Brooklyn quotes

Question 1

Rose dominance

Answer 1

• start ‘sitting at the window of the upstairs living room’ watching Rose walking briskly from work; looks on silently as sister moistens lips
• they depended on Rose.. went to Dublin twice a year, coming back with a new coat and costume
• (when FF comes) Immediately, Eilis thought that her mother might have had a heart attack or fallen down the stairs or that one of her brothers had had an accident in Birmingham
• (father’s funeral) Rose, she recalled, had taken care of everything and she had not been actively involved
• Eilis found the idea that Rose was below the earth surrounded by darkness almost impossible to bear… (thought about) Rose’s way of handling her mother, making her interested in even the smallest detail of Rose’s and Eilis’s lives, as though she too had the same friends, the same interests, the same experiences
• the golf club is going to inaugurate a prize in memory of Rose. It will be given by the lady captain as a special trophy on Lady Captain’s Day for the best score by a lady newcomer to the club. Rose, she says, was always really nice to people who were new to the town.”
• Later, when she decided to go to bed, Eilis passed the door of Rose’s room and thought to enter, to look for the last time at the place where her sister had died, but, although she stopped outside for a second and lowered her eyes in a sort of reverence, she did not open the door.

Question 2

Rose pride

Answer 2

• Rose never mentioned that Eilis worked for MK, instead gave her a pale yellow cardigan that she herself had barely worn, insisting it would look better on Eilis, plus some lipstick
• ‘she served Mary Delahunt before me. I turned and walked out’ R
• MK gives them stale bread; ‘What would we do with stale bread? Rose will go mad.’; made breadcrumbs with it and roasted stuffed pork, did not tell Rose where the breadcrumbs came from
• it was easy for Rose to sacrifice herself, as it seemed she was doing something else
• buried the info that he was a plumber deep in the middle of a paragraph, but she was aware that rose would notice it and seize on it
• ‘she decided to carry on playing golf and doing everything. The doctor said that he told her to take it easy, but, even if she had, it might have been the same. I don’t know what to think, Eily. Maybe she was very brave.’
• (Rose handwriting) its clarity and evenness, its sense of supreme self-possession and self confidence.. wondered whether, while writing some of there words, Rose had looked up and sighed and then, through sheer strength of will, steeled herself and carried on writing
• (JL) ‘wasn’t like Daddy, when he died you would think he was alive one minute. Rose was like stone when I saw her, all pale like something from a picture.. I couldn’t believe we were doing that to her, closing her in there and burying her.. I covered my eyes for most of it..
• Rose seemed to be in a sort of dream; it was Rose’s silence that was new to her; it struck her that she had never seen Rose look so beautiful

Question 3

Eilis rose relationship

Answer 3

• Eilis was proud of her sister
• Eilis did not tell Rose about her offer of work from Miss Kelly
• Rose won’t be able to have children, Eilis wanted to suggest they change places… Rose was so ready for life
• She wrote to Rose about him, sending the letter to the office, but did not mention him in letters to her mother or to her brothers.. when rose replied she asked what he did for a living.. buried the info that he was a plumber deep in the middle of a paragraph, but she was aware that rose would notice it and seize on it
• once the others became used to the idea that she was dating Tony, they refrained from giving her further warning or advice about him. She wished that rose would do the same.. In her letters to her mother she still did not mention him

Question 4

Mother’s role

Answer 4

• ‘What about me?’ mother asked ‘She’ll tell you the story when she gets home.’
• She thinks one of us might be able to help, but we can’t, you know. Work beyond is not like that.. She wants you to come home. She’s never slept a night on her own in the house and she keeps saying that she won’t be able to
• Eilis found the idea that Rose was below the earth surrounded by darkness almost impossible to bear… (thought about) Rose’s way of handling her mother, making her interested in even the smallest detail of Rose’s and Eilis’s lives, as though she too had the same friends, the same interests, the same experiences
• She was sad that she had to wear plain flat shoes, as her feet hurt her now and swelled up if there was any heat or if she had to walk too far. She was going to wear a grey silk blouse that had belonged to Rose not only, she said, because she liked it but because Rose had loved it and it would be nice at Nancy’s wedding to wear something that Rose had loved.
• Eilis noticed, moved slowly, with an air of pride and dignity, not looking to her left or her right, fully aware that she was being watched and fully enjoying the spectacle that she and Eilis, soon to be joined by Jim Farrell, were making in the church.
• ” She stopped for a moment and Eilis noticed a look of great weariness come over her. “And then I’m going to bed because I’m tired and so I won’t see you in the morning. So I’ll say goodbye now.”

Question 5

Eilis relationship with mother

Answer 5

• In her letters to her mother Eilis had never once mentioned him.. She wished now that she had made one or two casual references to him six months ago.. She found that she postponed doing this every time she tried
• Eilis wondered if her mother had always had this way of speaking that seemed to welcome no reply, and suddenly realized that she had seldom been alone with her before, she had always had Rose to stand between her and her mother
• her mother’s letter was short and there was no news in it… Rose wrote about golf and work and how quiet and dull the town was and how lucky Eilis was to be in the bright lights
• He is, Mammy. He’s from Brooklyn.”
  Her mother sighed and put her hand out, holding the table as though she needed support. She nodded her head slowly.
• “Eily, you’re not to cry. If you made a decision to marry someone, then he’d have to be very nice and kind and very special. I’d say he’s all that, is he?”
  “He is, Mammy.”
  “Well, that’s a match, then, because you’re all of those things as well. And I’ll miss you. But he must be missing you too.”
• But there had been something, she thought, so steely and implacable about her mother’s insistence that she wanted to say goodbye only once that Eilis knew it would be pointless now to ask for her blessing or whatever it was she wanted from her before she left this house
• She could imagine her mother listening as the wardrobe door was opened and hangers with clothes on them were pulled off the rail. She imagined her mother tensely following her as her footsteps crossed the room.
• she was tempted to carry up a tray with tea and biscuits or sandwiches to her mother; her mother’s door remained closed and there was not a sound from the room

Question 6

Eilis striving to fill roles

Answer 6

• Eilis found she could do an imitation of MK’s voice that made them laugh; Jack used to do imitations of Sunday Sermons
• Even if they already had watched - and she knew Martin wore her father’s watch - these could serve them if the old ones broke or had to be repaired
• (asked to do a favour by MK) ‘Of course I would, Mrs Kehoe’ It was something her mother had taught her to say if anyone asked her to do them a favour.
• Since Jack had left, Eilis has moved into the boys’ room

Question 7

Lack of communication in family

Answer 7

• It was somehow tacitly arranged that she would go to America; mother had been so opposed to her going to England
• Rose never mentioned that Eilis worked for MK, instead gave her a pale yellow cardigan that she herself had barely worn, insisting it would look better on Eilis, plus some lipstick
• (before departure) house…almost unnaturally happy.. too much talk and laughter… doing everything to hide their feelings
• In her letters to her mother Eilis had never once mentioned him.. She wished now that she had made one or two casual references to him six months ago.. She found that she postponed doing this every time she tried
• She was, in fact, making work for herself so that she would not have to turn
• Maybe, she thought, they had never known her, any of them, because if they had, then they would have had to realize what this would be like for her
• Her mother’s voice was soft and low and reassuring, but Eilis could see from the look in her eyes how much effort she was putting into saying as little as possible of what she felt.
• “I’d rather say goodbye now and only once.” Her voice had grown determined.
• “And you’ll write to me about him when you get back?” she asked eventually. “You’ll tell me all the news?”
  “I’ll write to you about him as soon as I get back,” Eilis said.
• “If I say any more, I’ll only cry. So I’ll go down to Dempsey’s and arrange the car for you,” her mother said as she walked out of the room in a way that was slow and dignified and deliberate.
• She almost wished her mother had been angry with her, or had even expressed disappointment. Her response had made Eilis feel that the very last thing in the world she wanted to do now was spend the evening alone packing her suitcases in silence with her mother listening from her bedroom.

