Summary
On Sunday morning Cal wakes up late for the church sermon. He takes his father’s van to rush there and gets to the service in time for the second reading. He settles into the pew and takes comfort in the sermon, although he doesn’t understand the words. During the prayer, Cal partly thinks of his mother, and partly thinks of his hatred for himself. After it is over, he realizes the woman in front of him who has a small daughter is Marcella; he is surprised to find out she is a Catholic. After the service, Cal smokes in the parking lot and watches Marcella as she and her child get into her car.
Cal drives 60 miles to Clones, which he calls “real Ireland,” where there is a Catholic majority. He is there for a soccer match at Breffni Park. He gets absorbed in the game in order to not think of his former sins. At half-time he runs into Skeffington in the bathroom. Skeffington confronts Cal again about joining the movement, insinuating that if he refuses, he might get hurt. They see a drunk man fall down and Cal helps him up. Cal declines Skeffington’s offer to come meet his father.
The next week drags on for Cal as he spends most of his time in his bedroom and visits the library three times to spy on Marcella. He also anticipates getting a call from Crilly, but doesn’t. One evening his father brings Cal to help out at the O’Hares' land, clearing a couple of dead trees; they work there until dark. Cal returns the next day and works all morning, making a big pile of wood blocks. When the truck comes at six o’clock, Cal takes the driver seat and first drops Shamie off at home. Then he drives to the farm where he knows Marcella lives. When he goes to the front door, he is surprised to see not Marcella, but an older woman, who he assumes to be Marcella’s mother-in-law. He asks her if she would like to buy wood for her fireplace.
She agrees and asks Cal if he can stack and chop the wood for more money. Cal obliges and starts to work, looking around now and then to see if Marcella is around. His hands are too sore to finish so he tells Mrs. Morton he will be back the next day, thinking to himself that it will be another chance to see Marcella. On his walk home, Cal spots three denim-clad figures who he senses are a threat. They approach him, asking when Cal will move out, and Cal says he will not. They assault him and Cal fights back, not even feeling the pain. He manages to escape the boys and run away. They shout at him, promising to get him the next time, and Cal knows they are right.
Cal gets home and realizes he is crying, not from fear but from the shock. He instructs his father to get his gun out again for the night, telling him what happened. His father is appalled and suggests Cal might go stay with his aunt for a few weeks, but Cal disagrees, saying he will just be careful instead. He drinks some sherry, which makes his fear lessen. The next day he is sore from the fight and takes a bath. He thinks about all the strange things that he feared as a child. He remembers counting to a million and being in awe of the greatness of the number and furthermore of the concept of infinity. He feels somewhat grateful that now his fears—like being killed by the UVF lads—are more tangible than his childhood ones.
He returns to Mrs. Morton's house and finishes chopping the wood. Marcella and her daughter come out at some point and she talks to Cal briefly, recognizing him from when he carried her groceries. She talks about how, at that time, it was her first week back at her library job and how overwhelmed she felt. She goes back inside with her daughter. Cal becomes somewhat nervous when he sees a police Land Rover pull up to the Mortons’ home. However, they are not there to antagonize him but to see Mrs. Morton for some reason. Mrs. Morton pays Cal somewhat stingily and offers him a job for the next day lifting potatoes on their property. As Cal leaves, he hears terrible coughing from Mr. Morton, who Mrs. Morton explains was injured in his chest and lungs.
The next day Cal joins the other workers—mostly younger boys and girls trying to make a little extra money—for the job. They start the day in high spirits, making jokes, but as the day wears on, they tire from the grueling work. They are supervised by Cyril Dunlop, a former acquaintance of Shamie who works for the Mortons. Cal continues with the work for the next few days. It is tiring for him yet he can also feel how having something to do each day is cleansing for his soul. When the job is finished, Mrs. Morton takes aside Cal and offers him a permanent job on the farm; Cal accepts.
Analysis
In this chapter, we are shown the relationship between the individual and the society to which he belongs. In many ways, Cal is a young man with a virtuous character. This is shown in the scene at the soccer match, when Cal goes to help up a drunken man. In this episode, a distinction is drawn between the kindheartedness of Cal and the cold and militant Skeffington. Yet we see how the social situation in which Cal lives has started to harden the boy and sparked a violent impulse that may have not otherwise developed in more serene circumstances.
After nearly getting beaten up by the group of UVF members, Cal is in a state of shock and gloats to his father about how he punched one of the boys. The extreme fear has a way of distorting one’s character and inducing an almost constant sense of paranoia. When Cal takes a bath, he can hardly relax, feeling he is vulnerable to attack; this continuous fear makes him forget about the more existential concerns he harbored as a child, such as the question of what happens to one after death.
In this rough environment, Cal is often seeking out a sort of comfort, a soothing bubble where he can feel the occasional sense of peace and safety. We first see him approach this in the church; it is obvious that Cal does’t attend the service because of a strong religious faith but more so to experience a moment of stillness and prayer as a reprieve from his normal life of fear. The soccer game afterwards is an extension of this meditative space, as it is a setting where Cal can watch the match and drift in his own thoughts without the anxiety of being attacked. At both the service and the game Cal is also surrounded by fellow Catholics, unlike at home, where he sticks out amongst the Protestant families.
Yet towards the end of Chapter 2, we see an inkling of possibility for change to Cal’s harsh circumstances with the offer of a regular job at the Mortons’ farm. What begins as drudging labor—harvesting potatoes for hours at a time—turns into a welcome reprieve from Cal’s own grim inner monologue and listless unemployment. By keeping busy each day, Cal also has less time to worry about the threat of the UVF attack on his family. Cal is naturally an introvert, as demonstrated in the way he admits to loving the quietness of working at the O’Hare’s, where there is no need to talk. Yet without balancing this with more extroverted activity and pursuits, his deep inwardness starts to work against him, leading to paranoia and self-hatred.
Despite his tendency to isolate himself, we see how there still remains in Cal that basic desire for social contact; this is mainly illustrated in his obsession with Marcella. Because of his insecurity and social awkwardness, Cal feels he can only get close to Marcella in somewhat covert ways, such as following and spying on her while she is at work. There is also the fact that Marcella is seemingly married and a mother; she is not in a position to be pursued by someone almost 10 years younger than her. Yet Cal’s sexual and romantic desires overpower any rational concerns, and we are lead to consider that perhaps his attraction to Marcella goes beyond just an innocent crush.
The exact role of Marcella is still not clear even in the second chapter. We know Cal has not only a liking for the woman, but also a kind of fascination about her life that drives him to bring wood to her farm and observe her at the library. There are allusions to Marcella being involved in some sort of significant event related to the activities of the movement; Cal mentions seeing her while meeting with Crilly and Finbar. MacLaverty has a way of not directly exposing everything to the reader all at once but rather slowly introducing more and more information through the natural evolution of the plot. This choice of development serves to peak our curiosity as well as create a sense of anticipation for finding out how exactly Marcella’s character will figure into the story.
