolving the issue as is observed with spiritual healing of Skellig and eventually the physical healing of …show more content…
Joy.
The reader is constantly bombarded with questions about conflicting views of scientific knowledge compared to more the spiritual knowledge. Despite their differences, the reader can observe a “symbiotic” relationship between them in the Michael’s encounter with a patient in Ward 34: “Arthritis,” I [Michael] said.
“That’s right. Arthur. But I’ve got two new hips and I’ll be dancing soon and that’ll show him who’s the boss. For a while at least… Arthur usually ends up winning in the end. But in the meantime some folk swear by cod-liver oil and a positive mind. For me it’s prayers to Our Lady, and Dr. MacNabola with his scissors and his saw and his plastic bits and pieces and his glue” (Almond 65-66).
The woman is much older than Michael and belongs to a generation for which faith would be incompatible with science. However, she provides a positive representation of Dr. MacNacbola physical remedies and the power of spiritual beliefs in her recovery. Michael instills this viewpoint of both modern medicine and spirituality aiding in the treatment of Skellig. Bullen and Parsons identify this unique relationship when they state, “she points to additional knowledge traditions—not the competing expert knowledge which pits scientist against scientist, researcher against researcher in risk society, but systems of knowledge operating alongside medical science… which negotiate the middle ground between fact and fallacy since their efficacy can be neither proved nor disproved with any certainty” (133-134) Despite Michael grown up in a society where spirituality and science may occasionally deprecate each other’s viewpoints, “the elderly woman stands as a reminder that it is possible to combine the two” (Sahm 124-125).
David Almond also utilizes Mina’s presence in the novel to demonstrate the cooperation of spiritual and scientific viewpoints in the healing of Skellig physically and metaphysically. Almond achieves this by having Mina willing to accept both science and metaphysical or imaginative perspectives equal validity despite society’s preference with scientific rational over more traditional perspectives. This iterated by Almond when Mina tells Michael, “Truth and dreams are always getting muddled” (52). This points out the society favours rational but that it may make the overall image less clear than it could be if both were held with equal validity. The unorthodox methods used to cure Skellig seemed to be more effective than rational approach Dr. MacNabola and “Almond appears to hint that the children’s belief in Skellig heals him more than any of their efforts” (Sahm 123). Skellig goes as far as attributing his recovery to “the owls and angels” (Almond 120) implying that the angels are Michael and Mina.
This concept of having physical and spiritual healing of Skellig is achieved through two very different meaning in the novel using Darwinian based science and Blakean spirituality.
Skellig breaks the idea of having a single epistemological system or tradition and suggests that children must need to understand entirely unique knowledge hierarchies, their benefits, their flaws and most importantly the fact that sometimes the more rational approach might not be able to explain everything. This is critical objectivity and unbiased approach to differentiate epistemological systems is essential in times of adversity as is seen with Michael who is dealing not only with trying to help Skellig become a heaven bound angel instead of one who is trapped on Earth. Almond seems to indicate several times that the outcome of Michael and Mina healing Skellig is intertwined with the fate of Michael’s sister, Joy. Michael feels powerless and is uncertain of his sister’s fate which places further emphasis on the active process with Mina in the healing of Skellig. Bullen and Parson summarize this by stating, “Michael is helpless to intervene or assist with the procedures imposed by the doctors who are caring for his sister, he and Mina are actively able to help Skellig”
(132).
David Almond links the situation of Michael’s active role in caring for Skellig with the condition of his sister, Joy who is suffering from a heart defect which he is helpless in controlling. Many scholars such as Don Latham indicate that the miraculous healing of maybe indirectly caused by Skellig “the narrative suggests that, through their friendship and ministrations to Skellig, they may be indirectly responsible for the baby’s successful – one is tempted to say “miraculous” – recovery” (Latham, Magical 78). There are two seemingly parallels narratives in the story involving the healing of Skellig and Joy with both sharing a common plot. Both are brought to safer places in the case of Joy it is to the hospital so she can undergo surgery and Skellig it is to Mina’s grandfather’s house away from the crumbling garage. Both have caregivers who treat them with Michael treating Skellig and Dr. Dan better known as Dr. Death. Both recover and are able to return to where they belong. There is a common theme in these two narratives, it that medicine and spirituality are used as a tool which parallels the distinct approaches of healing in both the physical and metaphysical sense.
