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Brooklyn Dissertation 1 Expectations Introduction Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn tackles one of the recurring themes in Irish fiction: exile and emigration to America. As Eilis Lacey, the main protagonist, leaves her native town of Enniscorthy for New York, she is yet unsure whether her future there will be brighter and more satisfying than her rather comfortable, though unexciting life in Ireland. However the crossing of the Atlantic is the first stage of a journey that will transform her from a rather naïve, innocent girl, into a more selfconfident, experienced woman. The character’s expectations are thus a central concern in a story obviously structured on the traditional pattern of the Bildungsroman. But there remains the question of whose expectations are truly fulfilled in the end: do they correspond to Eilis’s own desires or isn’t the character actually forced to comply with an established set of rules, as her departure to Brooklyn at the beginning, as well as at the end of the novel suggests? Our analysis will therefore try to determine whether it is indeed possible to reconcile individual wishes with social or moral expectations. We will start by considering the novel as a coming-ofage story, thus emphasizing on Eilis’s growing-up process as well as her hopes and prospects for the future. We will then see how the harsh reality of life and the ambivalent, difficult situation of emigrants regularly collide with personal desires. Finally we will demonstrate how expectations progressively turn into obligations, thus questioning the character’s own evolution and accomplishment.

I)

A coming-of-age novel a. The story of a young girl’s growth to womanhood: a modern Bildungsroman; hopes and dreams; prospects for the future, anticipation and enthusiasm. From innocence to experience and maturity. P.156: “It was much more than she had imagined she would have when she arrived in Brooklyn first”. Theme of selffulfilment. b. Travelling and discovery: initiatory stages/ moments, trip across the Atlantic, first meetings with boys, first sexual experience = geographical journeys turning into mental/ sentimental ones/ Symbolical journeys. c. A (literary) journey for the reader as well: reader’s expectations about the character’s future, tradition of Irish fiction+ influence of authors such as Joyce, so imposing patterns and literary traditions= Toibin defeating his readers’ expectations (demystifying stereotypes about Irish immigration to “the land of the free and the brave” p.49)

II)

A harsh reality clashing with individual desires a. Social pressure and the expectations of the community: imposing strict moral laws and codes of behaviour (embodied by women such as Miss Kelly, Mrs Kehoe) + religious expectations (Father Flood); also Eilis’s mother representing the strict, patriarchal Irish community in which silence prevails and important matters are hardly ever discussed. b. Psychological dilemmas: conflicting forces=a source of tension; Ireland versus America (lack of opportunities vs hope and emancipation), Eilis constantly torn and unable to construct a true sense of belonging in either one country or the other; cultural expectations and gender limitations therefore become impediments to individual growth. P. 28 “Now she felt that she was being singled out for something for which she was not in any way prepared”.

c. Disappointment, regrets and nostalgia: experiencing homesickness and disillusionment; E’s expectations shattered as reality is never fully satisfying but always altered or veiled by her moral commitments. P.143: “She would have to accept that this was the only life she was going to have, a life spent away from home”. Accomplishments often turn into regrets (p. 217 “She wished now that she had not married him”).

III)

From expectations to obligations a. A strong sense of moral duty: being a married woman=impossibility to divorce, no possible transgression; her expectations to reconstruct her life in Ireland turn into an obligation to go back to America. Commitment to Tony as obstacle to self-fulfilment/ happiness in her native country (Tony described as “someone she was allied with whether she liked it or not” p. 232) b. Lack of free will and the question of women’s independence: theme of the status of women, dependence on male figures cannot be escaped, little room is left for personal achievements. Limited freedom. P. 232: “She would face into a life that seemed now like an ordeal, with strange people, strange accents, strange streets”. c. Renouncement and sacrifices: character of Rose at the very beginning= first image of limited expectations for women; necessary sacrifice but remains unspoken/ unvoiced; lack of closure/ incompleteness at the end of the novel as Eilis leaves Ireland in silence and secret + her return to B is actually not described.

Conclusion Brooklyn is thus a novel that exposes the limitations encountered by a young migrant woman who is given all possible options to escape from her past but cannot take any advantage of them. As the submissive executer of the wishes of others, Eilis actually ends up fulfilling their expectations, having somehow renounced her own desires for freedom and emancipation. The last pages of the novel definitely suggest that her return to Brooklyn is not a decision resulting from a personal choice, but a way to comply with the strict moral rules that still regulate society, as Eilis is engulfed both by her lack of agency and the limited, narrow-minded concerns of her social environment. Yet one may also imagine that back in the United-States, possibly her new homeland, she will free herself from family duties and communal expectations and therefore have the opportunity to reconstruct herself so as to fit in this new site of hybrid, fragmented identities....