Question 8

Bound by performance

Answer 8

• (before departure) house…almost unnaturally happy.. too much talk and laughter… doing everything to hide their feelings
• she would keep how she felt from herself if she had to until she was away from them… so that they could remember her smiling
• mother starts to cry, instead of following her out into the hallway, Eilis continues with small talk, hoping that mother could soon return and they could resume what seemed like an ordinary conversation
• it was easy for Rose to sacrifice herself, as it seemed she was doing something else
• ‘And I said when your daddy died that I shouldn’t cry too much… but I have no one at all now Eily, I have no one
• Eilis allowed Miss Fortini to explain it to her carefully, as though she had never seen anything like it before… Eilis did not tell Miss Fortini that she never made mistakes when she did addition

Question 9

Insularity of town

Answer 9

• the whole town, anyone who is anyone comes into the shop and I hear everything
• What was happening now, she hoped, was something that her mother had never even imagined (journey)… she would never be able to tell anyone how sick she felt
• no one in Ireland knew that America was the coldest place on earth and its peaople on a cold morning like this the most deeply miserable… They would not believe it if she put it in a letter
• if she told Nancy or Annette about her own secret wedding… they would respond with solence and bewilderment. It would seem too strange
• Miss Kelly seemed to be enjoying herself; Eilis could think of no way of stopping her.
  It was clear to Eilis that Miss Kelly had prepared every word of what she was saying. The idea that the man who had taken the photograph in Cush, a figure Eilis barely remembered and had never seen before, had been in Miss Kelly’s shop talking about her and that this news was conveyed to Mrs. Kehoe in Brooklyn suddenly made her afraid

Question 10

Bound by tradition and societal norms

Answer 10

• people came to MK’s out of habit, and they did not mind waiting, they enjoyed the crush of the crowd
• ‘We must look mad’
• Her mother wrote back wondering how Mrs Kehoe could afford to keep the heating on all night
• mainly interested in clothes and shoes… fashions and new trends were her daily topic, although she was too old for some of the colours and styles
• ‘that old Mrs Sheridan is very noble. I wouldn’t have any time for her at all’ Mum
• if she told Nancy or Annette about her own secret wedding… they would respond with solence and bewilderment. It would seem too strange
• And I hear that the parents are moving out to Glenbrien where she’s from, to a house that her aunt left her. The father loves horses, he’s a great man for the races, and he is going to have horses out there, or so I heard. And Jim is getting the whole place.”
  “He’ll miss them so,” Eilis said. “Because they run the pub when he wants to go out.”

“Oh, it’ll be all very gradual, I’d say,” her mother replied.

Question 11

Importance of work

Answer 11

• George Sheridan was a dream Nancy did not wish to wake from
• These shopkeepers, all they have is a few yards of counter and they have to sit there all day waiting for customers. I don’t know why they think so highly of themselves
• (Rose) would imagine him to be somewhat rough and awkward and use bad grammar. Eilis decided to write to her to say that in Brooklyn it was not always as easy to guess someone’s character by their job as it was in Enniscorthy
• (letter to Rose) this was a different world and in this world Tony shone despite the fact that his family lived in two rooms or that he worked with his hands…. she had made it sounds as though she were pleasing of him, instead of merely trying to explain that he was special

Question 12

Bound by performance

Answer 12

• Father flood will eat whatever we give him - Rose (everyone else concerned, mother brings out best china)
• She was, in fact, making work for herself so that she would not have to turn
• (before departure) house…almost unnaturally happy.. too much talk and laughter… doing everything to hide their feelings
• ‘It’s not that I’m honest or anything, I just know I’d get caught
• dressed impeccably, loved discussing skin care and different types of skin and problems.. had her hair done on a Saturday, so it would be perfect for the rest of the week
• (in letters) nothing that sounded like anyone’s own voice
• (letter to Rose) this was a different world and in this world Tony shone despite the fact that his family lived in two rooms or that he worked with his hands…. she had made it sounds as though she were pleasing of him, instead of merely trying to explain that he was special
• Everything he did now, every word he said and every move he made, seemed deliberate, restrained and well thought out, done so as not to irritate her or appear to be moving too fast
• she was more refined than before, taking the solemnity of the waiter’s manners seriously, whereas a few years earlier she would have raised her eyes to heaven at his pomposity, or said something casual and friendly to him. Soon, Eilis thought, she would be Mrs. George Sheridan and that would count for something in the town. She was beginning to play the role with relish.
• Being collected by Jim Farrell, she thought, would be for her mother the highlight of everything that had happened since Eilis came home.
• Eilis saw that Mags Lawton next door had appeared and was waving. She stood at the door waiting for Jim to come back with the umbrella but did not return Mags’s wave or encourage her to make any comment. Just as she closed the door and went towards the car, Eilis saw two other doors opening and knew that, much to her mother’s delight, news would spread that Eilis and her mother in all their style had been collected by Jim Farrell.
• Eilis noticed, moved slowly, with an air of pride and dignity, not looking to her left or her right, fully aware that she was being watched and fully enjoying the spectacle that she and Eilis, soon to be joined by Jim Farrell, were making in the church
  .- It struck her as almost funny that every time her mother put a morsel of food into her mouth she looked over to check that Eilis was still there and Jim Farrell firmly to her right and that they seemed to be having an agreeable time. George Sheridan’s mother, she saw, looked like an elderly duchess who had been left with nothing except a large hat, some old jewellery and her immense dignity.
• She felt sad, she thought, and maybe that was enough–to come here and let Rose’s spirit know how much she was missed. But she could not cry or say anything. She stood at the grave for as long as she could and then walked away, feeling the sharpest grief as she was actually leaving the graveyard itself and walking towards Summerhill and the Presentation Convent
  -Miss Kelly’s tone was almost skittish; it was, Eilis thought, as though she were doing an imitation of herself

Question 13

Avoidance of conflict

Answer 13

• (homesick) lived a set of vivid dreams, letting them linger… she remembered how much the neighbours dreaded the day when the court sat… sometimes the court ordered children to be taken into care.. but her dream had no screaming women, just a group of silent children, Eilis among them, standing in a line, knowing that they would soon be led away on the orders of the judge.. She had felt no fear of it. Her fear, instead, was of seeing her mother in front of the courthouse. IN her dream she found a way of avoiding her mother.
• (before departure) house…almost unnaturally happy.. too much talk and laughter… doing everything to hide their feelings
• She did not know if the other two also realized that this was the first time they had laughed at this table since Jack had followed the others to Birmingham. She would have loved to say something about him, but she knew that it would make her mother too sad. Even when a letter came from him it was passed around in silence

Question 14

Bound by home

Answer 14

• she could not have (used a posessed tone) in the town or in a place where any of her family or friends might have seen he

Question 15

Belonging to home

Answer 15

• (during sale) there were times when she thought in a lash of an early evening in October walking with her mother down by the prom in Enniscorthy, the Slaney River glassy and full, the daylight going slowly and gently, the smell of burnt leaves nearby. This scene kept coming to her as she filled the bag with natoes and coins
• as she read them, she forgot for a moment where she was and she could picture her mother in the kitchen taking her Basildon Bond notepad and setting out to write a proper letter with nothing crossed out… Rose might have gone into the dining room to write on paper she had token home from work, using a more longer, elegant white envelope than her mother had
• she had not really thought of home.. the town had come to her in flashing pictures… the life she had lost and would never have again she had kept out of her mind… every day she had gone over everything new that had happened.Now all that seemed lke nothing compared to the picture she had of home
• the rooms in the house on Friary street belonged to her, when she moved in them she was really there… it was all solid and part of her
• She was flying, as though in a balloon, over the calm sea on a calm day. Below, she could see the cliffs at Cush Gap and the soft sand at Ballyconnigar. The wind was propelling her towards Blackwater, then the Ballagh, then Monageer, then Vinegar Hill and Enniscorthy
• Eilis noted the house’s solid, familiar aura, the lingering smell of cooked food, the shadows, the sense of her mother’s vivid presence
• they saw that the sea below them was calm, almost smooth. The sand close to the water’s edge was a dark yellow. There was a line of sea birds flying low over the waves, which seemed barely to swell before they broke quietly, almost noiselessly. There was a vague mist that masked the line between the horizon and the sky but otherwise the sky was a pure blue.

Question 16

Changing concept of home

Answer 16

• sometimes she actually believed that she was loooking forward to thinking about home, when it come to her with a jolt that, no, the feeling she had was only about Friday night and being collected from the house by a man she had met
• had been keeping the thought of home out of her mind
• She thought it was strange that the mere sensation of savouring the prospect of something could make her think for a while that it must be the prospect of home
• (whispers that he loves her) she found herself pulling away from him… his expecting a reply frightened her, made her feel that she would have to accept that this was the only life she was going to have, a life spent away from home
• Miss Murphys from Arklow ‘We’re the ones with no home to go to’ she said and smiled
• all morning she went through each moment of Rose’s death and her removal
• (Jack’s letter) ‘I’m writing this in the front parlour at the table by the window’
• and she realized, almost with a start, that she had not written to him as she had intended. She looked at the two envelopes, at his handwriting, and she stood in the room with the door closed wondering how strange it was that everything about him seemed remote. And not only that, but everything else that had happened in Brooklyn seemed as though it had almost dissolved and was no longer richly present for her…She went through all of it as though she were trying to recover what had seemed so filled with detail, so solid, just a few weeks before.

