The author uses the bleak image of crows at the beginning of the chapter to create a dark and sinister tone. We get a description of the crows scavenging for food around the town and how they perch in the trees outside the local convent at night. The link between the crows and the convent is clear as the writer describes the ‘powerful looking place’ on the hill on the far side of the river. The idea that the convent is divided from the rest of the town is highlighted by this description and reinforced by the idea that the crows do not dare to eat the berries from the holly trees in the convent. Even the crows know that this is a powerful institution.
The convent, we are told, is a training centre for young girls and they also run a laundry business that serves the local community. There are hints that all is not what it seems in the convent with local rumours suggesting that the girls in the convent are ‘girls of low character,’ who have been sent there to be reformed. The symbolism of these girls washing the stains out of dirty linen is highly evocative.
There were other rumours that suggested that it was a mother and baby home that allowed the nuns to make money from placing illegitimate children in foreign places, while the mothers were left to pay for their sins in the convent. Furlong was not inclined to believe any of these rumours but that changes one afternoon when he goes there to deliver coal.
When Furlong sees a group of young women polishing floors, he is horrified by the state of them, with no shoes and hair that was so rough it could have been cut with shears. One girl approaches Furlong and begs him to take her to the river. She gets angry when Furlong refuses and says, ‘all I want to do is drown meself. Can you not even do that fukken much for us?
The scene is interrupted by the nun who comes to ask furlong what he wants. Furlong’s description of her as a ‘spoiled pony who’d for too long been given her own way.’ He thinks about saying something about the young girl but decides not to. When he gets into the lorry, he is so flustered by the experience that he takes the wrong turn and ends up on a road that is not known to him. He thinks about the padlocked doors and the glass at the top of the wall and how the convent seems to be more like a prison. He gets lost on the road and asks a man where the road will take him and the man responds cryptically, ‘this road will take you wherever you want to go, son.’
That night Furlong tells Eileen about what he saw in the convent and she is not interested in anything he has to say and tells him that he should forget about everything he saw. She says that the nuns pay their bills on time and that she does not want to jeopardise their business by going up against the church. She tells Furlong that he is soft hearted and criticises him for giving away his loose change to the poor. She gets agitated with Bill and says, ‘there’s girls out there who get in trouble, that much you do know.’ Furlong is shocked at the cheap dig and Eileen apologises immediately.
Furlong asks, ‘what if it was one of ours?’ and she replies saying that isn’t one of theirs so they should leave it alone. Furlong asks her what would have happened if Mrs Wilson had taken the same view. ‘Where would my mother have gone? Where would I be now?’ She responds by saying that Mrs Wilson was rich, so she could do as she pleased.
Questions:
- How does the author use symbolism in this chapter? Explain using references.
- Eileen typifies how easy it was for the Catholic Church to maintain power. Do you agree or disagree? Back up your answer with reference to the text.
- What is the general vision and viewpoint of this chapter? How does the author make the GVV clear in this chapter?
- Why do you think Bill is so empathetic towards the young girls in the convent?