Small Mercies

As the protagonist of the novel, Mary Pat is portrayed as the epitome of a South Boston woman who “looks like she came off the conveyer belt for tough Irish broads” (6). Yet even as Lehane’s callous description of Mary Pat flirts with the stereotype, there are slight indications that she is not as typical as she initially presents herself to be. Looking at her daughter Jules, who bears none of the physical signs of Mary Pat and her lineage, Mary Pat lets slip the thought, unconscionable in her social circles, that “she sometimes wishes she could get them out of the Commonwealth” (6) before the harsh facts of the neighborhood collide with Jules’s gentle and frail nature. The progression of the novel also serves to widen the gulf between Mary Pat and her fellow Southie women, for while the other women merely make a show of being combative before backing down, Mary Pat exhibits the same aggression with even greater intensity, especially with her penchant for never backing down from a fight. In the midst of these intimate personal struggles, the imminent onset of busing reveals the depths of racial bigotry that exist amongst her friends and neighbors, and while she retains many racist attitudes herself, the death of Auggie Williamson gradually causes her maternal feelings to triumph over her fear of outsiders.