Question 17

Incogruence of home with new life

Answer 17

her mother had not asked her one question about her time in America, or even her trip home

• She had planned to show her mother the letter from Brooklyn College.. also bought her mother a cardigan and scarf and some stocking, but her mother had almost absent-mindedly left them aside, saying that she would open them later (LIKE EILIS WITH TONY’S LETTERS)
• She wished now that she had not married him, not because she did not love him and intend to return to him, but because not telling her mother or her friends made every day she had spent in America a sort of fantasy, something she could not match with the time she was spending at home. It made her feel strangely as though she were two people, one who had battled against two cold winters and many hard days in Brooklyn and fallen in love there, and the other who was her mother’s daughter, the Eilis whom everyone knew, or thought they knew.
• She would have done anything then, as Nancy and George walked down the aisle together, to join the side of sweetness, certainty and innocence, knowing she could begin her life without feeling that she had done something foolish and hurtful

Question 18

Cocoons

Answer 18

• Eilis loved closing the dorr of her old room and drawing the curtains
• she had been away from Tony, far away, basking in the ease of what had suddenly become familiarity.
• This was the work she had been dreaming about as she had stood on the shop floor in Bartocci’s
• And two years ago, Eilis remembered, when Jim Farrell had been openly rude to her, she thought it was because she came from a family that did not own anything in the town. Now that she was back from America, she believed, she carried something with her, something close to glamour, which made all the difference to her as she sat with Nancy watching the men talk.
• She knew that she was being watched and commented on by people from the town, especially when the tempo of the music was fast and it was clear that she and Jim were good dancers, but also later, when the lights went down and the music was slow and they danced close to each other.
• The idea that she would leave all of this–the rooms of the house once more familiar and warm and comforting–and go back to Brooklyn and not return for a long time again frightened her now.
• Eilis loved closing the dorr of her old room and drawing the curtains
• Until now, Eilis had always presumed that she would live in the town all her life… and then marry someone and give up the job and have children
• (tony family visti) she explained that when she finished she would be a bookeeper… As Eilis and Tony’s mother discussed this, none of the boys spoke or looked up from their food. She realized that she would love to run out of this room and down the stairs and through the streets to the subway to her own room and close the door on the world

Question 19

Restrictions to freedom in America

Answer 19

• the waves were stronger than at home, not so much in the way they broke but in the way they pulled out.. She realized that she would have to be careful not to swim too far out of her depth in this unfamiliar sea
• Eilis was amused at how tight and flimsy their swimming togs were. No American man would be seen on a beach in anything like that, she thought. Nor would two men in Coney Island move as unself-consciously as these two did, seeming not to be alert at all to the two women watching them as they ran awkwardly ahead, keeping close to the hard sand at the water’s edge.

Question 20

Eilis insecurity

Answer 20

• worried about carrying two suitcases
• discovered that the people on the other side had locked the door… Georgina would know what to do, as would her mother or Rose. But she had no idea what to do
• felt like she had done something wrong, that it was somehow her fault (journey)
• The way the couples who danced were dressed was to her eyes so fashionable and so right. She knew that it was something she would never be able to do.
• In Bartocci’s she had learnt to be brave and decisive, but once she herself was a customer she knew that she was too hesitant and slow
• ‘Do I look terrible?’ ‘Oh yes, and so does every other person on this boat

Question 21

Eilis passivity

Answer 21

• ‘Go home now like a good girl’

- Eilis felt like a child when the doctor would come to the house

Question 22

Lack of worldliness

Answer 22

• ‘Go home now like a good girl’

- Eilis felt like a child when the doctor would come to the house

Question 23

Filling roles of other as empowerment

Answer 23

• She found herself thanking him in a tone that Rose might have used… a tone used by a woman in full possession of herself
• (responding to FF finding her a course)’ I’m very grateful to you’ She used a tone that she had heard her mother use, which was very dry and formal. She knew that FF could not tell whether she meant what she said or not
• (when invited to refuse to eat with Dolores) Eilis felt an urge to close the door on their faces and go back to her books. Eilis looked at both of them as though they were nuisance customers in Bartocci’s and she was Miss Fortini
• (attempting to separate from Kehoe) Eilis stood up straight, attempting to make herself taller and stared coldly at Mrs Kehoe… her last remark carried with it the firm idea that she and Eilis stood apart from the other lodgers.. this was a piece of gross assumption… ‘It’s always better to be honest’ she said, imitating Rose when rose found her dignity or sense of proprietry challenged in any way.. she looked at Kehoe not flinching
• In the morning it was hard not to think that she was Rose’s ghost, being fed and spoken to in the same way at the same time by her mother, having her clothes admired using the same words as were used with Rose, and then setting out briskly for work. As she took the same route Eilis had to stop herself walking with Rose’s elegant, determined walk, and move more slowly.
• she could appear humble before him and imply an abject apology even if she did not admit everything, or she could model herself on Rose, stand up now as Rose might have and speak to FF as though she were entirely incapable of any wrongdoing.. She knew it was important to speak now before he did…. held his gaze and left enough silence for him to know that she had understood the implications of his words but had no intention of giving him any further concessions
• Eilis’s costume, which she had bought in Arnotts in Dublin, had had to be altered, as the skirt and the sleeves were too long. It was bright red and with it she was wearing a white cotton blouse with accessories she had brought from America–stockings with a tinge of red, red shoes, a red hat and a white handbag. Her mother was going to wear a grey tweed suit that she had bought in Switzers (She watched Rose crossing the street from sunlight into shade, carrying the new leather handbag that she had bought in Clerys in Dublin in the sale. ) (She wrote to her mother and Rose about Miss Bartocci’s flaring red costume and white plain blouse, her red high-heeled shoes, her hair, which was shiny black and perfect. Her lipstick was bright red and her eyes were the blackest Eilis had ever seen.)

Question 24

Moments of transition

Answer 24

• They seemed to be making progress only with great difficulty, almost banging against something hard and forceful that attempted to withstand their progress… The people on the other side must have known how rough the night was going to be.. deep in the belly of the ship
• poured some of the perfume that Rose had given her on the parts on the floor and the blankets where she had vomited
• every moment of it was absolutely real, totally solid and part of her waking life
• She imagined for a while that she herself was the sea outside, pushing hard to resist the weight and force of the liner
• ‘I almost never wear make-up at home’… ‘Well, you’re about to enter the land of the free and the brave’
• (after confessing homesickness) She felt almost strong as she contemplated what had just happened. No matter who came into the room now, she would be able to elicit their sympathy… whatever darkness she felt had not lifted.. but she would keep her job, and she had achieved that much and it gave her a feeling of satisfaction that appeared to melt into her sadness, or float on its surface, distracting her, at least for now
• determined shewould buy something, even just new shoes, which would make her feel more like the girls she had seen dancing… she decided that no matter what she would never go to a dance with SH and MM again
• Suddenly, Eilis decided she would stand up and walk over towards their group, smiling confidently at them all, as though they were old friends.
• (Patty shows Eilis how to put on eye makeup in parish hall dance bathroom, put her hair up for her) ‘Now you look like a ballet dancer…. Well, at least you don’t look like you’ve just come in from milking the cows any more’ (had same perception of Dolores)

