The Transatlantic Journey In Brooklyn, By Colm Tomin

Superior Essays
Brooklyn, a book by Colm Tomin and adapted onto the big-screen by John Crowley, tells the story of Eilis who is persuaded to emigrate to Brooklyn leaving behind an adored sister and mother. Juxtaposed with ‘’ In America ‘’, it’s a story of return. Also in comparison to In America, it does not portray any undocumented Irish in the United States. This film encapsulates the pain that is felt when leaving home and feeling alone in a land that realistically, education and employment prospects are vast. Throughout this film, the main protagonist confronts feelings of guilt and disloyalty, the anguish of homesickness but also the rush of excitement that one feels when they are on a new exciting adventure. Living in a small town in Ireland, the prospect …show more content…
The transatlantic journey so beautifully vivid on page, is brilliantly translated with an authentic sense of the ordeal that the passenger’s would have faced. Like In America the viewer is shown the true emigration experience: the new possibilities of what emigration will bring and then also the ghostly, parallel life of the life that could have been lived at home. The curious Eilis arrives in Brooklyn with dreams and myths, arrives in a city that she has heard about the entirety of her life and does nothing and see’s nothing. She doesn’t visit the Empire State Building or see Times Square. She arrives in New York with a blank …show more content…
The film provides the idea of the American dream and adventure that can be mentally salvaged as a learning experience for life when you return home. The film is ravishing to look at and its screenplay by Nick Hornby is lyrical. The film begins with its main protagonist as an articulate girl with little prospects, who then transforms into an eloquent young woman who can decide her own choices. One would have to consider would she have returned to Brooklyn had it not been for the gossip but also had seen had not married Tony. Jim is imbued with nostalgia, something that Tony will never have. Once again, as Eilis leave for America, it will result in a loss. There awaits for her a cosy future that once upon a time would have made her happy, here within her sights a marriage that she had always wanted but could never have. But the loss that is the most particularly acute, is the loss that her mother will face when Eilis leaves. In her old age she is left with no one to care for her after encouraging Eilis and her brothers (though not mentioned or seen in the movie) to emigrate. She is alone. For Eilis, the truth about her marriage to Tony is revealed around the town of Enniscorthy, in a way this revelation has set Eilis free. While she may not be content with her choice, her choice is definite and her choice is made extremely

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Sugar In The Blood Summary

    • 1736 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Get on Board! The book Sugar in the Blood by Andrea Stuart, describes the genealogical research about the Ashby Family. Her research on the Ashby family begins with the journey of George Ashby, who sailed from England to Barbados. In Barbados, he would struggle to make a living. George Ashby like many other immigrants did not know how to work the land.…

    • 1736 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Out of this Furnace by Thomas Bell is a historical fiction novel that describes the life of immigrants coming to America. More specifically, this is a story of different generations of the Kracha family’s immigration to America. There are many setting; the central setting being Braddock, Pennsylvania- a steel town. Bell gives a realistic depiction on what the European immigrant’s personal and work life was like during the eighteenth century.…

    • 433 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For this assignment I have chosen to look more in depth at Immigration in the late nineteenth century until early twentieth century, and how this life changing experience was handled by different ethnic groups. In turn I will compare and contrast the essays of Victor Greene and Mark Wyman who both portray immigration in their own light. Victor Greens’s essay titled “Permanently Lost: The Trauma of Immigration” uses tools such as music and ballads to display how immigration effected certain ethnic groups and their families. While Mark Wyman’s “Coming and Going: Round - Trip to America” focuses on pamphlets given out in the workforce and more concrete evidence as to how and why immigration took place the way it did. To my mind Wyman’s use…

    • 1219 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    When Ellis Island opened, a big change was taking place in immigration to the United States. As arrivals from northern and western Europe, Germany, Ireland, Britain and the Scandinavian countries. More and more immigrants poured in from southern and eastern Europe. After the Civil War, Ellis Island stands empty, until the government decides to replace the New York immigration station at Castle Garden.…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reyna Grande Identity

