The Unfenced Lawn: A Symbol of Intrusion and Lack of Boundaries in Long Island
What Is the Unfenced Lawn?
In Colm Tóibín's Long Island, the unfenced lawn is the shared, undivided stretch of grass between the neighbouring houses of the Fiorello family on a cul-de-sac in Lindenhurst. Tony Fiorello and his three brothers all live in adjoining houses with their wives, children, and parents. No fence or hedge marks where one property ends and another begins. This literal lack of a physical barrier immediately signals that the family's lives are interwoven, but it also becomes a recurring emblem of the intrusion of the extended Fiorello clan into Eilis Lacey's private world.
The lawn appears not as a named object but as the background to daily life: children play across the boundaries, adults wander between houses without knocking, Sunday lunches gather everyone in one home, and the space feels as though it belongs to no single individual. Eilis, married to Tony, lives in one of these houses, yet the lawn makes clear that nothing she does is truly her own.
Where the Symbol Recurs
The unfenced lawn is most present in the routines that define Eilis's life in Long Island. Early in the novel, Eilis is shown participating in the enormous Sunday lunches that bring the whole Fiorello family together. These meals are held in one of the houses, but the movement between homes—across the lawn—is casual and constant. The brothers' children run from yard to yard, the mother-in-law appears without notice, and Eilis finds herself performing as a member of a collective rather than as an individual.
Later, when Eilis buys a used car and begins working for Mr Dakessian, her independence grows, and the lawn becomes a symbol of what she wishes to escape. She negotiates salary and hours without consulting Tony and starts ordering the Sunday New York Times to spend Sundays alone. This withdrawal from the family gatherings explicitly distances her from the shared lawn and the prying eyes it represents.
Finally, when Eilis decides to return to Ireland after Tony's affair is revealed, the lawn stands for the life she is leaving—a life where secrets cannot be kept and boundaries are never respected. In Enniscorthy, she encounters a different kind of landscape: the narrow streets, the chip shop, the isolated house in Cush. These places, though not without their own constraints, offer a sharp contrast to the open, communal lawn of Lindenhurst.
How the Meaning Changes
At first, the unfenced lawn might appear benign—a sign of close-knit family bonds. But the novel quickly shows that proximity without boundaries breeds surveillance and obligation. Eilis's father-in-law, for instance, notices her new car and directs her to his chosen mechanic, assuming a right to intervene. The lawn makes this intervention feel natural, even inevitable.
As Eilis grows more determined to assert her own identity, the lawn's meaning shifts to represent confinement. She photographs the Sunday lunches but refuses to send the pictures to her mother, as if to keep the lawn—and the family it connects—at a distance. Later, when her sister-in-law Francesca suggests that Eilis stop attending the lunches, the lawn becomes the space where Eilis's absence will be noted and discussed.
By the time Eilis leaves for Ireland, the lawn is no longer just a piece of grass; it is the physical embodiment of the life she had to escape. The lack of a fence is no longer a symbol of family togetherness but of vulnerability, of being seen and judged, of having no corner that is truly one's own.
Character and Theme Connections
Eilis Lacey – The unfenced lawn is most meaningful to Eilis because she is the outsider in the Fiorello family. An Irish immigrant, she struggles to find privacy and independence within a culture that expects total integration. Her decision to work for Mr Dakessian and to stay home on Sundays are acts of reclaiming space, both physical and emotional.
Tony Fiorello – Tony is comfortable with the open lawn because he has never known otherwise. His affair and the subsequent pregnancy of another woman become a violation that mirrors the lawn's lack of boundaries: what happens inside one house cannot stay hidden.
Francesca Fiorello – Tony's sister-in-law acts as a mediator. She offers to raise Tony's baby in her own house next door, continuing the pattern of family involvement that the lawn symbolizes. Yet she also helps Eilis find a way out of the Sunday lunches, showing that even within the family there is recognition of the need for space.
Themes – The unfenced lawn directly connects to themes of infidelity and betrayal (secrets cannot be contained), family loyalty and obligation (the lawn demands constant participation), immigration and displacement (Eilis's alien status makes the lack of boundaries feel more oppressive), secrecy and identity (no private self is possible), and independence and agency (Eilis's struggle to create a life apart).
Four Study Questions and Answers
1. How does the unfenced lawn function as a symbol of the family's role in Eilis's marriage?
The unfenced lawn physically removes any separation between Eilis and the Fiorello family. Tony's brothers, parents, and children move freely across the shared space, treating everyone's home as common ground. This reinforces the expectation that Eilis will submit to collective decisions—from what she does on Sundays to how she handles the crisis of Tony's affair. The lawn thus symbolizes the family's constant presence and the difficulty of maintaining any personal boundary.
2. In what ways does Eilis attempt to resist the intrusion represented by the lawn?
Eilis's resistance takes several forms. She buys a used car without consulting Tony, a small act of independence. She secures a job with Mr Dakessian, work that takes her away from the family business and the cul-de-sac. She also stops attending the Sunday lunches, opting instead to read the New York Times alone. Each action creates a symbolic fence where none existed, asserting her right to private time and space.
3. How does the lawn's meaning change after the revelation of Tony's affair?
Before the affair, the lawn was an uncomfortable but manageable lack of privacy. After the revelation, it becomes a space of judgment and exposure. The other women in the family watch Eilis's reactions; the children overhear conversations. Eilis cannot retreat into her house because the lawn makes her visible from all sides. Her decision to go to Ireland is partly a flight from this total visibility—a search for a place where her life is not open to everyone.
4. What contrast does the novel create between the unfenced lawn in Lindenhurst and the settings in Enniscorthy?
Enniscorthy offers enclosed, bounded spaces: the chip shop with its fan and locked doors, the house in Court Street with its separate rooms, and the isolated house in Cush where Eilis swims alone. These places allow for secrecy and self-possession. The unfenced lawn, by contrast, precludes any such privacy. The move between the two settings underscores Eilis's deepening understanding that she needs literal and figurative boundaries to live authentically.