48 pages • 1 hour read
Claire KeeganSmall Things Like These
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Town of New Ross
Content Warning: This section refers to depictions of physical and emotional abuse.
The town of New Ross is a crucial motif in the novel; it is both the setting and the encapsulation of a worldview. It is a small place, evocative of the “small things” in the title. Therefore, it is a site where there is little privacy, and the margins of tolerance are narrow. This is evident when Mrs. Kehoe learns about Furlong’s conflict with the Mother Superior, although he told only his wife about it. The narration does not reveal how the gossip reached Mrs. Kehoe; the mere fact that it did reflects the magnification and amplification of small-scale acts and interactions in New Ross. Thus, Mrs. Kehoe’s knowing about Furlong’s disagreement with a woman who holds his daughters’ futures in her hands raises the stakes around the daring act he will commit.
New Ross is also symbolic of the enduring power of the church’s stronghold on Ireland’s institutions and a last-ditch attempt to halt progress and the spread of a more secular view of the world. The town’s struggling economy and the real poverty of the families who live there, in addition to the fact that young people are immigrating to the modern cities of London and New York, indicate that New Ross’s hope for a better future is diminishing. The town auctioneer’s comment that “business was stone cold, that he might as well be trying to sell ice to the Eskimos” (12) gives an impression of a stagnant place frozen in time. In such an atmosphere, the convent, which is situated apart from the misery of the main residential area, and its ability to promote opportunities for bright young women at St. Margaret’s School becomes both a beacon of hope and a bastion of power. Additionally, Christmas, the season that brings cheer to the bleakest time of year, gains a quasi-Victorian importance in the town, as the decorations, midnight mass rituals, and gifts add charm to the day-to-day. This also adds to the illusion of the town’s belonging to another era despite its 1985 context. Reviewers note the novel’s 19th-century manner: “We barely see evidence of technologies, idioms or trends more recent than the Industrial Revolution. […] the references are to shipyards and Dickens, anthracite, homemade fruitcakes […]” (Millet). New Ross becomes a microcosm of an outdated lifestyle, both in terms of habits and of moral norms.
The Convent
The convent is a symbol of institutional power that influences the day-to-day lives of New Ross’s residents but is also removed from them, given the largely esoteric nature of its operations. Keegan creates this impression of distance by delaying the narrative approach to the convent until Chapter 4. The convent’s hillside location gives it additional height and aligns it with historic seats of power, such as castles. This, in addition to its “host of tall, shining windows, facing the town” (26) gives the sense that the nuns oversee and are involved in the town’s affairs. The garden, with its trimmed ornamental shrubs and red holly berries that have “for some reason” remained uneaten by the birds (26), has an aura of both wealth and supernatural protection.
The convent is a place of stark contrasts that demonstrate its hypocrisy and double standards. It contrasts signifiers of wealth with those of abject poverty. For example, within the convent walls, Furlong finds “a pretty orchard whose trees were heavy with fruit: red and yellow apples, pears” (27). The orchard is a symbol of abundant fecundity, and the sense of perfect, edible fruit on the trees creates the impression that the nuns are hoarding wealth. Moreover, the fruit-bearing trees are analogous to the young mothers that the nuns are also keeping secret. Furlong intends to permit himself “a freckled pear” (27), indicating his purposeful choice of a flawed fruit that the nuns will not miss. This prefigures the similar act of theft he will later commit when he rescues Sarah. However, the almost fairy-tale-like image of “a flock of wicked geese” (27) running after and hissing at them zoomorphizes the nuns’ hostility to anyone interfering in their affairs. The use of animal imagery indicates that despite their pretensions to holiness, the nuns have the same base drives, including possessiveness, as other creatures. Additionally, the fact that crows, greedy scavenging birds, roost in the convent’s trees, symbolizes the presence of corruption in the convent.
Another contrast in the convent is that between cleanliness and filth. While the linens laundered by the inmates are cleaned to the highest standard, coming back to their wealthy owners “the same as new” (27), the girls who are forced to perform this miracle live in an abject state, bearing rough haircuts, styes in their eyes, and insufficient footwear. Sarah, who is locked in the coal shed, is surrounded by excrement and soaked by her leaking breast milk. Surrounded by the products of her own body, Sarah is kept in a state of psychological torture, as the convent intends to make her believe that she is irredeemable and unworthy.
Christmas
Christmas is an important motif in the novel, not only because of its role as A Feminist Retelling of A Christmas Carol but also because the narrative leads up to the moment when Furlong redefines his feeling of family and whom he wants to spend Christmas with. At the beginning of the novel, unanswered questions around his family of origin are repressed in favor of focusing on the family unit he created with Eileen. Together, they guide their five girls through the rituals of Christmas, such as watching the lights come on in the town square, writing letters to Santa, and making Christmas pudding. It is evident even at Christmas that the New Ross residents admire the status quo: “If some complained over Joseph looking overly colorful in his red and purple robes, the Virgin Mary was met with general approval, kneeling passively in her usual blue and white. The brown donkey, too, looked much the same […]” (14). The residents draw comfort from the “usual” garb and posture of the Virgin Mary and the sameness of the faithful donkey that transports her to Bethlehem. On the other hand, the “overly colorful” robes of the Joseph figure are somehow inconsonant with the modesty expected from masculine dress and offend some of the residents, who wish for a sense of security and tradition above everything else.
While Eileen becomes immersed in the traditional rituals, both at Christmas and in life, Furlong considers that “always it was the same […] always they carried mechanically on without pause” and wonders what life would be like “if they were given time to think and reflect over things” (16). Eileen seeks to curry favor with the nuns and put in a good appearance by turning up to Mass on time, but Furlong wants to express true Christian generosity. Looking after his own family unit becomes insufficient for him, as he is restless and unable to fully engage with family rituals.
The rest of the novel is driven by Furlong’s attempt to reflect over the meanings of Christmas and generosity. When he seeks out Ned at Mrs. Wilson’s and discovers the truth about who his father is, he confronts a Dickensian Ghost of Christmas Past and resolves the mystery that plagued him his whole life. Then, when he rescues Sarah, he seeks to amend the wrongs that are perpetrated against unmarried mothers as he strives to create a better future for them. His actions reflect the Christmas story, as the Virgin Mary gave birth to a baby that was not her husband’s and relied on the good spirit and mercy of others. Indeed, even prior to his good deed at the convent, Furlong acts as a sort of Santa Claus figure in his delivery of fuel to New Ross’s residents and is even greeted as such by children who give him sweets and cash gifts. However, he later feels guilty that he did not give the sweets and cash from the wealthier families to the poorer ones and redistribute their wealth. His judgment that “always, Christmas brought out the best and the worst in people” (57) stands at the end of the novel, when his actions in saving Sarah, to the detriment of his own family, may be viewed as both heroic and destructive.
