Brooklyn by Colm Toibin: Drifting Away from Home

Brooklyn lies at the southwest end of New York City, the capital of the United States. Brooklyn is a borough of New York City. It has a large population and a large area. Brooklyn was first built by Dutch immigrants. Immigration is inherently American. Brooklyn, the largest borough in New York, is home to immigrants from almost all over the world. Every immigrant has an extraordinary life and history, and dramatic stories unfold every day. At least people who use words as productivity don't miss this storied spot. Brooklyn has been the scene of countless novels and movies. American writers such as Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Paul Auster's The Brooklyn Follies, The Godfather, and Brooklyn's Finest, some of these stories are about immigrants, A melting pot of immigrants that contains people of all RACES and nationalities. The most intriguing of the many Brooklyn stories is Colm Toibin's new novel, 'Brooklyn.' Toibin is an Irish writer. 'Brooklyn' is Tobin's 2009 novel, set in the 1950s. Shortly after the end of the second world war, both Europe and the United States were in a period of postwar economic recovery. Ireland's small town girl Eilis, in order to get rid of the boring, monotonous and lost the goal of the future, with the help of sister Rose, carrying the dream to the United States to Brooklyn. In her career, homesickness and love life, she slowly expanded her immigrant life with tears and laughter. There is no magnificent plot in the novel, everything is like a quiet stream in a ditch, flowing peacefully to rivers, lakes, and seas. If the ditch is the track of life, then the stream is the life of the big story, water droplets are also the story of the small plot. There are always some memories in life submerged plot like disappearing in the shore of water drops. Toibin depicts the character Eilis's fortitude, an indomitable and introverted character with an elegant and quiet style. Whether in small-town Ireland or Brooklyn, Eilis is suave and well-behaved. Even if the inner world resisted, she would find a perfect reason not to embarrass others.

Brooklyn is not only rich in stories but also productive for love and homesickness. In the department store where she works, Eilis can feel the inclusiveness of Brooklyn. No matter the race or color, whoever comes into the store is always the customer. It was a far cry from the small town back home in Ireland. The homesickness of Eilis is as overwhelming as the rush to buy at a store discount. When Eilis was homesick, it was unexpected that Eilis' love came quietly, and the gap between her chest was filled with love. The love of Eilis is the embodiment of a 'weapon', an instrument for fighting homesickness. In the sister Rose died, the mother is getting old, Eilis accidentally met to harvest love. Hometown, mother and love, distant struggle and love, push Eilis to a dilemma. The most difficult circumstances in life are those of choice, and the scales of fate swayed before Eilis. Choice and future have no weight, only life goals and the possibility of achieving the balance.

Under the guidance of Toibin, Brooklyn takes readers to witness the change and growth of Eilis, an Irish girl. Toibin makes good use of the story of an outsider who struggles to stay in a foreign land and eventually takes root in a new environment and enjoys a new life. People are in constant flow, life is not static. In real life, some of us will leave our hometown and settle down in a new city. We will encounter all kinds of people and things. Eilis in the novel never exists alone. The relatives, landlords, priests, store managers, and boyfriends...etc. These figures came and went around Eilis, alternately and simultaneously. Their actions, words, consciously or unconsciously, affect the development of Eilis's life and fate. It is also because of the opportunities with different people that Eilis had the fluctuation and growth of heart and emotion. In the passage of time, Eilis experienced the hesitation of leaving the hometown and suffered from homesickness, gradually found his own pace of life in Brooklyn, and made the decision to leave again after returning to the hometown.

At the end of the novel, Toibin arranges for Eilis to board the ship again and step on the shore of drifting and struggling, the land of freedom and courage. At this time, Eilis was no longer the naive girl without a clear life plan. She knew what she wanted, and finally chose her husband and that life in Brooklyn, the United States, completing a phased understanding and change on her life path.

Toibin tells a full story, touching even the smallest psychological tremor with a controlled, concise and powerful pen. Through the wary eyes of the heroine Eilis, even Brooklyn's most routine activities take on a subtle strangeness. In this novel with the theme of drifting away from home, Tobin abandons the sentimental emotion and makes us re-comprehend: drifting away from home, will become a stranger in the homeland and other places.

Through the various difficulties in Eilis's life and Eilis's personal thoughts, the novel shows that immigration may be a good opportunity to find a happy life or a small obstacle. Similarly, it is not easy for Eilis in the novel to find his identity in the fusion of different cultures, and to realize his identity and belonging. The story of immigrants goes something like this, and if people didn't get on the boat, people wouldn't have so many immigrant stories. Eilis was one of the countless immigrants during that period, and America's booming economic prospects set the stage for the Irish poor. In fact, in real life, Irish immigrants who fled to other countries due to famine did not easily get a rich life. Toibin's novel is just like a good wish to give hope to those immigrants who want to get rid of poverty.