Question 25

Slf-posession

Answer 25

- made her voice sound as weak as she could (journey) - Eilis allowed Miss Fortini to explain it to her carefully, as though she had never seen anything like it before... Eilis did not tell Miss Fortini that she never made mistakes when she did addition - (after confessing homesickness) She felt almost strong as she contemplated what had just happened. No matter who came into the room now, she would be able to elicit their sympathy... whatever darkness she felt had not lifted.. but she would keep her job, and she had achieved that much and it gave her a feeling of satisfaction that appeared to melt into her sadness, or float on its surface, distracting her, at least for now - she would have to make a decision to lift herself out of whatever it was that was affecting her - As soon as Mrs Kehoe appeared with tea things on a tray, Eilis clenched her fist when she felt that she was ready to begin - (attempting to separate from Kehoe) Eilis stood up straight, attempting to make herself taller and stared coldly at Mrs Kehoe... her last remark carried with it the firm idea that she and Eilis stood apart from the other lodgers.. this was a piece of gross assumption... 'It's always better to be honest' she said, imitating Rose when rose found her dignity or sense of proprietry challenged in any way.. she looked at Kehoe not flinching - (talking to Rosenblum) She was surprised at herself, that she had not stammered. She did not even think she was blushing - (after Sheila disses AAs) Eilis suddenly felt brave - 'I think we have to be very careful about men we don't know coming into the hall' SH 'Maybe if we got rid of some of the wallflowers, Sheila with the sour looks on their faces' - insisting to Maria that she would not need any help - proud that she did not break down - (sex in house) In the realm of the unthinkable... determined to deny emphatically and brazenly that Tony had been near her room at all - Eilis nodden coldly at Jim and sat as far away from him as she could - If this had been years ago, Eilis thought, she would have worried during the entire journey from Enniscorthy about her swimsuit and its tyle, about whether she was too unshapely or awkward on the beach, or what George and Jim would think of her... she felt oddly confident.. wasing out and then, as the first high wave approached, swimming into it as it broke and then out beyond it

Question 26

Disconnection from home/connection to Brooklyn

Answer 26

- with all the excitement and discussion surrounding the nylon sale... the minute she came back from work every day she had checked the side table.. she could not believe that she had forgoteen to check this evening - (while homesick) She noticed the cold in the air for the first time; it seemed to her that the weather had changed. But it hardly mattered now what the weather was like... she had left herself too short a time to get to work - (after confessing homesickness) She felt almost strong as she contemplated what had just happened. No matter who came into the room now, she would be able to elicit their sympathy... whatever darkness she felt had not lifted.. but she would keep her job, and she had achieved that much and it gave her a feeling of satisfaction that appeared to melt into her sadness, or float on its surface, distracting her, at least for now - (FF said MM could walk her home) eilis said no, she was used to walking home alone.. she set out to walk through the dark, empty streets of Brooklyn - (after getting room) a biting wind that was new to her... no one in Ireland knew that America was the coldest place on earth and its peaople on a cold morning like this the most deeply miserable.. They would not believe it if she put it in a letter - 'No more tears' she said quietly - (room) seem luxurious, like something from a painting or an old photograph... It had none of the functional Spartan aura of her room - She would look carefully at what other women at the dance were wearing and make sure next time that she did not look too plain... Her dress which Rose had helped her buy also looked terrible - sometimes she actually believed that she was loooking forward to thinking about home, when it come to her with a jolt that, no, the feeling she had was only about Friday night and being collected from the house by a man she had met - since she had seen every new movie she always had something to talk about - She thought it was strange that the mere sensation of savouring the prospect of something could make her think for a while that it must be the prospect of home - some of the girls were leaving until... she and a few other were the most experienced and trusted on the shop floor - cheered for the Dodgers as much as anyone around her... she ordered a beer too, her first ever, and tried to run the mustard and ketchup along the hot dog with the same flourish as Tony and Frank - (FF finding out about sex) If he did not raise the subject, she thought, she could talk about her mother and maybe even discuss the possibility of moving into the office at Bartocci's - She was glad she did not have to write now from her bedroom, which seemed empty of life, which almost frightened her in how little it meant to her... she had expected coming home would be easy.. all she could do was count the days before she went back.. This made her feel strand and guilty - Eilis was almost inclined to giggle at names she had not heard of, or thought of, during her time in America... 'God, is she still going?' Her mother looked sorrowful and put on her glasses agin as she began to search for a letter she had mislaid from the captain of the golf club saying what a treasured lady-member Rose had been. When she found it, she looked at Eilis severely

Question 27

Change of perception of Brooklyn

Answer 27

- (baseball fever) What surprised her was that she had noticed nothing of it the previous year although it must have been going on around her with the same intensity - It was still bright and the air was warm... It was something that had seemed unimaginable in the winter - Eilis had planned to give an account of how much more smooth the crossing from NY to Cobh had been than her first voyage from Liverpool and how much she had enjoyed sitting up on deck taking in the sun

Question 28

Change of perception of Enniscorthy

Answer 28

- Miss Kelly led her up a dark stairway to the living room, which looked onto the street but seemed almost as dark as the stairwell and had, Eilis thought, too much furniture in it. Miss Kelly pointed to a chair covered in newspapers. "Put those on the floor and sit down," she said. Miss Kelly sat opposite her on a faded-looking leather armchair. "So how are you getting on?" she asked. "Very well, thanks, Miss Kelly." - Miss Kelly's tone was almost skittish; it was, Eilis thought, as though she were doing an imitation of herself - occured to Eilis that she did not want to anyone to see Eilis who might invite her out or cause her to leave her mother's side at any point - She says I'm to make sure and bring you back with me now." "Now?" Eilis asked, laughing.

Question 29

Change in how other perceieve her

Answer 29

- ..must look glamorous in these streets - 'Sure the whole town knows you're here... you'd better wear sensible clothes. Nothing too American now' mother - Eilis observed other diners glancing over at them as though they were the most important people in the restaurant - "You have changed," Nancy said. "You look different. Everything about you is different, not for those who know you, but for people in the town who only know you to see." "What's changed?" "You seem more grown up and serious. And in your American clothes you look different. You have an air about you

Question 30

Enniscorthy envelops her

Answer 30

- All she wanted to do was sleep, even though she had slept well in the hotel in Rosslare Harbour the night before. She had sent Tony a postcard from Cobh saying that she had arrived safely, and had written him a letter from Rosslare describing the journey. She was glad she did not have to write now from her bedroom, which seemed empty of life, which almost frightened her in how little it meant to her. - It was a feeling that were he to turn his head, she might be gone. That afternoon, as she had enjoyed the sea and warm weather and the company of Nancy and George and even, towards the end, Jim, she had been away from Tony, far away, basking in the ease of what had suddenly become familiarity. - It occurred to her, as she walked down the aisle with Jim and her mother and joined the well-wishers outside the church, where the weather had brightened, that she was sure that she did not love Tony now. He seemed part of a dream from which she had woken with considerable force some time before, and in this waking time his presence, once so solid, lacked any substance or form; it was merely a shadow at the edge of every moment of the day and night.

Question 31

Rejects cocoon of ENniscorhty

Answer 31

- In her tone, Eilis tried to equal Miss Kelly's air of disdain. - On the way up Friary Hill she discovered that she had left her umbrella in the post office but did not go back to collect it. - As she had not drawn the curtains she was woken by the morning light (vs "Eilis loved closing the dorr of her old room and drawing the curtains")

Question 32

How much does Eilis change

Answer 32

- Before she had seen FF, it had not occured to Eilis that she might go home for a brief stay. But once it had been said and did not sound ridiculous and had met with FF's approval, then it became a plan - Her mother came to the kitchen at one point to say that they would usher him into the parlour, but Eilis insisted that they should both be ready to leave once Jim came in his car. Eventually, she went to the window with her mother to look out

Question 33

Keeps up Enniscorthy image in letters

Answer 33

- She made the poker game, Eilis noted in a letter home, sound as though it was another form of Sunday duty that she performed only because it was in the rules. - She was very prim, Eilis wrote in a letter home, - None of them could help her. She had lost all of them. They would not find out about this; she would not put it into a letter. And because of this she understood that they would never know her now. - It made her almost smile at the idea that no one in Ireland knew that America was the coldest place on earth and its people on a cold morning like this the most deeply miserable. They would not believe it if she put it in a letter. - She had been looking forward to writing to her mother and Rose about her first trip to Manhattan, but she realized now that it would have to join the arrival of coloured customers in Bartocci's or the fight with the other lodgers on the matter; it would be something that she could not mention in a letter home as she did not want to worry them or send them news that might cause them to feel that she could not look after herself. Nor did she want to write them letters that might depress them. - In her letters to her mother, however, Eilis had never once mentioned him - Eilis wondered for a moment what might happen were she to interrupt her mother and say 'I am married'. She thought her mother would have a way of not hearing her, or of pretending that she had not spoken. Or else, she imagined, the glass in the window might break...

Question 34

Perceptions of america rose coloured

Answer 34

- no one who went to America missed home. Instead, they were happy there and proud - Looking at letter from Fortini: handwriting clear and beautiful, notepaper itself.. seemed heavier and more expensive, more promising that anything of its kind she had seen before - 'Fifth Avenue is the most heavenly place' Patty - (Jim) used to imagine them among the skyscrapers of Manhattan until he found out that they were two hundred miles from NYC. It was in NY State and the village one of them was in was smaller than Bunclody - people who went to America could become rich... no one who went to America missed home. Instead, they were happy there and proud - a feeling like she would exeprience in the days before her wedding - Brooklyn had an almost compensating glamour attached to it, an element of romance.. even London was sheer dullness compared to this - Is it American bookkeeping?" Eilis explained that she did not think there was any great difference between the two systems. "I don't suppose there is," Mr. Brown said

Question 35

Perceptions of America - coming to terms

Answer 35

- She could see no difference between Brooklyn and Manhattan... except that the cold as she walked fromt he subway seemed more severe and dry and the wind more fierece... she was expecting glamour, a sense of things less broken down and dismal than they seemed to her sometimes in Brooklyn... dingy shops and poor-looking people... Manhattan was no better than Brooklyn, and she was missing nothing by not living there and by not planning to go there too soon again - (after passing all exams) began to observe how beautiful everything was.. She had never felt like this before in Brooklyn... The letter had given her a new freedom, she realized, and it was something she had not expected... In a year the weather would grow hotter and unbearable... And winter too would dissolve into spring and early summer with long sunny evenings after work until she would again, she hoped, get a letter from Brooklyn College... And in all her dreams she imagined Tony's smiling presence... the sense of his golden concentration on her... it was much more than she had imagined, she would have when she arrived in Brooklyn first. She had to stop herself smiling as she moved along in case people thought she was mad

Question 36

Racism towards Irish in England

Answer 36

- Nancy's last boyfriend went to England, coming home briefly to get married to the girl he had been with that night - "You get shouted at a bit on the street, but that's just Saturday night. You pay no attention to it." "What do they shout?" "Nothing for the ears of a nice girl going to America." "Tell me!" "I certainly will not." "Bad words?" "Yes, but you learn to pay no attention and we have our own pubs so anything that would happen would be just on the way home. The rule is never to shout back, pretend nothing is happening." - Jack asked for a table almost apologetically - if you suggest something to them, a better way of doing things, they'll listen (contrast to rigidity of Enniscorthy)

Question 37

America - excess

Answer 37

- 'They eat their young in America. And they talk with their mouths full' - As she walked along, she knew she was getting close to the real world, which had wider streets and more traffic. Once she arrived at Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn began to feel like a strange place to her... When she arrived at Fulton street there would be so many people crowding to cross the street that on the first morning she thought a fight had broken out or someone was injured and they had gathered to get a good view. - the cups of some of the brassieres seemed much more pointed than anything she had seen before - What she loved most about America... was how the heating was kept on all night... you had no fear when getting out of bed that your feet were going to freeze on the floor.. it was not just MK, who was not in any way extravagant, it was everyone in America, they all kept their heating on all night

Question 38

Class in Enniscorthy

Answer 38

- pose that suggested deep dissaproval of the customer's presence; taking the money as though offering an immense favour... other she greeted warmly by name... one customer she seemes to value above all the rest,a woman with a fresh perm in her hair - 'Sure, don't we need people to sweep the streets?' - 'Even first class is a mess. They'll start the cleaning there and it'll be hours before they make it down here.' - George Sheridan's mother, she saw, looked like an elderly duchess who had been left with nothing except a large hat, some old jewellery and her immense dignity. (old enniscorthy class lost mythical.scary quality for eilis)

Question 39

Eilis minorities

Answer 39

- an Italian women and her daughter from a nearby street came to collect the washing... ironed everything beautifully and put starch into the dresses and blouses, which she loved - She wished she could tell the difference between Jews and Italians.. Most of the students were dark-skinned with brown eyes and most were diligent and serious-looking young men. There were very few women in her class and no one Irish at all, no one even English. They all seemed to know each other.. but they were all polite to her - Eilis had no trouble understanding Mr Rosenblum's accent - - (black shoppers) looked around the store to find that everyone else was staring at them. The two women were.... beautifully dressed, both in cream coloured woolen coats and each chatting casually.. As she was handed the money, she noticed how white the inside of the woman's hand was against the dark skin on the back of her hand... Eilis thought they were glamourous - 'Some of them have beautiful clothes' Eilis 'I thought it was a joke... I'll pass Bartocci's on the other side of the street' Sheila

Question 40

Capitalism = equality

Answer 40

- 'Brooklyn changes every day.. Our old customers are moving out to long Island and we can't follow them, so we need new customers every week. We treat everyone the same. They all have money to spend.' bartocci msis - 'We're going to welcome coloured women into our store as shoppers... your job is to pretend it's no big deal' 'Why did they choose us? Wait until my dad hears about this' miss Delano - Eilis noticed a chnage in the atmosphere in the store, a stillness, a watchfulness.. Not once did a coloured woman come into the store alone, and most who came did not look at Eilis or address her directly.... The few who did speak used tones of such elaborate politenss that they made her feel awkward and shy... was her job to point out to the customers that coffee and sepia were lighter colours, but most of them ignored her - at Bartocci's everyone had become more relaxed about the coloured customers - "Mr. Bartocci always keeps it a secret. - plus nylon stocking first major good to sell to coloured customers (red fox)

Question 41

New Irish migrant generation

Answer 41

- 'It's a funny place, Brooklyn... As long as the guy in charge is not Norwegian, I can pull the strings most places. The Jews are the best, they always love to do something for you.. I love breaking all the rules' - 'The first thing I found was a nice devout Italian secretary, who told me what courses are full.. You're the first Irish firl. It's full of Jews and Russians and those Norwegians... they'd like to have even more Italians, but they're too busy making money.. The jewish fellow who runs the place stood to attention when he saw me like it was the army... We need Irish girls in Brooklyn' FF - ( chirstmas dinner) anyone passing, irrespective of creed or country of origin, would be welcome in God's name - (parish hall) 'had to close it because of immorality. Some of the Italians started to come looking for Irish Girls' MK 'Well, I don't see what's wrong with that. My father was Italian and I think he met my mother at a dance.' Diana - 'Wouldn't you think they'd take off their caps when they're eating? Don't they know they're in America?' MM 'We have no rules here' FF

Question 42

Long island progress

Answer 42

- 'If I am still here. It might be Long Island for us all' Miss McAdam (old generation perceives it negatively) - if I had gone to an Italian dance I wouldn't be walking you home now - When Italian managers discovered he was Italian too, they were even meaner. The Irish ones were mean no matter what

Question 43

ww2

Answer 43

- 'the overseas war' Mrs Kehoe - 'The Germans killed everyone belonging to him, murdered every one of them, but we got him out, at least we did that, we got Joshua Rosenblum out' shopkeerper - 'You mean in the war?' 'In the holocaust, in the churben' 'But was it in the war?' 'It was, it was in the war' the man replies, the expression on his face suddenly gentle... she sensed that he wanted her to leave the shop - (Tony's father) 'killed in the First World War' (only time directly named with capitalization etc)

Question 44

Freedom of choice

Answer 44

- It was somehow tacitly arranged that she would go to America - she would be happier if it (the suitcase) was opened by another person.. she would prefer to stay home... arrangements would be better for someone else, someone like her, as long as she could wake in this bed every morning - (man wants her to come stand with him) she felt she had no choice but to leave her seat and approach him - (exams finished) she would have no excuse now when Tony wanted to make plans - (ton'y mother) 'It's hard to say no to people' - 'she decided to carry on playing golf and doing everything. The doctor said that he told her to take it easy, but, even if she had, it might have been the same. I don't know what to think, Eily. Maybe she was very brave.' - (finding out that Jim was coming with them) She would have cancelled has she known - george and nancy walk ahead on the beach, leaving Eilis and Jim to follow - Eilis understood now why George had chosen this lonely place. He and Jim, and perhaps Nancy too, had planned a perfect day in which she and Jim would be just as much a couple as Nancy and George. She realized, as they turned back and Jim began talking to her again, letting the other two go ahead, that she liked his bulky, easygoing presence and the tone in his voice, which came so naturally from the streets of the town. He had clear blue eyes, she thought, that saw no harm in anything. And she was fully aware that these blue eyes of his lingered on her now with an interest that was unmistakable. She smiled at the thought that she would go along with most of it. She was on her holidays and it was harmless, but she would not go into the sea with him as though she were his girlfriend. She would, she reasoned, like to be able to face Tony knowing that she had not done that. - "I will be going back to the United States," Eilis said. "Well, yes, of course," Mr. Brown said. "But you and I will speak again before you make any firm decisions." Eilis was about to say that she had already made a firm decision, but since Mr. Brown's tone suggested that he did not need just now to have any further discussion on the matter, she realized that she was not expected to reply. Instead, she stood up, and Mr. Brown did too, accompanying her to the door and sending his regards to her mother before he saw her out to the care of Maria Gethings, who had an envelope for her ready with cash inside. - Eilis realized that Jim Farrell would believe that her mother had engineered this and she realized also that there was nothing she could do to let him know that she had not been involved - Nancy will have plenty of advice to give you when she comes home, Eilis." - he was asking her now if she would like to live in LI.. suggesting that marriage had already been tacitly agreed between them. It was the details of how they would live that he was presenting now.. She was almost in tears and what he was proposing and how practical he was as he spoke and how serious and sincere. She did not want to say she would think about it because she knew how that might sound. Instead, she nodded and smiled and reached out and held his two hands and pulled him towards her