Skellig’s visit to the hospital and Dr. MacNabola’s quotation of William Blake links the medical aspects of healing with the supernatural. Michael’s mother describes a dream she had the night before Joy’s surgery states, “I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, and I was sure he [Skellig] was going to take her away. But then he turned and looked at me. His face was as white and dry as chalk. And there was such tenderness in his eyes. And for some reason I knew he hadn’t come to harm her. I knew it would be all right” (Almond 159). Almond provides a definitive link between Skellig’s coming to heal Joy. Danielle Sahm remarks, “Michael’s mother struggles to accept the event, calling it a dream, but Michael and Mina realize that Skellig really had come to the hospital and healed the baby” (126). However, many would be hesitant in stating that Skellig had completely healed Joy and that Dr. Death play no role. Dr. Death did performance the surgery that rid Joy of her heart defect, but Almond makes it impossible to ignore the link between the metaphysical healing of Skellig and the miraculous physical healing of Joy. There is a subtle suggestion by Almond that Skellig supernatural being may have helped in Joy’s recovery.
David Almond ties in spiritual aspects to the healing of Joy by in this dialogue between Michael and his mother:
“D’you think the baby had wings?” [Michael said].
“Oh, I’m sure that one had wings. Just got to take one look at her. Sometimes I think she’s never quite left Heaven and never quite made it all the way here to Earth.” [replied Michael’s mother].
She smiled, but there were tears in her eyes.
“Maybe that’s why she has such trouble staying here,” she said.
(Almond 39)
This introduces a spiritual aspect to the healing of Michael’s sister as she is not firmly attached to this world. There is a sense that Joy is transitioning from the supernatural world to the living world, which is similar to how Skellig is transitioning from the living world to heaven. This spiritual belief that the shoulder blades were where wings would be after death. This explanation touches as “such explanations are based on religious faith or superstition, and require no empirical proof … and [Michael] investigates the bodies of Skellig and his baby sister in tandem in the novel” (Bullen and Parsons 132-133).
The link between the narratives of Skellig and Joy provides an alternative theory for Joy “miraculous” recovery as stated by Don Latham:
“In Michael’s mind, Skellig’s health becomes inseparably entwined with that of his baby sister, and Michael, convinced that Skellig has extraordinary powers, pleads with his friend to help her. Through Michael’s and Mina’s care and friendship, Skellig slowly regains his strength. In return, he visits Michael’s sister in the hospital and apparently heals her. At the end of the story, Skellig flies away, and the baby, now cured, comes home from the hospital” (Latham, Empowering 215). David Almond not only links the scientific and spiritual knowledge in the novel Skellig, and demonstrates that they can combine forces to play a vital in both the physical and metaphysical aspects of healing. The reader sees this the parallel struggles of Skellig and Joy who both must heal; Skellig must heal spirituality and Joy must heal physically. These struggles are bound by Michael who observes the metaphysical and physical natures of their healing and shows the reader that these two differing schools of thought can both be compatible with healing.
Role of medicine in society has drastically grown and developed over the course of history having impact from our conception till our eventual death. The critically acclaimed novel, Skellig by David Almond medicine is a major motif that serves as the catalyst for the plot and theme of the novel. Medicine in the novel is presented such that it leads into two seemingly contrasting realms in terms of the healing that is observed with the physical and the spiritual aspect of healing. However, despite these contrasting aspects to medicine it is used seamlessly to create a positive outlook in the novel which leads to the healing …show more content…
of Michael’s sister, Joy, and Skellig, the mystic figure that gains the strength to rise to heaven. Ultimately, David Almond makes use of medicine and spirituality as a tool which parallels the distinct approaches of healing in both the physical and metaphysical sense. He accomplishes this through the epistemological discussions by having doctors with the knowledge medicine science and the contrasting non-scientific spiritual observation of healing in the novel.
The role of medicine in Skellig can be considered with two schools of thought. The first healing through being contemporary medicine or the conventional modern medicine based on the scientific knowledge and using the Darwinian school of thought. However, this definition of medicine is not inclusive or representative of non-conventional medicines, which have had significant basis in many spiritual and indigenous groups. Despite the lack of rigour scientific rigour the definition, this is an unorthodox definition of healing would be a system of healing or treating illness related to non-Darwinian science and the more Blakean spirituality and alternative healings.
