STLT (Quotes)

Bill's mother had gotten pregnant at a young age out of wedlock

His mother at the age of sixteen had fallen pregnant while working as a domestic

Bill's mother's family have disowned his mother

Her people made it clear that they'd have no more to do with her

Mrs Wilson didn't care as to what people thought of her due to her being a Protestant widow

Didn't seem to care much for what judgements others passed

Furlong was teased in his youth due to being illegitimate

Furlong had been jeered and called some ugly names

Furlong's birth certificate was handed to him with judgement from the clerk

The clerk's mouth had bent into an ugly smile handing it out to him

Furlong is happy his kid's are his

Felt a deep, private joy rhat these children were his own

Furlong feels bad for a kid who's father blows his money on booze. This highlights his empathetic nature against Eileen's colder one

Tis not the child's doing, surely

Emigration was on the rise due to the recession

The young people were emigrating

Furlong had cried by himself after getting soap for Christmas and he hid his emotions

He'd gone outside then, to the cow-house, to hide his disappointment, and cry

Furlong never asked Mrs Wilson if she knew his father

But hadn't on any evening been able to summon the courage

Furlong thinks of the past however it invokes upset in him even if he is nostalgic

Let it remind you of the past for once, despite the upset

Bill feels like he hasn't made any progress in life despite his age as he feels like something is missing

Didn't feel himself to be getting anywhere or making any kind of headway and could not but sometimes wonder what the days were for

The convent is introduced as powerful

The convent was a powerful-looking place on hill at the far side of the river

The laundry the nuns run has a good reputation and is inconspicuous on the outside

Laundry business. The laundry had a good reputation. Everything sent in came back as new

People think the girls working in the laundries aren't students but are girls who are sinful

Girl's of low character who spent their days being reformed, doing penance by washing stains out of the dirty linen

People thinks the nuns are merciful and charitable and doing God's work

Hearts of gold

Bill describes Mother Superior. It's clear she is used to her power and authority due to her position in the Church

A spoiled pony who'd for too long been given her own way

The convent is like a prison due to the harsh measures taken to prevent escape

Padlock on the inside of the door. The top of the high wall separating the convent topped with broken glass. The nun had locked the front door after her, with the key, just coming out to pay

Eileen doesn't think they should interfere with the church cause they're girls are ok

And in any case, what do such things have to do with us? Aren't all our girls well, and minded

Eileen thinks that you have to ignore what people in power do even if they're immoral to get on in life

If you want to get on in life, there's things you have to ignore, so you can keep on

Eileen says that if they mind who they offend then their girls won't be in the same situation

If we just mind what we have here and stay on the right side of people and ssoldier on, none of ours will ever have to endure the likes of what them girls go through

Eileen comments on how the parents let their kids run loose and disowned them when they came back pregnant

All their people did was leave them wild and then, when they got into trouble, they turned their backs

Eileen says that Mrs Wilson could afford to do what she likes cause she wasn't under the church's control and she was rich with her husband dead

Was she not one of the few women on this earth who could do as she pleased

The convent is hinted to be calm on the outside but not on the inside. Dark imagery is symbolic of what is happening in the convent

How still it was up here but why was it not ever peaceful?

Furlong finds the girl locked in the shed who's been in there for days

The girl within had been there for longer than the night

Furlong wishes he didn't go to the convent because of the neglect he witnessed so he doesn't have to handle to choice of whether or not to help

The ordinary part of him wished he'd never come near the place

Mother Superior threatens Furlong subtely with risking the prospects of his daughters

It's just that there's so many nowadays. It's no easy task to find a place for everyone

Mother Superior lies to Furlong about what happened and so does the girl to save herself from future punishment. She insists the girl was overreacting

Wasn't it all just a big nothing?

Mother Superior tries to bribe Furlong

Here's something for Christmas

The girl Furlong helped is clearly unused to kindness highlighting her treatment inside and outside the convent

She began to cry, the way those unused to any type of kindness do

Furlong's first mass after what he witnessed feels lengthy due to his found knowledge as to how the nuns treat girls in the launderies

The Mass, that day, felt long

Furlong's faith has been damaged from what he has witnessed as he doesn't receive Communion

Furlong stayed contrarily where he was, with his back against the wall

Furlong feels claustraphobic

It felt as though the room was closing in

Furlong wonders if he should give the gifts he's received to those less well-off. He recognises that he's priviledged

Wondered why he hadn't given the sweets and other things he'd been gifted at some of the houses to the less well-off he had met in others

Mrs Kehoe comments on how men get to have days off of work but women are either doing housework around the clock or work and do housework on their days off of work

What it is to be a man and to have days off

Mrs Kehoe warns him to watch what he says to the nuns

But you know you'd want to watch over what you'd say about what's there?

Mrs Kehoe comments on how much influence the church has

Surely you must know these nuns have a finger in every pie

Furlong realises that even if Ned might or may not be his actual father. Ned has always loved him like a son

Why were the things that were closest so often the hardest to see?

Furlong tells Sarah to come with him

You'll come home with me now, Sarah

Furlong has an internal struggle about bringing Sarah home

He felt his self-preservation and courage battling against each other

Furlong thinks about if the priests know so he can give Sarah to them. But he concludes that those working in the Church were the same

Had concluded that the priests already knew. They're all the one

Society isn't concerned about Sarah as know one questions why she's with Bill

Not one person they met addressed Sarah or asked where he was taking her

While Furlong his happy with his choice he's also aware of the hostility he'll come back home to

Carried along with the excitement in his heart matched by the fear of what he could not yet see but knew he would encounter

Furlong states that helping each other is why we're on Earth

He found himself asking was there any point in being alive without helping one another

Furlong helping Sarah has allowed him to be improved and has brought the best out of him

Was it possible that the best bit of him was shining forth and surfacing?

He knows life will be a it harder as he's risking his marriage and the prospects of his daughter's.

Already he could feel a world of trouble waiting for him

Furlong knows that he would have regretted not helping Sarah for the rest of his life if he didn't help

The thing not done, which could have been - which he would have had to live with for the rest of his life

The poverty of the recession in the book is shown in the opening scene

Drinking the milk out of the cat’s bowl behind the priest’s house

Mother Superior comments on Bill’s lack of a son which ties into gender roles

To carry on the name

Bill comments on how Mrs Kehoe looks at him

The way hugely practical women looked at men, as though they weren’t men at all but foolish boys