To the States with no Mates

Here is my Christmas Essay,
Its on a book not a play,
I could not write it in a rhyme,
Or else it wouldn't be in on time.

'Brooklyn' by Colm Toibin

In the novel, 'Brooklyn' by Colm Toibin (Winner of Costa prize) there are many characters which struck me. The book is rich in features such as style, themes, plots, characters and cultural context. These charcters include the mother, the sister Rose, the boyfriend Tony, the landlady and of course the main character Eilis.

The novel in centred around Eilis' flee and lack of desire for this flee to America. I watched Eilis' character develop from a 'small-town girl', a home-bird, simply a girl who couldn't live without her constant dependance on her family to a lady hitting Brooklyn with a – wind, that becomes a storm. Eilis becomes an independant, headstrong and confident woman compared to the girl who  “ had always presumed that she would live in the town all her life, as her mother had done, knowing everyone, having the same friends and neighbors, the same routines in the same streets,” Toibin writes. “She had expected that she would find a job in the town, and then marry someone and give up the job and have children. Now, she felt that she was being singled out for something for which she was not in any way prepared.” It is clear that Toibin wants us to show us that a place can change a person.

Eilis also changes from an innocent and vulnerable character to showing her true colours. She marries an Italian in New York but doesn't tell anybody. We gradually realise that she is not as innocent as she was when living in her small home town. She goes home to Enniscorthy when tragedy hits her family. Eilis meets local boy called Jim, begins to fall in love with him and soon enough the memory of her husband seems to be a blurred dream, it is very clear that she does not have extremely strong feelings for him. Eilis is left in predicament that only she can decide what to do. Eilis's character developed a lot throughout the book. She is an extremely complex xharacter and she was effected by a change of place and a change of people.

The plot in the novel at the begining is about Eilis's change from a small country town to a big city all on her own. It about the huge changes in her surroundings, her relationships and her day-to-day life. We see her realtionship with her sister Rose and her mother take a step back. We don't here much from the except the few letters. Instead her landlady, her coworkers, her room mates and her boyfriend Tony take charge. It is hard to imagine a young girl moving from a job in the local show on Sundays to a huge Department store that is facing the introduction of different coloured skin tights. It is very clear to me that Brooklyn is way ahead of Enniscorthy.

When in New York Eilis is also faced by the huge shock of the death of her older sister. Because Eilis's father died when they were young, Rose looked after Eilis when she was growing up. The tragedy of Rose's sudden death shocks Eilis to the core and turns her world upside down. Eilis leaves Brooklyn to go home and when she arrives we are questioned. Will Eilis ever return to Tony? Or will she leave the life she always expected in her home town? I was intrigues by the suspense that left me wondering what would happen but it didn't take too long to uncover what was going to happen. The plot was extremely interesting as it was relevant to the period in time but similarly it wasn't all about history which I liked.

The world of the text is extremely interesting as it is relevant to my ancestprs and to so many other people's. My great grandparents met eachother while trying to find work in America in the 1900s. I am not a huge fan of history books but this was dufferent. The main point of the book was not history. I got a taste of life in the 1950s but it wasn't the only thing in the book. It really appealed to me the rfact that communication was so underdeveloped. Today it is so easy to contact a person but in that time it was expensive, long and a lot of effort just to send a person a letter. I was also intrigued and amazed at the huge ordeal when the department store began to sell dark skin-toned tights. This was a big deal for the time and it was interestig to see people's reactions to this.

The style of Colm Toibin was may favourite thing about this read. The story came from a third person and so we got everybody's thoughts and feelings on everythiong that happened. I understood everybody's feelings but simultaneously there was still an element of mystery in the novel. From reading the previous paragraphs I am sure you have noticed that contrast is the biggest and most effective tachnique used by Toibon. The contrast in Jim and Tony, the contrast in Enniscorthy and Brooklyn and the contrast between the character of Eilis at the beginning, middle and end of the novel. The contrast clearly shows how much things have changed in the novel.

Characterisation and imagery are also strong themes in the novel. The characters all have their own unique personality and lives and Toibin does an outstanding job achieveing this. While reading the book I was pulled into the characters' traits and lives. Imagery is an excellent, common but excellent technique in any novel. At key moments in the novel imagery is used to make the momnet seem more realistic to the reader. This definitely happened to me. I became enchanted by the scenes. Toibin appealed to all of the senses to do so.

There are many themes in this novel such as love, emmigration and death. The theme that appealed to me most was emmigration. This stood out the most for me as it is a theme that I have not noticed in any other book that I have read. I usually do not like books about history but the fact that it was so realistic. The theme showed how emmigration affected a typical family. The family is not a particularly poor, rich or unusaul family which makes the theme so special. We see how a young dependant girl has to move out and step into the big bad world. It is anadventure for the character and the reader.

Overall I really loved tis book. It was so rich in style, characters, themes, plots and cultural context. I would definitely recommend the novel 'Brooklyn' by Colm Toibin because of all of its fanatastic features.