Chapter 5 (Chapter “4”) Summary: Small Things Like These
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
December brings an unsettling number of crows to the town, clustering around the convent on the hill. The convent, run by the Good Shepherd nuns, houses a training school and a laundry business with a good reputation, but local gossip hints at darker practices—exploitation of girls, hidden births, and forced adoptions. Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, arrives early one evening to deliver a load. Wandering through the grounds, he finds an orchard and a chapel where more than a dozen young women and girls in grey shifts are polishing the floor on their hands and knees. One girl with a roughly cut hair begs him to take her to the river so she can drown herself. A nun appears, and Furlong claims he was looking for Sister Carmel. The nun pays him, and he leaves feeling shaken. He later misses his turn and gets lost. That night, he tells his wife Eileen what he saw. Eileen insists they must ignore such matters to protect their own family, but Furlong presses her, reminding her that his own mother, an unmarried servant, was helped by Mrs. Wilson—otherwise he would not exist. The chapter ends with a tense standoff between Furlong’s conscience and Eileen’s pragmatism.
Key Events
- Crows gather ominously around the town and convent, setting an eerie tone.
- Furlong delivers coal and logs to the convent ahead of schedule.
- He wanders into a secluded orchard and sees a locked door, high walls topped with broken glass, and a padlock on the inside of a door.
- In the chapel, he finds girls (including a Dublin-accented one) polishing floors in poor conditions—no shoes, shorn hair, a stye.
- The Dublin girl begs him for help, even asking to be drowned; he refuses, and a nun arrives.
- The nun rebukes him for upsetting the geese, then inspects and pays for the delivery, locking the front door behind her.
- Furlong drives off disoriented, missing his turn, and meets an old man who cryptically says the road will take him “wherever you want to go.”
- At home, he tells Eileen; she argues that such things are none of their concern and that the nuns pay on time.
- Furlong counters by recalling how Mrs. Wilson took in his unmarried mother, showing that turning a blind eye would have cost him his life.
Character Development
Bill Furlong – His internal conflict deepens. He is haunted by what he saw and cannot dismiss the girls’ suffering. His moral awakening is marked by his inability to forget the girl’s plea and the locked doors. His argument with Eileen reveals his growing recognition that complicity through silence is unacceptable, especially given his own origins.
Eileen Furlong – She is presented as practical and anxious. She wants to preserve their family’s stability and reputation, fearing that involvement with the convent will bring trouble. Her sharp remark about “girls that get in trouble” echoes the stigma of illegitimacy and shows her vulnerability—she knows Furlong’s mother was a “fallen woman.” Her advice to “ignore so you can keep on” represents the town’s prevailing attitude.
The Dublin Girl – Unnamed, she is desperate to escape, even offering to work for Furlong or to drown herself. Her appearance—cropped hair, grey shift—starkly contrasts with the nuns’ order. She embodies the voiceless victims of the Magdalene laundries.
The Nun (Sister Carmel’s replacement) – Authoritative and dismissive, she switches from polite to accusatory when she realizes Furlong disturbed the geese. Her counting out money and locking the door underscore the convent’s secrecy and control.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Silence and complicity – Eileen’s argument (“there’s things you have to ignore so you can keep on”) embodies the town’s willful ignorance. Furlong’s challenge to that silence is the chapter’s core tension.
Crows as omens – The “December of crows” hanging around the convent foreshadows death and moral decay. They scavenge for the dead, mirroring the convent’s exploitation of vulnerable girls.
Locked doors and barriers – The padlock on the inside of the orchard door, the broken glass atop the wall, and the locked front door all symbolize imprisonment and the obstacles to helping those inside.
The road that takes you wherever you want – The old man’s cryptic comment suggests that Furlong’s path forward is a matter of choice—he can turn away or follow his conscience.
Mrs. Wilson’s charity – Furlong’s reference to his own mother’s rescue by Mrs. Wilson introduces a counterexample to Eileen’s pragmatism, showing that one person’s care can break the cycle.
Why This Chapter Matters
This is the moral turning point of the novella. Furlong moves from vague unease to direct confrontation with the convent’s cruelty. The chapter crystallizes the central ethical question: Is it enough to mind one’s own family while others suffer? By linking the convent’s treatment of girls to his own mother’s story, Keegan makes the issue personal and urgent. The chapter also reveals the depth of societal complicity through Eileen’s objections and the gossiping townspeople. Furlong’s disorientation while driving mirrors his moral confusion, and the open-ended conclusion leaves readers wondering whether he will act.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Furlong tell Eileen about the convent, and why does she react so strongly?
He hopes for comfort or solidarity, but Eileen reacts with fear and defensiveness. She knows the convent’s reputation but chooses denial to protect her family’s standing. Her sharp retort about “girls that get in trouble” reveals her own anxiety about Furlong’s illegitimate birth—she fears the stigma could attach to them if he intervenes.
2. What is the significance of the crows and the locked doors in this chapter?
The crows symbolize death, decay, and a lurking evil that the townspeople notice but ignore. The locked doors—the padlock on the inside of the orchard door, the locked front gate, and the wall topped with broken glass—physically represent the imprisonment of the girls and the deliberate obstruction of escape, echo the moral barriers that Furlong must decide whether to cross.
3. How does Furlong’s memory of Mrs. Wilson shape his response to Eileen?
Mrs. Wilson took in Furlong’s unmarried mother when she had nowhere else to go, giving Furlong a life he would not have had. By invoking this, he forces Eileen to acknowledge that silence and self-interest would have erased him. It makes the abstract plight of the convent girls personal, implying that to ignore them now would be a betrayal of the very kindness that saved him.