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.
Essay Topics
What are Magdalen laundries, and how do they feature in the novel? How does Keegan show that the whole town is implicated in the running of the Magdalen laundry?
What role does Furlong’s family of origin play in influencing his sense of identity? To what extent does he identify more with the people who raised him as the novel progresses?
To what extent do you think Furlong is a good father? How do his moral and paternal duties conflict with each another?
What roles do Eileen and Mrs. Kehoe play in the novel? With close reference to the text, explore whether you think they are ruthless or pragmatic in their approach to the so-called training school and the laundry.
How do Furlong’s dealings at the convent mirror the events that occurred in his family of origin? To what extent is he able to be another Mrs. Wilson?
What sort of town is New Ross? To what extent do you agree with critics who see it as a 19th-century-style place despite the novel’s setting in 1985?
Do a close reading of Keegan’s depiction of the convent. How do the building and grounds relate to the activities inside it?
What role does Dickens’ novel A Christmas Carol play in the text? How does Keegan alter images or scenes from the novel? Can you find echoes of other literary works in this novel?
What significance does the season of Christmas play in the narrative? How does it heighten Furlong’s dilemma at the end of the novel?
How does the novel complicate the Catholic Church’s distinction between “good” and “bad” women? How does Furlong’s view of women mesh with these views?