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Sandra Cisneros and Reyna Grande through their subjective narratives emphasize the important contributions that migration played about their family relations and the development of their personal identity. Both authors touch upon similar themes relating to transnationalism and liminal identities, however they greatly differentiate when discussing the factor of citizenship and mobility. Cisneros is born in the U.S. while Reyna Grande is born in Mexico and later migrates to the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant. Even though, both experience reflect liminal identities and are address the erroneous ideology of “pure” identities, since their identity between the United States and Mexico. Grande’s novel is centered on a round trip, coming and returning…

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls, is an independent little girl who has the responsibility to take care of herself and her siblings while, struggling to survive without the help of her neglectful and selfish parents. Jeannette, tries to find a way to endure the world of adventure and fantasy her parents make them believed they live in while, also attempting to find a more suitable life for herself and family. However, despite the effort she puts to live in a comfortable way, she finds herself in dilemmas and making decisions that changed her life forever. Nonetheless, this brave and persistent, lost little girl is able to find a better place and life to live with her original and also her new family while, remembering…

    • 1123 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    No matter where a person may come from, everyone encounters a similar journey. The journey that is heard in stories is symbolic to what anyone may go through in life. In the story “A worn path”, an old women goes through many obstacles as she is on the pathway to acquiring what she sought after. In order to better convey the hero’s journey in the story A Worn Path, Eudora Welty uses characterization, symbolism, and conflict.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The film shined light on the complexities of identity and class of immigrants in America while simultaneously allowing the reader to get attached the member of the family by understand the goals and ambitions of…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Also, that it was her fault when they got caught by the border patrol. (Book TV) This chapter tells the story of migration from a new perspective. Grande employs pathos to display to the audience how difficult it is for people to get to the United States, and also that they are the same kind of people as us, only wanting a better life for themselves. This chapter evokes the feeling of being in a new place, the excitement and the fear that their family felt.…

    • 1016 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    True Love

    • 1565 Words
    • 7 Pages

    After his funeral, she is finally able to start again; she is free to make her own choices in life once more, “ She was basking in freedom for the most part without a need for a thought… Ah…

    • 1565 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    While there has always been substantial immigration from countries around the world, Mexican immigrants dominate the statistics. Between 1820 and 1930, Mexicans constituted over half of the documented immigrations. Like many immigrants before them and certainly after them, they experienced discrimination in the United States. Stereotyping and bouts of xenophobia sparked deadly riots against the most prominent minority group in the United States. Early experiences for foreign-born Mexican immigrants, and even first-generation Mexican Americans, was filled with discriminatory behavior aimed at them by police authorities and other citizens of the country.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Anthology 1 – Immigrant Blues In this poem, Lee is trying to explain the struggles of immigrating to a new country. He also underlines the importance of silence by letting us pause and contemplate many times throughout it. Along with that, he doesn’t force his views upon us, instead, it’s like his inviting you to converse with him. ‘Immigrant Blues’ talks about and explores an array of identities.…

    • 1453 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    ‘Immigration can have either a negative or positive affect on the lives on everyone’ was evident throughout this novel. It was brought to attention mostly through literary devices, dialogue, and symbolism. This allows readers to understand different injustices and views in society about immigration which have become a large issue, along with how often social injustices are ignored. Barbara Kingsolver captures real life issues in the work of fiction which can be applied throughout the history of immigration and its struggles.…

    • 81 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What are the biggest challenges immigrants face when going to America and to what extent can they be overcome? The issues focused on in the essay are the biggest challenges that immigrants face in their day-to-day lives in a new place. An immigrant is someone who moves to another country permanently. Some issues they struggle with most are the cultural differences, the language barrier and trying to make a living.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Film shows a positive outlook on inner city kids who are struggling to find their way. The beginning of the film depicts the true violence of the school by having a school shooting occur. The Film shows many graphic and intense scenes but it portrays the correct image of what these students go through. The film also showed positive companionship through a mix of races and a need to succeed. It showed a great comparison between Anne Frank and the students and helped relate to them.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays