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Comparative :wedding: :church: :gun: - Coggle Diagram
Comparative
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Small Things Like These
By Claire Keegan
overview
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan is a novella set in Ireland during the 1980s. It examines societal complicity in institutional abuse through the story of Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant. The narrative highlights Furlong’s moral awakening and courage as he rescues a young girl from the abusive Magdalen laundries. Keegan explores themes of poverty, complicity, and personal integrity set against the backdrop of Christmas preparations in a small, tightly controlled town.
Theme of freedom and escape
The theme of freedom and escape is seen throughout the novel, as Bill helps the young girl escape from the laundry. Bill is trapped by his illegitimate status and is trying to escape it. The town people's freedom is restricted by the convent who runs the town and holds power, the only person who could do as she pleased is Ms Wilson who is rich enough to not be effect by the church.
General Vision and Viewpoint
opening
relationships
Even with this unforgiving world we are introduced to, we see the Bill has many good relationships throughout the novel, we see he has a loving family with a wife and 5 daughters, his family is a major part of his moral compass and he thinks of his daughter and what would happen if they had no one
"He thought of his own girls, and what life might be if they had nobody"
when Bill finds Sarah he instantly thinks of his daughters this is what leads to him rescuing Sarah. Rescuing Sarah not only demonstrates personal empathy but also courage to stand up to those in power, this shows Bill's positive and hopefully outlook on life.
The general outlook on life in STLT is bleak one, the opening moments of the novel have a focus on the town and the poor state it is in, as we follow the daily routine of the main character Bill as he drives around town doing deliveries, we can tell that Bill is dissatisfied with his life and job. While doing the deliveries Bill reflects on his troubled passed as he was bullied as a child,
"Once he'd come home with the back of his coat covered in spit"
this moment hints at the cruel and unfair world that the story of the novel is set in
Culture context
religion
setting
social class
family
Gender roles
The gender roles in the text are primitive with people believing women belong at home and men should be out working for them this restricts many of the female characters. We also see how if a woman falls pregnant outside of wed lock they are looked down upon while the man gets no punishment, many of these women are thrown out by their families and left on the street to fight for themselves or have to go to work at the laundry, this would have been the fate for Bill's mother if it was not for Ms Wilson who took her in and took care of her and Bill for all of his childhood.
Family holds a major importance in Bill's story, we see his love for his mother through his flash backs to his childhood, Bills wife and children hold special importance in the story as it is Bill imagine one of the women as his daughter that gives him the courage to stand up for the young girl Sarah
we see three different types of social class in Small Thing Like These, the upper class, the working class and lower class
Lower Class
The lower class is seen through the single mothers in the laundry and the boy who was drinking the milk and collecting the firewood, the story is the worst for them as they have very little and are treat badly, the mothers in the laundry are forced to work long hours and punished for stepping out of line, the boy is blamed for his situation by Bill's wife.
Working Class
This social class is seen through Bill as he works through the day and earns for his family, he is a man of routine he wakes goes to work then comes home, doing the same routine every time he comes home. While this social class is needed for the day to day life of the town they only get respect from other working class people and none from the upper class and the nuns. This class also still have their struggles and they have to plan well in advance for things like Christmas and may have to go cheap for their own gifts.
Upper Class
This social class is seen through characters like Ms Wilson and the parents at the Christmas market, this social class gets the most respect from the townspeople and the nuns, while they still have to stay on the nuns' good side but they are able to talk to the nuns, this is seen as Bill describes the nuns as talking to "the more well off parents"
The text is set in a small rural town in Ireland in 1985, it is a time of struggle for many people of the town, Luckily Bill is unaffected by the struggle but he sees the shift in town as he goes all his trips
Being set in a rural town, the setting is very isolate which only effects the townspeople as they are unable to receive help from other people they can only rely on the Church and their hand outs,
We see how the struggles are effecting the townspeople as Bill sees a young boy drinking the milk from the priest's cat bowl and later sees a boy walking the road collecting firewood in the rain, when Bill tells his wife that he gave him some money she gives out to him saying the boy's father would only spend it on alcohol, blaming the boy's situation on him and not believing they should help people
The Church holds a lot of power over the town and those who step out if line are punished by the Church. The Church also runs the Magdalen Laundry and the girl's convent which is the main educational place for girls
The Church uses the laundry to make money and free labour off the single mothers who were thrown out by their families, the Church takes care of them till the baby is born then forces the mothers to work and sells the babies off for adoptions, this practice uses the mother's poor situation and the turn to faith to gain power and money.
As the convent is the main educational centre for the girls of the town, the Nuns can use this fact to threaten those who try to expose them, they attempt to do this to Bill when he finds the girl in the coal shed. This uses the peoples trust in the Church as a way to threaten and destroy peoples' livelihood to maintain their power over the town
Bill is bullied as a child because he is illegitimate, this hate is born from religious view against people. The only person to take Bill and his mother in was his mother's rich protestant employer (Ms. Wilson) who took care of them for many years. Ms. Wilson was so rich that the power of the church didn't work on her, she was able to do as she pleased
Sive
by John B Keane
Overview
This story is about a girl called Sive it focus on her aunt's and a matchmaker's attempts to marriage her off to an old man who only wants her for her youth, while she wants to be with a local boy her age but her uncle refuses to allow it because of what the boy's cousin did to Sive's mother. This leads to the poor girls death at her own hands as she tries to escape it all
Theme of freedom and escape
In this text many of the characters are trying to escape something, at the centre you have Sive and Liam as Sive tries to escape her faith to be married to the old man and Liam trying to escape the shadow of his cousin acts. Meanwhile you have Mena and the matchmaker, both of these characters are trying to escape poverty, Mena was born into it and sees the marriage as a way out by sacrificing Sive's freedom, the matchmaker is put into debt by the cost of his father's funeral. Finally Sean Dota is trying to escape the lonely he is feeling by taking Sive for himself.
Cultural context
religion
setting
social class
family
Gender roles
General Vision and Viewpoint