In October there were yellow trees. Then the clocks went back the hour and the long November winds came in and blew, and stripped the trees bare.
The opening lines directly evoke the natural autumn scenery in New Ross, Ireland. The first sentence in particular has a poetic feel due to its regular metrical pattern. It is composed of trochees, which means that a stressed syllable is followed by an unstressed syllable. This creates a rhythmic rolling or cascading effect that contrasts with the description in the second sentence of clocks turning back an hour. Keegan evokes the passage of time through the description "November winds," which are given a strong active presence. Keegan is known for her brevity in her writing, and already these opening lines conjure a strong image in the reader's mind.
Furlong had come from nothing. Less than nothing, some might say. His mother, at the age of sixteen, had fallen pregnant while working as a domestic for Mrs. Wilson, the Protestant widow who lived in the big house a few miles outside of town. When his mother’s trouble became known, and her people made it clear that they’d have no more to do with her, Mrs. Wilson, instead of giving his mother her walking papers, told her she should stay on, and keep her work. On the morning Furlong was born, it was Mrs. Wilson who had his mother taken into hospital, and had them brought home.
This background on Furlong's mother reveals that she escaped the fate of many unmarried Irish women who became pregnant. As Keegan dedicated the novel to the women and children who suffered in Magdalene laundries and mother-and-baby homes, it is clear that these institutions will still play a central role in the book. The phrase "fallen pregnant" echoes the term "fallen woman," which condemns women who have sexual relations outside of wedlock. It also eschews any responsibility on the part of Furlong's unidentified father.
Women and children in these situations were often treated as second-class citizens. Luckily for Furlong, growing up under Mrs. Wilson's wing largely protects him from extreme abuse. The relationship between Mrs. Wilson and the Furlongs extends beyond that of employer and worker.
The times were raw but Furlong felt all the more determined to carry on, to keep his head down and stay on the right side of people, and to keep providing for his girls and see them getting on and completing their education at St Margaret’s, the only good school for girls in the town.
The word "raw" evokes the emotional and physical hardship people experience as a result of poverty and instability. These lines demonstrate that Furlong navigates a delicate balance between following his intrinsic moral compass and staying "on the right side of people" to survive in this community. The very last piece of information regarding St. Margaret's being "the only good school for girls in the town" foreshadows the novella's primary conflict. Namely, Furlong will face a moral dilemma that carries risks and harmful outcomes no matter how he chooses to act.
But it cut him, all the same, to see one of his own so upset by the sight of what other children craved and he could not help but wonder if she'd be brave enough or able for what the world had in store.
Keegan uses the word "cut" to describe Furlong's pain at witnessing one of his daughters cry at something that other children long for. This shows how deeply invested Furlong is in the well-being of his daughters. He shows them love and tenderness but understands that they must be able to handle difficult and unrelenting hardship in their lives. Furlong strives to provide care and safety to his daughters, but he knows that he cannot protect them forever.
“But if we just mind what we have here and stay on the right side of people and soldier on, none of ours will ever have to endure the likes of what them girls go through. Those were put in there because they hadn’t a soul in this world to care for them. All their people did was leave them wild and then, when they got into trouble, they turned their backs."
Eileen voices sympathy for the girls who suffer in laundries and mother-and-baby homes, but ultimately insists that the family not get involved in the convent's affairs. To stay on the "right side of people and soldier on" consists of silent complicity, but it also ensures the family's safety. This demonstrates that the scope of Furlong and Eileen's concerns are different. Furlong takes on other people's suffering while Eileen remains fiercely focused on their own family.
"Weren’t Mrs Wilson’s cares far from any of ours?" Eileen said. "Sitting out in that big house with her pension and a farm of land and your mother and Ned working under her. Was she not one of the few women on this earth who could do as she pleased?"
In the final lines of Chapter Four, Eileen complicates Furlong's understanding of personal and communal responsibility by arguing that class greatly impacts (to the point of controlling) one's agency. In other words, wealth is required in order to go against the grain in a community setting. Eileen does not feel that she or her husband should get involved in the convent's affairs because it could threaten their economic standing if they offend their client. In addition, opposing the nuns could affect the Furlong's relationships with other townspeople, and it could revoke the Furlong girls' right to study at St. Margaret's. Out of fear and respect, no one directly opposes the nuns or others in powerful positions. Doing so might lead to getting shunned by the community.
Of late, he was inclined to imagine another life, elsewhere, and wondered if this was not something in his blood; might his own father not have been one of those who had upped, suddenly, and taken the boat for England? It seemed both proper and at the same time deeply unfair that so much of life was left to chance.
Despite Furlong's draining work schedule, he still spends a great deal of time in his memories and imagination. This demonstrates a rich inner life as well as perhaps an anxiety about the meaning of life in general. The term "of late" indicates that Furlong did not always engage in this kind of thinking. Keegan has said in interviews that she portrays Furlong as experiencing an identity crisis particularly because of approaching middle age. In this quote, questions of origin and belonging fuel Furlong's inner struggle. Whereas Eileen seems to approach life with a day-by-day sense of practicality, Furlong agonizes over the deeper significance of things.
"What have I against girls?" he went on. "My own mother was a girl, once. And I dare say the same must be true of you and all belonging to us."
Furlong challenges the Mother Superior's hypocritical prejudice against girls by pointing out that she, too, was once a girl. The Mother Superior's comment that Furlong must be disappointed not to have sons reveals a deeply ingrained misogyny. Her a priori contempt for girls suggests that they are inherently corrupt and impure. Keegan plays with the concepts of gender and power in this scene by portraying a man using his power as a man to confront such misogyny among women.
When the consecration was over and it came time to go up and receive Communion, Furlong stayed contrarily where he was, with his back against the wall.
Furlong's keen sensitivity to hypocrisy (concerning his own actions as well as those of the town as a whole) prevents him from going up to receive Communion. Also known as the Eucharist, Communion is a physical ritual that signifies a bond with Jesus Christ. Participants are given bread and wine (often a wafer and grape juice) by the priest, and these foods are understood as being the body and blood of Christ.
On a personal level, Furlong cannot stand receiving spiritual nourishment because he feels like a hypocrite. He failed to successfully intervene on Sarah's behalf at the convent because he did not inquire about her baby like she had asked him to. This is the first instance where Furlong publicly contradicts his aforementioned determination "to carry on, to keep his head down and stay on the right side of people" as specified in the novella's second chapter.
As they carried on along and met more people Furlong did and did not know, he found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another? Was it possible to carry on along through all the years, the decades, through an entire life, without once being brave enough to go against what was there and yet call yourself a Christian, and face yourself in the mirror?
Here, Furlong resolves one of the issues that plagued him throughout the novella: namely, what he has to do to be able to face his own reflection. In order to arrive at this moment, Furlong made a decision in the midst of a moral dilemma. A moral dilemma is when a person has to choose between two courses of action that each violate a moral principle. In Furlong's case, helping Sarah likely means that he condemns his daughters to hardship because the Mother Superior has threatened to deny their right to study at the town's only quality school for girls. However, the alternative (leaving Sarah at the mercy of the nuns) is something that Furlong cannot live with.
