Characters
She is the quiet, observant protagonist who immigrates from Ireland to America.
Who is Eilis?
The Irish town where Eilis grows up before emigrating.
What is Enniscorthy?
This feeling overwhelms Eilis during her first months in America.
What is homesickness?
Eilis leaves Ireland for America after this opportunity is arranged for her.
What is a job at Bartocci’s in Brooklyn (arranged by Father Flood)?
This group of young women lives with Eilis under Mrs. Kehoe’s supervision.
Who are the Irish boarders at Mrs. Kehoe’s boarding house?
This priest helps Eilis move to Brooklyn and secure a job and housing.
Who is Father Flood?
This New York City borough becomes Eilis’s new home.
What is Brooklyn?
The novel explores this major life experience of leaving one’s country for another.
What is immigration?
The event that forces Eilis to return to Ireland temporarily.
What is Rose's death?
Tony first meets Eilis at this type of social event.
What is an Irish parish dance?
This Italian-American plumber becomes Eilis’s husband.
Who is Tony?
Eilis works at this department store in Brooklyn.
What is Bartocci’s?
Eilis struggles between her life in Ireland and this new identity forming in America.
What is belonging (or identity)?
While in Ireland, Eilis becomes romantically involved with this man.
Who is Jim Farrell?
This family warmly welcomes Eilis into their home for Sunday dinners.
Who are the Fiorellos?
Eilis’s glamorous older sister who stays in Ireland and works in an office.
Who is Rose?
The dance hall where Eilis first meets Tony.
What is the parish hall / Irish dance?
Eilis secretly enters into this legally binding relationship before returning to Ireland.
What is marriage?
Eilis studies this subject at night school in Brooklyn.
What is bookkeeping?
Eilis keeps her marriage a secret from this person while in Ireland.
Who is her mother?
This boarding house owner closely monitors the young Irish women living under her roof.
Who is Mrs. Kehoe?
This American city offers Eilis independence but also intense homesickness.
What is New York City?
At the end of the novel, Eilis must choose between two countries, representing this central internal conflict.
What is loyalty vs. independence?
This woman threatens to reveal Eilis’s secret marriage, pushing her to leave Ireland again.
Who is Miss Kelly?
Miss Kelly’s confrontation reveals how small-town Ireland functions through this social force.
What is gossip (or social pressure)?