Skellig is a novel of a ten-year-old who must cope with his ailing sister with a hole in her heart, and the mysterious and lonesome creature named Skellig that is trapped between living and spiritual realms of the world. Skellig confirms his supernatural by describing himself as “something like a beast, something like a bird, something like an angel.” (Almond 167) Michael grows up in a society where modern medicine science based on Darwinian principles is incompatible with the Blakean spirituality. This is observed with conflicting school of thought through “descriptions of Skellig’s physical appearance serve as an elegant, if unusual, a metaphor for the relationship many people have with Christian belief and practice. While it would be convenient to say that the rise of scientific belief, and more particularly Darwin’s theories of evolution, are the sole reasons for the conflicted attitudes regarding Christian belief, that would be incorrect” (Stewart 310). The reader gets to appreciate that modern medicine and spirituality can be compatible with the physical and metaphysical perspective to healing. This is observed with the both, a more metaphysical healing that is observed with Skellig and more the physical healing of Michael’s sister, Joy.
David Almond foreshadows the events of Michael’s nursing of Skellig with this short sentence in the introductory paragraphs of the novel:
“I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon. It was the day after we moved into Falconer Road. The winter was ending… He was filthy and pale and dried out and I thought he was dead. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I’d soon begin to see the truth about him, that there’d never been another creature like him in the world” (Almond 1).
This quotation from foreshadows that physical and spiritual healing that Skellig will incur in the in novel and, as a result, be given the strength to rise to heaven. Almond uses a reference to falconry when Michael moves from Random Road to Falconer Road. A falconer is a person who trains a bird of prey which foreshadows the events of Michael and his friend, Mina. They care for the winged creature who must gain the strength to rise to heaven. The quotation also implies that there is a truth that will come from his interaction which Skellig which include the contrasting of physical and metaphysical healing. The name, Michael itself is a biblical reference to the archangel which represents humility before god which is exemplified by his character and care of Skellig.
Almond incorporates both a physical and metaphysical aspects to Skellig as he transitions from being trapped in the living world to gain the strength to rise to heaven. The primary struggle for Skellig is that he is debilitated by arthritis which he personifies in the following passage: “I’m nearly nobody,” he said. “Most of me is Arthur.” He laughed but he didn’t smile.
“Arthur Itis,” he squeaked. “He’s the one that’s ruining me bones. Turns you to stone, than crumbles you away” (Almond 31).
This personification of arthritis exemplifies the debilitating condition Skellig is currently in and this traps him spiritually. However, he is cared for by Michael and Mina which allowing for him to heal physically and to build strength such he can be able to use his wings to rise to heaven.
This physical healing ties in with the metaphysical healing which can be argued as a key focal point of the novel. The reader observes Almond tying the physical and metaphysical healing through Mina’s description of calcification and linked to “ossification” of the mind when she says, “It [calcification] is linked to another process by which the mind too, becomes inflexible. It stops thinking and imaging. It becomes hard as bone. It is no longer a mind. It is a lump of bone wrapped in a wall of stone. This process is ossification” (77). Despite, Mina’s definition of “ossification” in the literal sense is incorrect, figuratively it captures the essence of Skellig’s “pessimism which translates into an inability to think or imagine.” (Bullen and Parsons 132) The complexity of Skellig is not solely in the physical immobilization caused by his pain, but the lack of will to fight the suffering that has kept him flightless. Unlike Skellig, Michael and Mina’s resilience as a key qualities children are a catalyst for trying not to keep Skellig as an earthbound angel but one that can heal, both physically and metaphysically into an angel that can rise to heaven. Bullen and Parsons states this in the most effective manner, “By solidifying into “Arthur,” he is caught between life and death, heaven and earth, flesh and spirit” (132).
The healing of Skellig found this point will put the fields of modern medicine based on Darwinian medicine against Blakean based spirituality. Blakean spirituality plays on the centrality of giving privilege to less scientific and more traditional knowledge based on spirituality. This is noted with Michael’s interactions with Dr. MacNabola and a patient at the hospital as well as the unorthodox approach to healing that is observed with Skellig. During Michael’s initial visit to the hospital to see his sister he goes out to Ward 34 to see if Dr. MacNabola had anything “good for arthritis. Dr. MacNabola replies in a cold manner by saying “Deep injections right into the joint… Then the saw… Bits cut out and new bits put in… Stitch it up, good as new” (Almond 67). The doctor even recommends cod-liver oil and Skellig’s requests for aspirin would seem to alleviate the pain associated with arthritis, but Skellig’s issue is more than physical it is metaphysical. The recovery of Skellig should be associated with Michael and Mina’s care for Skellig which is suggested when Michael asks Dr. MacNabola in a later encounter in the novel “Can love help a person to get better?” (Almond 161) to which the conversation continues in the passage below:
[Dr. MacNabola replies,] “What can we doctors know about love, eh?” He winked at the student with the notebook and she blushed. “‘Love is the child that breathes our breath/Love is the child that scatters death.’” “William Blake?” I said.
He laughed.
“We have an educated man before us,” he said.
He smiled properly for the first time. “Tell your friend that I hope he and I never have to meet.”
(Almond 161)
This quotation implies that doctors cannot know a thing about love by Dr.
MacNabola. He has implied that healing for physical means for Skellig will not resolve his illness and he ironically acknowledges “the potential for healing through spiritual rather than scientific means—he has made it possible for the science that he represents to have equal validity with the supernatural world Skellig embodies” (Sahm 124). Blakean spirituality also appears when Dr. MacNabola’s makes reference to the William Blake. This opens a debate about the compatibility of spiritual views and scientific views which in major circumstances conflict with each. However, David Almond demonstrates that they can complement each other and can work synergistically when the other is insufficient in resolving the issue as is observed with spiritual healing of Skellig and eventually the physical healing of …show more content…
Joy.
The reader is constantly bombarded with questions about conflicting views of scientific knowledge compared to more the spiritual knowledge. Despite their differences, the reader can observe a “symbiotic” relationship between them in the Michael’s encounter with a patient in Ward 34: “Arthritis,” I [Michael] said.
“That’s right. Arthur. But I’ve got two new hips and I’ll be dancing soon and that’ll show him who’s the boss. For a while at least… Arthur usually ends up winning in the end. But in the meantime some folk swear by cod-liver oil and a positive mind. For me it’s prayers to Our Lady, and Dr. MacNabola with his scissors and his saw and his plastic bits and pieces and his glue” (Almond 65-66).
The woman is much older than Michael and belongs to a generation for which faith would be incompatible with science. However, she provides a positive representation of Dr. MacNacbola physical remedies and the power of spiritual beliefs in her recovery. Michael instills this viewpoint of both modern medicine and spirituality aiding in the treatment of Skellig. Bullen and Parsons identify this unique relationship when they state, “she points to additional knowledge traditions—not the competing expert knowledge which pits scientist against scientist, researcher against researcher in risk society, but systems of knowledge operating alongside medical science… which negotiate the middle ground between fact and fallacy since their efficacy can be neither proved nor disproved with any certainty” (133-134) Despite Michael grown up in a society where spirituality and science may occasionally deprecate each other’s viewpoints, “the elderly woman stands as a reminder that it is possible to combine the two” (Sahm 124-125).
David Almond also utilizes Mina’s presence in the novel to demonstrate the cooperation of spiritual and scientific viewpoints in the healing of Skellig physically and metaphysically. Almond achieves this by having Mina willing to accept both science and metaphysical or imaginative perspectives equal validity despite society’s preference with scientific rational over more traditional perspectives. This iterated by Almond when Mina tells Michael, “Truth and dreams are always getting muddled” (52). This points out the society favours rational but that it may make the overall image less clear than it could be if both were held with equal validity. The unorthodox methods used to cure Skellig seemed to be more effective than rational approach Dr. MacNabola and “Almond appears to hint that the children’s belief in Skellig heals him more than any of their efforts” (Sahm 123). Skellig goes as far as attributing his recovery to “the owls and angels” (Almond 120) implying that the angels are Michael and Mina.
This concept of having physical and spiritual healing of Skellig is achieved through two very different meaning in the novel using Darwinian based science and Blakean spirituality.
Skellig breaks the idea of having a single epistemological system or tradition and suggests that children must need to understand entirely unique knowledge hierarchies, their benefits, their flaws and most importantly the fact that sometimes the more rational approach might not be able to explain everything. This is critical objectivity and unbiased approach to differentiate epistemological systems is essential in times of adversity as is seen with Michael who is dealing not only with trying to help Skellig become a heaven bound angel instead of one who is trapped on Earth. Almond seems to indicate several times that the outcome of Michael and Mina healing Skellig is intertwined with the fate of Michael’s sister, Joy. Michael feels powerless and is uncertain of his sister’s fate which places further emphasis on the active process with Mina in the healing of Skellig. Bullen and Parson summarize this by stating, “Michael is helpless to intervene or assist with the procedures imposed by the doctors who are caring for his sister, he and Mina are actively able to help Skellig”
(132).
David Almond links the situation of Michael’s active role in caring for Skellig with the condition of his sister, Joy who is suffering from a heart defect which he is helpless in controlling. Many scholars such as Don Latham indicate that the miraculous healing of maybe indirectly caused by Skellig “the narrative suggests that, through their friendship and ministrations to Skellig, they may be indirectly responsible for the baby’s successful – one is tempted to say “miraculous” – recovery” (Latham, Magical 78). There are two seemingly parallels narratives in the story involving the healing of Skellig and Joy with both sharing a common plot. Both are brought to safer places in the case of Joy it is to the hospital so she can undergo surgery and Skellig it is to Mina’s grandfather’s house away from the crumbling garage. Both have caregivers who treat them with Michael treating Skellig and Dr. Dan better known as Dr. Death. Both recover and are able to return to where they belong. There is a common theme in these two narratives, it that medicine and spirituality are used as a tool which parallels the distinct approaches of healing in both the physical and metaphysical sense.
Skellig’s visit to the hospital and Dr. MacNabola’s quotation of William Blake links the medical aspects of healing with the supernatural. Michael’s mother describes a dream she had the night before Joy’s surgery states, “I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, and I was sure he [Skellig] was going to take her away. But then he turned and looked at me. His face was as white and dry as chalk. And there was such tenderness in his eyes. And for some reason I knew he hadn’t come to harm her. I knew it would be all right” (Almond 159). Almond provides a definitive link between Skellig’s coming to heal Joy. Danielle Sahm remarks, “Michael’s mother struggles to accept the event, calling it a dream, but Michael and Mina realize that Skellig really had come to the hospital and healed the baby” (126). However, many would be hesitant in stating that Skellig had completely healed Joy and that Dr. Death play no role. Dr. Death did performance the surgery that rid Joy of her heart defect, but Almond makes it impossible to ignore the link between the metaphysical healing of Skellig and the miraculous physical healing of Joy. There is a subtle suggestion by Almond that Skellig supernatural being may have helped in Joy’s recovery.
David Almond ties in spiritual aspects to the healing of Joy by in this dialogue between Michael and his mother:
“D’you think the baby had wings?” [Michael said].
“Oh, I’m sure that one had wings. Just got to take one look at her. Sometimes I think she’s never quite left Heaven and never quite made it all the way here to Earth.” [replied Michael’s mother].
She smiled, but there were tears in her eyes.
“Maybe that’s why she has such trouble staying here,” she said.
(Almond 39)
This introduces a spiritual aspect to the healing of Michael’s sister as she is not firmly attached to this world. There is a sense that Joy is transitioning from the supernatural world to the living world, which is similar to how Skellig is transitioning from the living world to heaven. This spiritual belief that the shoulder blades were where wings would be after death. This explanation touches as “such explanations are based on religious faith or superstition, and require no empirical proof … and [Michael] investigates the bodies of Skellig and his baby sister in tandem in the novel” (Bullen and Parsons 132-133).
The link between the narratives of Skellig and Joy provides an alternative theory for Joy “miraculous” recovery as stated by Don Latham:
“In Michael’s mind, Skellig’s health becomes inseparably entwined with that of his baby sister, and Michael, convinced that Skellig has extraordinary powers, pleads with his friend to help her. Through Michael’s and Mina’s care and friendship, Skellig slowly regains his strength. In return, he visits Michael’s sister in the hospital and apparently heals her. At the end of the story, Skellig flies away, and the baby, now cured, comes home from the hospital” (Latham, Empowering 215). David Almond not only links the scientific and spiritual knowledge in the novel Skellig, and demonstrates that they can combine forces to play a vital in both the physical and metaphysical aspects of healing. The reader sees this the parallel struggles of Skellig and Joy who both must heal; Skellig must heal spirituality and Joy must heal physically. These struggles are bound by Michael who observes the metaphysical and physical natures of their healing and shows the reader that these two differing schools of thought can both be compatible with healing.