The-No-Man s Land in Pa rick Kavanagh s The Great Hunger

As far as no- man s- land is concerned, the following study is determined to show and demonstrate that Patrick Maguire, the protagonist of Patrick Kavanagh s poem The Great Hunger, is being warned from the most important dynamics of life: women, children and hope, as if they were mines which go off in case of treading or touching. These things, according to Maguire s mother and the church, prevent further farm progression and impede and restrict his power as a man whose only interest is supposed to be restrict- ed to agriculture and rearing animals instead of wife and children which are considered retarding factors as dictated to him. In addi- tion, they have a great influence in contaminating man s innocence and, as a result his spiritual ties with his God are devastated. So, life, other than the farm, for Patrick Maguire is a no- man s- land that is rife with horrendous things against which he must strive to be in the safe side. Maguire goes on suppressing his energy until this self- estrangement and intimidation render him to a slave to shyness, fear, then to phobia.