Question 45

Freedom of emotional expression

Answer 45

- They knew so much that they could do everything except say out loud what they were thinking - Jack had said nothing about (homesickness) in his letters... he might have told no one how he felt, how lonely that might have been for him - she considered writing to Jack now, asking him if he too had felt like this, as though he had been shut away somewhere and was trapped in a place where there was nothing - (letter after homesickness about new room) she would put nothing in about how she had spent the last two days - 'I'm going to ask FF to preach a sermon on the evils of giddiness' - could hear the humming of the harsh light.... otherwise was aware only of the silence and the emptiness of the store and the intensity and sharpness of MF's gaze... fully aware that she could be seen in the mirror; she could feel herself blushing,,, suggesting that Eilis not go behind the curtain again but change from one bathing suit to another as she watched... MF was watching her carefully as she moved.. there was something in the way she stood and gazed at her something clear that Eilis knew she would never be able to tell anyone about... stood where the curtain was, thus preventing Eilis from closing it... No one had ever seen her naked like this; she did not know how her breasts woiuld seem, if the size of the nipples or the dark colour around them was unusual or not... she did not think she was too fat

Question 46

Bound in agency by town/family

Answer 46

- she could not have (used a posessed tone) in the town or in a place where any of her family or friends might have seen her - seemed odd that mother could not come at any moment and tell them to be quiet... they were in a big city and answerable to no one - (asked to do a favour by MK) 'Of course I would, Mrs Kehoe' It was something her mother had taught her to say if anyone asked her to do them a favour.

Question 47

Freedom of physical expression

Answer 47

- wished she could wear make up all the time... It would make her less nervous in one way, but maybe more so in another, people would look at her and might have a view on her that was wrong if she were dressed up like this every day in Brooklyn. - 'Wouldn't you think they'd take off their caps when they're eating? Don't they know they're in America?' MM 'We have no rules here' FF - surprised at how close some of them dance; some of the women seemed almost wrapped around their partners - (sunglasses) 'I read somewhere that they could ruin your eyes' MK 'Oh I don't care, I think they're gorgeous' Diana 'And I read that if you don't have them this year on the beach people will talk about you' Patty (fashionable clothes are both freeing and confining; old generation = fear of new, new generation = fear of falling behind it) - her mother looked her up and down in vague dissaproval. It struck Eilis that maybe the colours she was wearing were too bright, but she did not have any darker colours

Question 48

Bound by old generation

Answer 48

- Patty and DIana wanted Eilis to come with them to a restaurant.. MM and SH insisted that the restaurant in question was really a saloon bar.. wanted Eilis to go with them to the village hall, only as a way of supporting a good house - 'She never met a fellow in her life' 'Well, when I do it will not be in a saloon bar' MM.. Eilis chooses to wait at home.. she felt their nervousness and was sorry for them (group enters parish hall) some of the men looked like film stars.. Eilis could only imagine what they would think of her and her two companions as the new arrivals took in the hall, their gaze shiny, excited, brilliant, full of expectation... then she saw Diana and Patty among them. Eilis would have given anything to have been with them, too easily distracted to watch anyone with the same breath-filled intensity as she was watching them. - She could not bear to look at her two fellow lodgers, afraid that she would see something of her own gawking unease in their faces - 'that woman looked like she owned you' Tony

Question 49

Eilis fighting for freedom

Answer 49

- eilis didn't want Mrs Kehoe to become close to her or come to depend on her in any way - determined to win a free day, not to have to go straight from writing letters and addressing envelopes under her mother's sharp and increasingly cranky supervision to sorting out Rose's clothes - 'I won't have much room in my suitcase... and the coat is lovely but the colour is too dark for me' hermother pretended that she had not heard her - Eilis, in turn, began to ignore her mother.... telling her mother finally emphatically that she did not want to wear any of Rose's frocks or coats.. 'You could give them away and then find someone you didn't know at mass on Sunday wearing them' - "Will you run down to the sea and tell Jim to go and take a running jump at himself She wanted to hear no more about Jim Farrell.

Question 50

Freedom can be uncomfortable

Answer 50

- 'The sooner this is over and I am at home in my own warm bed the happier I'll be' MM - (black shoppers) they did not once glance up from the stockings.... did not catch her eye... talking to each other as though no-one else existed - (tony family visti) she explained that when she finished she would be a bookeeper... As Eilis and Tony's mother discussed this, none of the boys spoke or looked up from their food. She realized that she would love to run out of this room and down the stairs and through the streets to the subway to her own room and close the door on the world - could hear the humming of the harsh light.... otherwise was aware only of the silence and the emptiness of the store and the intensity and sharpness of MF's gaze... fully aware that she could be seen in the mirror; she could feel herself blushing,,, suggesting that Eilis not go behind the curtain again but change from one bathing suit to another as she watched... MF was watching her carefully as she moved.. there was something in the way she stood and gazed at her something clear that Eilis knew she would never be able to tell anyone about... stood where the curtain was, thus preventing Eilis from closing it... No one had ever seen her naked like this; she did not know how her breasts woiuld seem, if the size of the nipples or the dark colour around them was unusual or not... she did not think she was too fat - the waves were stronger than at home, not so much in the way they broke but in the way they pulled out.. She realized that she would have to be careful not to swim too far out of her depth in this unfamiliar sea

Question 51

Bound in freedom by Tony

Answer 51

- He had not asked her what she did every evening, and she had kept it to herself almost deliberately as a way of holding him at a distance - (tony family visti) she explained that when she finished she would be a bookeeper... As Eilis and Tony's mother discussed this, none of the boys spoke or looked up from their food. She realized that she would love to run out of this room and down the stairs and through the streets to the subway to her own room and close the door on the world - Slowly the conversation became easier, but she still found that she was on display - 'I want our kids to be Dodgers fans' he did not notice her face freezing. She could not wait to be alone, away from him... later, she realized it fitted in with everything else, that recently he had been planning the summer and how much time they would spend together.. in his mind he was going to marry her. It was, she though, too ridiculous - when she motioned for him to follow her, he shouted back that he could not swim - He wanted the two of them to stand up to their necks in the water, holding each other as each wave crashed over them. When she embraced him, he held her so that she could not easily swim away from him... The thought came into her mind of telling him who the last person to touch her bottom was... she did a vigorous backstroke, letting him presume, she hoped, that he was being too free under the water with his hands. Tony, she saw, was afraid of the water, hated her swimming away from him. - She had to make an effort now to remember that she really was married to Tony, that she would face into the sweltering heat of Brooklyn and the daily boredom of the shop floor at Bartocci's and her room at Mrs. Kehoe's. She would face into a life that seemed now an ordeal, with strange people, strange accents, strange streets. She tried to think of Tony now as a loving and comforting presence, but she saw instead someone she was allied with whether she liked it or not, someone who was, she thought, unlikely to allow her to forget the nature of the alliance and his need for her to return. - "And tell me something: if you hadn't married him, would you still be going back?" "I don't know," Eilis said. - he was asking her now if she would like to live in LI.. suggesting that marriage had already been tacitly agreed between them. It was the details of how they would live that he was presenting now.. She was almost in tears and what he was proposing and how practical he was as he spoke and how serious and sincere. She did not want to say she would think about it because she knew how that might sound. Instead, she nodded and smiled and reached out and held his two hands and pulled him towards her - She knew that once she and Tony were married she would stay at home, cleaning the house and preparing food and shopping and then having children and looking after them as well. She had never mentioned to Tony that she would like to keep working

Question 52

Bound by physical appearence

Answer 52

- Eilis saw that Miss Delano had perfectly plucked eyebrows. She had an image of her in front of the mirror for hours with tweezers - 'My guy won't go on the beach unless he already has a tan' MF - (sunglasses) 'I read somewhere that they could ruin your eyes' MK 'Oh I don't care, I think they're gorgeous' Diana 'And I read that if you don't have them this year on the beach people will talk about you' Patty - Eilis was amused at how tight and flimsy their swimming togs were. No American man would be seen on a beach in anything like that, she thought. Nor would two men in Coney Island move as unself-consciously as these two did, seeming not to be alert at all to the two women watching them as they ran awkwardly ahead, keeping close to the hard sand at the water's edge.

