The Transatlantic Journey In Brooklyn, By Colm Tomin

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