analisis the star

“The Star”

Analysis “The Star”

The story opens with the unnamed first-person narrator musing that at one time he had believed that his travels in outer space could not alter his faith in God. We can learn that he is a Jesuit as well as an astrophysicist. He is aboard a starship returning from a scientific mission three thousand light-years from Earth. Something he learned on this mission, as yet unknown to the rest of the scientists and crew, has caused him to question his faith. He reflects regretfully that the data gathered on the mission will soon make the cause of his own doubt—‘‘this ultimate irony’’—known to everyone.
The narrator reflects on the ‘‘private, good-natured, but fundamentally serious war’’ that the largely irreligious crew has waged with him during the long mission. He thinks amused them to have a Jesuit as chief astrophysicist.
In the first paragraph there is brief indication of religious symbols such as three thousand light years to the Vatican and Crucifix. The first of the two symbols I point out is the reference of their time in accordance to our time. The setting of this story takes place three Thousand light years to the Vatican. The great distance these travelers have to travel before they reach the greatest holy place for Catholics will happen three thousand light years.
The opening of The Star introduces the main conflict of the story a crisis of religious faith. We find the narrator, a Jesuit astrophysicist, on a mission in the far reaches of space. Something awful has happened out there that has made him question his Christian beliefs. "I stare at the crucifix that hangs on the cabin wall... and for the first time in my life I wonder if it is no more than an empty symbol."
Yet, at this early stage in the story, we do not know what has caused the Jesuit's despair, and Clarke keeps us guessing right until the end. We do not even learn that the main character is a Jesuit astrophysicist until the third paragraph, by which time we know that he is on a space shuttle carrying a precious mission.
Central themes in ‘The Star’ are religion and in particular religious faith. The narrative is the interior monologue of the central character, a Jesuit astrophysicist. He is aboard a starship on a mission to investigate the causes of a supernova in a distant galaxy. He and the rest of the crew discover the artifacts of a highly developed civilization, carefully preserved on the only planet that remains in orbit around the supernova. Knowing that all life would be wiped out when their sun flared into a supernova, this race of sentient beings left a record of who they were and what they accomplished. The pictures, sculptures, music, and other relics of a very human-like race doomed to destruction depress the crew and investigating scientists, who are far from their own homes and lonely. What the narrator has learned but not yet communicated to the others is that the supernova that destroyed this civilization was the Star of Bethlehem, which burned brightly in the sky to herald the birth of Jesus Christ. His discovery has caused him to reexamine and to question his own faith.
The entire story consists of the male narrator's reflections on what he has learned during a scientific mission to investigate a "white dwarf," a sun in a distant galaxy that became a supernova and burned itself out thousands of years earlier. The reader learns that he is a Jesuit priest and an astrophysicist aboard a starship and that he has been fighting a "private, good-natured, but fundamentally serious.
- Themes
The most important theme in "The Star" is the opposition of religion and science. We as reader are presented with a very religious narrator who has his faith seriously shaken. The narrator has long attempted to show that science and religion are compatible. He believed that science affirms the existence of God and helps humanity to appreciate the dependence of science on the intricacies of God's ultimate plan. A large part of his faith was founded in the belief that humankind achieved redemption from sin through the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When the narrator calculates that the explosion of the supernova, wiping out an entire sentient, human-like race, was the star of Bethlehem, he is thrown into doubt. How can he reconcile his believe that God created all things with perfectly without interpose mistaken.
- Point of View and Narration
"The Star" is a first person narration by an astrophysicist who is also a Jesuit. The narrative unfolds for the reader the emotions of this individual as he tries to comes to terms with the knowledge he has gained on a scientific mission to a distant galaxy— knowledge that has caused him for the first time to question his faith.
- Foreshadowing and Irony
In the course of the story, the reader is given clues to the ironic outcome of the story. One of the first occurs in the opening paragraph when the narrator says, “Once, I believed that space could have no power over faith . . . that the heavens declared the glory of God's handiwork" (emphasis added).
"The Star" makes a strong statement about human nature by blending literary elements like character, setting, and conflict with an entertaining narrative. Although the story is set in the future, Clarke's realistic characters still behave like people we may know. But their behavior is spurred by an event that is both familiar and puzzling.

Main Points as we read in “the Star”:
o The main character in this story is a Jesuit monk, a member of the Society of Jesus (a Catholic religious order founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1534).
o Jesuits devote their lives to missionary and educational work and are also known as the intellectuals of the church.
o The story makes a reference to a painting by Paul Rubens (1577-1640), a Flemish artist who painted a well-known picture of Loyola.
o The story mentions two Latin phrases. The first, AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIUM, means "For the greater glory of God." The second is the Exercitia Spiritualia, which means "Spiritual Exercises," a book written by Loyola, which the Jesuits use for guidance.

His science fiction story called “The Star” has many religious and spiritual overtones which makes the theme of the story ‘There always has to be one to save all” more obvious. From the first to the last sentence the theme was built throughout to be a parallel experience of what has happened to the people before the great flood. Like many great science fiction stories this one shares a great message of hope in the unknown and to be glad that we have been so lucky to survive whatever we were supposed to have survived.


Reference:

- “The Star”, Arthur C. Clarke.
- http://lucis.net/stuff/clarke/star_clarke.html
- http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-thestar/topic.html