Question 53

Mother -reduced freedom

Answer 53

- Eilis wished she could think of something more to say but it was hard to speak since her mother seemed to have prepared in advance every word that she said.. 'I have arranged a wreath to be made specially for you'... She had been planning how this first day would go - Eilis wondered for a moment what might happen were she to interrupt her mother and say 'I am married'. She thought her mother would have a way of not hearing her, or of pretending that she had not spoken. Or else, she imagined, the glass in the window might break... - Every letter or note Eilis wrote had to be inspected by her mother... in her won letters, as in EIlis's, she wanted it emphasized that, since Eilis was home, she had plenty of company and needed no more visitors.. by the end of the first day Eilis had still not gone out into the street or had any time at all - Yet not only did her mother work slowly, insisting that she and not Eilis would write most of the letters, but wanting Eilis to look at each one she completed.. - (Eilis tries to suggest they go to Dublin or Wexford together) they would wait and see, the thing was to get these letters written and sent - She felt sorry for how much she had been irritate by her mother over the previous days - occured to Eilis that she did not want to anyone to see Eilis who might invite her out or cause her to leave her mother's side at any point - 'Your mother said you'd still be here. She wrote and accepted the invitation on behalf of the two of you... She decided there and then that she would stay a few extra week... Eilic did not believe hermother had misunderstood anything... It was best, she thought, to say nothing - her mother demanded that she cancel her outing that evening - (mother talking aout Rose's clothes) 'they'll look different when they are the proper size, when they match your new American figure'

Question 54

Wanting to avoid conflict

Answer 54

- (mother telling her Rose's job offered to her) had a smile of satisfaction on her face and this came as a relief to Eilis, who had begun to dread the silences between them and resent her mother's lack of interest in discussing anything, any single detail, about her time in America... felt, for the first time, less uneasy about being home - She wished she could go downstairs now and tell her mother what she had done, but she knew she would not. As she lay in bed she thought it would be wise to make the best of it, take no big decisions in what would be an interlude. A chance to be at home like this would be unlikely to come her way again ever. - Quietly, he spoke: "Will we go and try the water?" Eilis was waiting for this and had already planned to say no. - But his tone, when he spoke, was unexpected in its humility. Jim spoke like someone who could be easily hurt She realized that, if she refused, he might walk alone down to the water like someone defeated; somehow she did not want to have to witness that. - her mother had selected a blue dress with a floral pattern, one that was Tony's favourite, and a pair of blue shoes. Eilis was almost going to tell her that she could not wear this, but she realized that any explanation she invented would cause unnecessary tension so she went ahead and put it on. - "I will be going back to the United States," Eilis said. "Well, yes, of course," Mr. Brown said. "But you and I will speak again before you make any firm decisions." Eilis was about to say that she had already made a firm decision, but since Mr. Brown's tone suggested that he did not need just now to have any further discussion on the matter, she realized that she was not expected to reply. Instead, she stood up, and Mr. Brown did too, accompanying her to the door and sending his regards to her mother before he saw her out to the care of Maria Gethings, who had an envelope for her ready with cash inside. - The expression on Mrs. Byrne's face was one of sweet insinuation; Eilis wondered if she might make an excuse and simply run towards the ladies' so that she would not have to listen to her any more. But then, she thought, she would be leaving Jim on his own with her. - She asked herself what she would do if Jim proposed marriage to her. The idea, most of the time, was absurd; they did not know one another well enough and so it was unlikely. Also, she thought that she should do everything possible not to encourage him to ask, since she would not be able to say anything in reply except refuse him. - He pulled her closer to him and put his hands on her breasts. She could hear him breathing heavily. "I mean if you have to go back, then maybe we could get engaged before you go." "Maybe we can talk about it soon," she said. She turned around towards him and they began to kiss - She looked at his kind face in the soft light of the hotel restaurant and decided that she would tell him nothing now. , she realized that there would never be a time to tell him. It could not be said; his response to her deception could not be imagined. She would have to go back. - the prospect of saying goodbye to Jim Farrell still filled her with fear, enough for her once more to put both ideas out of her mind. She would think about them soon, she thought, but not now. - But if he found it that night, he would instantly seek her out. Instead, she decided, she would drop the note in the door the following morning on her way to the railway station. She would simply say that she had to go back and she was sorry and she would write when she arrived in Brooklyn and would explain her reasons.

Question 55

Letting go of conscience

Answer 55

- Jim did the same, and Eilis found that, when he caught her, he held her in an embrace that was almost too close and he did this as though it was something they were used to doing. She shivered for a second at the thought of Tony seeing her now. - Eilis understood now why George had chosen this lonely place. He and Jim, and perhaps Nancy too, had planned a perfect day in which she and Jim would be just as much a couple as Nancy and George. She realized, as they turned back and Jim began talking to her again, letting the other two go ahead, that she liked his bulky, easygoing presence and the tone in his voice, which came so naturally from the streets of the town. He had clear blue eyes, she thought, that saw no harm in anything. And she was fully aware that these blue eyes of his lingered on her now with an interest that was unmistakable. She smiled at the thought that she would go along with most of it. She was on her holidays and it was harmless, but she would not go into the sea with him as though she were his girlfriend. She would, she reasoned, like to be able to face Tony knowing that she had not done that. - Quietly, he spoke: "Will we go and try the water?" Eilis was waiting for this and had already planned to say no. - But his tone, when he spoke, was unexpected in its humility. Jim spoke like someone who could be easily hurt She realized that, if she refused, he might walk alone down to the water like someone defeated; somehow she did not want to have to witness that. - She understood that she should not have let things move so quickly

Question 56

Choosing Tony = risk, out of cocoon

Answer 56

"he seemed lost to the world. And this sense of him as beyond her made her want him more that she had ever done, made her feel that this now and the memory of it later would be enough for her and had made a difference to her beyond anything she had ever imagined."

Question 57

Innocence vs Irish darkness

Answer 57

- There was something aout him now, something so innocent and eager and shiny - 'No secrets?' 'I could make up some, but they wouldn't suit me' - But she would not have been surprised if everything he told her was untrue - something helpless about him as he stood there; his willingness to be happy, his eagerness, she saw, made him oddly vulnerable.. 'delighted'.. Yet somehow that delight seemed to come with a shadow, and she wondered as she watched him if she herself, in all her uncertainty and distance from him, was the shadow and nothing else... he was as he appeared to her; there was no other side to him. Suddenly, she shivered in fear and turned, making her way towards him - sweet duplicity.. She was almost glad to know that he had secrets and had ways of calmly keeping them - gave her a chance to let her thoughts linger on him, float towards him, noting how different he was from her inevery way. The idea that he would never see her as she felt she saw him now came to her as an infinite relief, as a satisfactory solution to things... His excitement became infectious, until she started pretend that she could follow what was happening

Question 58

With tony to avoid confrontation/not enthusiastic

Answer 58

- She studies him closely because she was sure that if she let her eyes wander she would find Dolores still sitting where she was - stood beside her as though it were inevitable, already decided, that they would stay together for the next dance - (invitation to collect next week) meant that she could go to the dance without having to take the feelings of any of her fellow lodgers into account - He had not asked her what she did every evening, and she had kept it to herself almost deliberately as a way of holding him at a distance - when he asked her to come to a movie with him, she agreed because all of her fellow lodgers, with the exception of Dolores, were going to go to Singing in the Rain - The idea of sitting by the wall again with her fellow lodgers filled her with horror. And yet she knew that in his mind Tony was moving faster than she was

Question 59

Tony allows her access to a different world

Answer 59

- (moved his body closer to her) He did this tactfully and gradually.. until they were wrapped around each other for the last minutes of the dance - She was amazed when Tony, holding her had, began to push against the crowd in the compartment to make a space for both of them before the doors closed

