Small Things Like These Essay Questions

What role does the Catholic Church play in the town of New Ross?

Historically, the Catholic Church wielded an enormous amount of influence on Irish social and political life. According to historian Daithí Ó Corráin, "Catholicism was a defining element of Irish national identity" in the 19th and 20th centuries. In New Ross, Mrs. Kehoe adequately conveys the widespread authority of the church in Chapter Seven when she states that the "nuns have a finger in every pie." Specifically, she is referring here to St. Margaret's, the only quality school for girls, and the school that Furlong's daughters either plan to attend or are already attending. Further, Mrs. Kehoe warns Furlong not to oppose the Good Shepherd nuns because to challenge one religious order is to stand against them all. However, Furlong ultimately chooses to act against the convent's abuse of the girls forced to live and work there.

In what ways does gender influence the characters' lives in the novella?

The characters who are working-class or poor experience a great deal of hardship regardless of their gender. However, unmarried mothers face the brunt of society's condemnation. Furlong's mother Sarah escaped the abuse and exploitation that many young unmarried mothers deal with because of Mrs. Wilson's kindness. One possible fate that Sarah could have suffered was to end up in a place like the convent, where the Good Shepherd nuns force girls to work in inhumane conditions. Keegan modeled the convent's supposed "training school" and laundry business on Ireland's infamous Magdalene laundries and mother-and-baby homes. Girls and young women considered outcasts or burdens on their families (due to pregnancies out of wedlock or mental illnesses) disappeared into these places. They were deemed "fallen women" who had to pay for their sins in penitentiary workhouses. The unpaid work consisted of laundry, cooking, cleaning, and sewing. When Furlong delivers coal to the convent, he witnesses this abuse. One girl pleads with him to help her escape and commit suicide. Another (named Sarah, like Furlong's mother) was separated from her 14-week-old baby and locked in the coal shed in freezing temperatures.

While Furlong's daughters are being brought up in a supportive environment, Furlong is aware of how fragile their situation is. He could easily lose everything he worked so hard to gain. When he decides to bring Sarah home with him, he risks his daughters' educational prospects because the nuns will revoke their right to study at the town's only quality school for girls.

How does class impact the characters' lives in Small Things Like These?

The novella is set amidst Ireland's economic recession in the 1980s. In the first chapter, Furlong describes the rise in unemployment as different businesses are forced to close or lay off employees. These include the shipyard company, the fertilizer factory, and the florist. Furlong witnesses other townspeople struggling with debt, hunger, and poverty. In one example, he sees a boy drinking milk from a bowl left out for cats behind the priest's house. Furlong, whose upbringing fueled a sense of empathy, does his best to help others through spontaneous acts of generosity. He gives people rides to town and allows certain clients to defer their payments on their coal and timber orders. All the while, Furlong remains determined to keep his head down and work hard.

When Furlong is confronted with choosing between staying silent or speaking out against the nuns over how they treat the girls at the convent, Eileen argues that he should not get involved. Unlike Mrs. Wilson, the rich widow who allowed Furlong and his mother to live and work in her household, the Furlongs are a lower-middle-class family whose survival depends on good standing in the community. Their daughters' prospects also depend on their education. Challenging the nuns will result in the Furlong girls losing their places at St. Margaret's, the town's only quality school for girls. This shows that wealth provides a certain buffer against hardship, but ultimately Furlong chooses to speak out against the religious norms in the community.

How does hypocrisy appear in the novella?

Hypocrisy functions on both individual and more widespread (collective and religious) levels in Small Things Like These. Despite the Good Shepherd nuns claiming to follow the word of Jesus Christ—who preached love for all and who himself associated with prostitutes—the nuns take advantage of marginal girls and women under the guise of charity. Girls who become pregnant outside of wedlock or who have mental illnesses are sent by their families to places like the convent, where they are forced to work as repentance for breaking moral codes. The convent, in turn, makes a profit by utilizing the girls' labor to run a successful laundry business.

When Furlong confronts the Mother Superior's obvious misogyny towards girls, he points out that she (and indeed all women) were once girls. He also responds to her xenophobia by saying that Jesus, too, would be a foreigner in New Ross as he was born in Bethlehem. Clearly, the Mother Superior's standards and values do not apply equally to all people.

Furlong feels like a hypocrite attending Mass after not sufficiently intervening on Sarah's behalf at the convent. In order to align with his Christian values and be able to face his own reflection, he ultimately decides to take a stand against the community's silence and complicity.

Identify and discuss one important stylistic quality in Keegan's writing.

Keegan's writing is often celebrated for its brevity. In interviews, she references how Anton Chekhov, one of her literary inspirations, wrote a letter defining grace as completing an action with the least amount of movements possible. Keegan emulates this in her writing by saying just enough, and no more. For example, she chose to end the novella at a point in the plot where many writers would have continued. She leaves the results of Furlong's decision to bring Sarah home up to the reader's imagination. In this way, what is left unsaid in Small Things Like These is just as important as what explicitly appears.