Content Warning: This section refers to depictions of physical and emotional abuse.

The town of New Ross is a crucial motif in the novel; it is both the setting and the encapsulation of a worldview. It is a small place, evocative of the “small things” in the title. Therefore, it is a site where there is little privacy, and the margins of tolerance are narrow. This is evident when Mrs. Kehoe learns about Furlong’s conflict with the Mother Superior, although he told only his wife about it. The narration does not reveal how the gossip reached Mrs. Kehoe; the mere fact that it did reflects the magnification and amplification of small-scale acts and interactions in New Ross. Thus, Mrs. Kehoe’s knowing about Furlong’s disagreement with a woman who holds his daughters’ futures in her hands raises the stakes around the daring act he will commit.

New Ross is also symbolic of the enduring power of the church’s stronghold on Ireland’s institutions and a last-ditch attempt to halt progress and the spread of a more secular view of the world. The town’s struggling economy and the real poverty of the families who live there, in addition to the fact that young people are immigrating to the modern cities of London and New York, indicate that New Ross’s hope for a better future is diminishing.