Question 60

Tony incongruence with Irish side

Answer 60

- She wrote to Rose about him, sending the letter to the office, but did not mention him in letters to her mother or to her brothers.. when rose replied she asked what he did for a living.. buried the info that he was a plumber deep in the middle of a paragraph, but she was aware that rose would notice it and seize on it - There was no other room... each night their parents slept in a corner of the kitchen in a bed that he showed her was on its side against the wall, discreetly covered (different from irish ment) - she would also, she knew, be happier in the parish hall working than spending a long day with a supper in the night before in the small apartement with Tony and his family. She loved them, each of them... but sometimes she found the pleasure of being along after a lucnh or a supper with them freater than the pleasure of the meal itself - He insisted on taking her home.. she felt that she was being held by someone wounded... the letter had made plain to him that she belonged somewhere else, a place he could never know... both began to sob... She wished she could tell him that she would not go, but then in struck her that Tony might feel that she should go, that the letter had made him see where her duty lay.. She wished she could say something clear, or even wished that she could tell what he was thinking or why he was crying harder than she was

Question 61

Congruence of tony with nrw gen

Answer 61

- 'How's Tony?' She was surprised by the question, how freely it suggested that Tony was a regular fixture rather than a problem or an interloper

Question 62

Rose's death as catlyst

Answer 62

- She knew it would matter to him that if she needed help like this she would feel secure coming to him rather than FF or MK... most direct and emphatic way she had ever made clear to him that she would stay with him - It struck her that she should not have shown it to him and should not have come to his house like this... All this was a mistake - She knew that she could not walk alone down the steps.. be on her own there,,, he could not turn from her and walk away - hoped he would understand, as she did now, that what they had done was wrong, and more wrong because it had been done when Rose was barely in her grave.. she would never be able to tell anyone that just half an hour before they had been crying. It would seem too strange

Question 63

Sex = powerlessness

Answer 63

- (enters her) tried not to gasp as she began to panic... idea that she could not control him... pushing deeper than she wanted it to go.... going to injure something inside her. She felt a relief as it pulled back... wished she could call out or indicate that he should not push in so hard, that he was going to break something - That she could not shout made her panic even greater, tightened her whole body - He was unaware of anything except his own breathing... he did not know or care that she existed. She had no idea how they were going to face each other now - What he did once he moved away from her surprised her.. smiled.. slowly undresed her.. how smooth and beautiful he was, and how much stronger he seemed naked - (told him that he had pushed too hard) This time the pain was even worse than before..bruised or cut 'Is that better?' She tightened as much as she could 'Hey, that's beautiful. Can you do that more' - Once she discovered that she was not pregnant she thought of the night with pleasure, especially after she had returned to the priest, who somehow managed to imply that what had happened between her and Tony was not hard to understand.. maybe it was a sign from God that they could consider getting married and raising a family. He seemed so easy to talk to the second time that she was tempted to tell him the whole story.. but she left the confession box without saying anything more

Question 64

Mrs Kehoe

Answer 64

- mainly interested in clothes and shoes... fashions and new trends were her daily topic, although she was too old for some of the colours and styles - dressed impeccably, loved discussing skin care and different types of skin and problems.. had her hair done on a Saturday, so it would be perfect for the rest of the week - complete revulsion of political matters - (christmas) 'I dread it, to be honest... if it wasn't for my religious convictions, I'd ignore it like the Jews do.. I think that's why you get a biting cold on Christmas Day, to remind you' - gives Eilis her own room from when her husband was there - the act of generosity had released something in MK, some deep resentment against the world... banged the door so that the whole house would hear her - 'Well we mightn't like them, but the Negro men fought in the overseas war, didn't they? And they were killed just the same as our men. I always say that. No one minded them when they needed them.' - since she was Dodgers supporter, as she told everyone she intended to go watch the game again on TV - (after Rose's death) the excitement distracted her pleasantly from the tedium of the day - (buying a television for company in the evenings) 'When everyone gets one, I'll get one'

Question 65

Miss McAdam

Answer 65

- secretary - very prim - sniffed her nose dissaprovingly if anyone passed by them who she thought was Italian or Jewish 'I didn't come all the way to America to hear people talking Italian on the sreet or see them wearing funny hats' - (shoes) 'I quite like them' 'But when would you wear them?' Mrs Kehoe asks 'I just like them' she shrugged - 'If I am still here. It might be Long Island for us all' Miss McAdam - 'I'd say in that store, you could get all sorts of germs'

Question 66

Patty Mcguire

Answer 66

- born in upstate New York - large department store in Brooklyn - man-mad - shoes made noises on the floor above - (ceili) 'God, it should be abolished! In this day and age!' - 'Fifth Avenue is the most heavenly place'

Question 67

Diana Montini

Answer 67

- mother Irish, and she had red hair - spoke with an American accent - (reply to Sheila turkeys) 'In every part?' - (parish hall) 'had to close it because of immorality. Some of the Italians started to come looking for Irish Girls' MK 'Well, I don't see what's wrong with that. My father was Italian and I think he met my mother at a dance.' Diana - Diana shut her eyes as she came close to her fellow lodgers (dance) - (towards Dolores) 'She's awful. She's the limit.. We don't want her, none of us. If word got around...' 'That this was a house where people like her were staying..' MM

Question 68

Sheila Heffernen

Answer 68

- Skerries - secretary - trouble between her and Patty - 'There's no taste off American turkeys.. It's the same all over America' - 'Some of them have beautiful clothes' Eilis 'I thought it was a joke... I'll pass Bartocci's on the other side of the street' - 'I think we have to be very careful about men we don't know coming into the hall'

Question 69

Miss Keegan

Answer 69

- Galway - never spoke much unless the talk turned to Fianna Fail or de Valera, or the American political system - Miss Keegan said that it was not really Christmas if you were not in your own house in Ireland, and she was going to be sad all day and there was no point in pretending that she wouldn't be

Question 70

Elisabetta Bartocci

Answer 70

- the most perfectly dressed woman she had ever seen - flaring red costume and white plain blouse, her red high-heeled shoes, her hair, which was shiny black and perfect. Her lipstick was bright red. (wrote to mother and Rose)

Question 71

Miss Fortini

Answer 71

- every so often her eyes darted around the office and then, as though she had been doing something wrong, fixed quickly again on Miss Bartocci's face - always watching... if you were not seen to be smiling she would notice and begin to move towards you.. had to look both busy and pleasant - customer has the power

Question 72

Mr Rosenblum

Answer 72

- he talked big, asking them to imagine that they were the president of a large corporation - she tried to describe to hr mother and Rose some of the jokes MR made in which there was always a Pole and an Italian; it was easier to describe the atmosphere he created... how easy and exciting he made corporate litigation sound - 'I don't think he's reading from a book' Eilis - He remined her of waiters in some cafes near Fulton Street who had no patience, who needed her to make up her mind about everything there and then - tried to smile at him, he appeared even more pre-occupied - seemed so full of knowledge... that it was impossible to imagine him with a wife or children

Question 73

Dolores Grace

Answer 73

- 'She cleans houses' MM - We don't want her, none of us. If word got around...' 'That this was a house where people like her were staying..' MM - looked like a horse-dealer's wife in Enniscorthy on a fair day - 'I wonder what American fellas are like' eilis looked at her blankly 'I'd say they're different' - (trying on sunglasses) MM and Sh fitted them on and, openly ignoring Dolores, passed them to Eilis to try.. Eilis deliberately handed it to Dolores first to hold up in front of her (swimsuit)

Question 74

Frank

Answer 74

- each night their parents slept in a corner of the kitchen in a bed that he showed her was on its side against the wall, discreetly covered (different from irish ment) - his hair, she thought, was astonighingly dark as were his eyes - 'We don't like Irish people' - 'out there you don't get to sleep in the same room as your brothers' 'would you not like that?' 'no or maybe just sometimes' - Frank was the most beautiful boy she had ever seen in her life - Tony and Frank stayed close to each other all the time - (tony and laurence arguing about field) Frank's eyes darted from one brother to the other; he appeared quite genuinely perplexed - 'Mom told us we weren't to leave you at the edge' - He seemed immesnly curious and stealthy, like a figure in a movie who has just witnessed a robbery or a murder on a dark street. And then he looked at her openly and smiled at her - 'will you make them build me a room so I can come and stay with you when they're all making me miserable?' 'Don't worry, I'll deal with them'