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Theme - Small Things - Coggle Diagram
Theme - Small Things
Key moment 6 (Success in escape)
In freeing Sarah - frees himself aswell from burden of "the thing not done, which could have been - which he would have had to live w/ for the rest of his life"
He ignores wifes warnings & others in community but can no longer care about consequences of standing up to church.
He finally escaped not only past but societies judgment.
Decision of saving Sarah gives Bil a sense of self so able to face future with a clear conscience.
Despite fear of whats to come, Bill feels "light &tall" as he walks through streets w/ Sarah & there is a "fresh, new unrecognisable joy in his heart"
His feelings of confinement & unease gone "the best of him shining forth at last"
Key moment 1 (How Theme presented)
Beginning - Great life - Profitable business, Wife, 5 daughters
He's
"touching forty"
- frets not making headway in life, trapped in a situation that may never
"change or develop into something else, something new."
Wonders if living right life, worries caught in endless cycle. "The work and constant worry."
Inside - constant turmoil, struggles to escape past, at times restrictive present.
Outside - Living a secure & comfortable life.
Key moment 5 (Character revelation)
Bill discover parentage (Ned) as father.
This clarifies past for him. As he sits in barbers feels mind "freeing up" as he makes sense of world.
Uncertainty removed clears up what he must do.
Remembers when lost at crossroads & an old man told him the road he was on would take him where he wants to go.
Knows he must free Sarah as past is not holding him back anymore.
Key Moment 2 (How Theme presented)
Upbringing - Desire to escape mundane life.
Born to young unmarried young mother - escaped mother & baby home - protestant employer.
Entire life - judgement connected to birth inescapable. Tried to find birth farther - received birth cert w/ "ugly smile" from receptionist because in space for fathers name written "unknown"
Closure stripped away
Key moment 3 (How Theme presented)
Girl in convent "training school" & Bills experiences there that make it impossible to ignore.
Comes across group of unhealthy barefoot women whose hair "roughly cut" & another w/ an "ugly stye" in her eye polishing convent chapel floor. He's approached by girl who asks if he can help her escape or at least outside the gate so she can go to the river and drown herself. Bill - deeply distressed
Finds young girl locked in freezing coal shed. Acknowledges his mother escaped this fate - mrs wilson. comes to conclu in order to escape his past his must save girl from dreadful reality.
Key moment 4 (character revelation)
Bills unease growing but takes awhile for him to intervene.
1st - girls cleaning convent floor.
2nd - Sarah in coal shed.
Bill horrified by this & wants to take her home but "the ordinary part of him" wants to end awkward situation. Therefore he dosent help her instead returnd her to nuns, who pretend imprisonment was an accident.
Pretend to care for her but Bill aware it is an act for his benefit.
Mother superior veils threat - reminding him of Churches control over daughters' education.
New Ross, Wicklow 1985