Brooklyn
The resources and guiding questions
1. Video: ‘Why Brooklyn should win best picture at the 2016 Oscars’, with Paul MacInnes,
Tom Silverstone and Ian Anderson, theguardian.com, 24 Feb 2016
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Does the home Eilis longs for really exist? Create a timeline of changes in Enniscorthy
throughout the book to explore whether Eilis is missing a real place or only her memory of a
place.
The review discusses the pace and restraint of the film. Choose two passages from the novel,
one set in Ireland and one set in Brooklyn, and discuss how the pace is established. Look at
the language, the sentence structures and the movement through time. Is it justifiable to say
that the whole narrative is told at a slow pace? Can you find any ‘fast-moving’ scenes?
MacInnes says that the main complication of the film comes halfway through. What do you
think the main complication is? Is there only one?
Do the silences in the novel help to invite us into Eilis’ world? Find a passage that indicates a
gap or silence. Make a list of the questions this absence raises. Swap passages within the
class and try to answer each other’s questions.
Answer MacInnes’ concluding question: what would you have done in Eilis’ position?
2. Audio: Desert Island Discs featuring Colm Tóibín, presented by Kirsty Young, BBC Radio 4,
8 Jan 2016
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Kirsty Young gives a very brief summary of the central thematic concerns in Tóibín’s body of
work. As a class or in small groups, discuss whether you agree that the themes she mentions
are reflected in Brooklyn and find specific examples as evidence.
Do you think the songs Tóibín selected help the reader to understand traditional rural
Ireland and the ideas explored in Brooklyn?
At approximately 35:30, Tóibín discusses his attitude to ‘big ideas’ in novels. How is this
attitude reflected in the construction of Brooklyn? (Consider the setting, characterisation,
dialogue, use of language, descriptions and plot development.)
3. Video: 'Emigration is a potent part of the Irish psyche', with Colm Tóibín, Saoirse Ronan and
John Crowley, by Benjamin Lee and Henry Barnes, theguardian.com, 5 Nov 2015
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As a class, discuss leaving home. When do most people intend to leave home? Why? What
are the most difficult aspects of adjusting to independent living? What factors might make
this easier or harder? Have any students in the class already left home in order to stay at
school or for other reasons? Create a list of the things an individual has to learn or manage
when leaving home but remaining in their own culture. Create a second list that takes into
account the complications of moving to a new culture.
Tóibín discusses a significant attitudinal difference between Americans and the Irish. Discuss
how this is shown in Brooklyn, and whether Eilis overcomes or cherishes this difference.
What does Tóibín suggest about the different expectations placed on young women in the
1950s? Do these standards and expectations still exist?
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©Insight Publications 2016
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How does John Crowley suggest emigration has helped to shape Irish culture and young Irish
people’s sense of belonging? Discuss whether you think this tradition of moving away to find
a better life plays a significant part in the development of characters in Brooklyn.
Australia, like the USA, is a country with a tradition of immigration, rather than emigration
like Ireland. Do you think young Australians’ attitudes towards belonging and place are more
similar to those of the Irish or the American characters in Brooklyn? Why?
Saoirse Ronan makes an interesting point about learning to say no as an actor. Do you think
this reflects anything about Eilis’ experience when she arrives in the USA?
What do you think Saoirse Ronan means when she says that Irish people are ‘grounded’? Is
this reflected in the way Tóibín has portrayed his characters?
Do you agree that this text helps to ‘humanise’ people who have had to move away from
their homeland to find a better way of life?
4. Audio: Colm Tóibín – Brooklyn on the BBC World Service World Book Club, with Harriet Gilbert,
8 Aug 2011
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Tóibín mentions a range of ways that he experienced homesickness. Can you find passages in
the text that reflect each of these aspects of Eilis’ homesickness?
A couple of the readers’ questions point out flaws in the ‘facts’ of the novel or ask about the
inspiration for characters. Discuss the difficulties of constructing a fictional story within a
world that once existed and that many readers will remember. Should these be a
consideration in the evaluation of a novel?
What does it mean to be a ‘passive’ character? Is passive the same as dutiful? Are these
presented as positive or negative character traits in this novel?
How do the societal limitations on women help Tóibín to create Eilis’ character? Find key
scenes in the novel in which Eilis is restricted or limited by others. Are there clues in the
language of the passages following these scenes that suggest Eilis has changed?
Do you agree that it is inevitable that Eilis returns to Brooklyn? Or chooses Tony over Jim?
Do Tóibín’s comments about Tony cast new light on how you perceive him?
Draw a map that connects everyone in Eilis’ life in New York. Use different colours or
symbols to represent which characters like each other, and which don’t.
Writing tasks
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In Brooklyn, mothers and mother figures are portrayed as burdens, rather than as supportive
and loving. Do you agree?
To what extent is Brooklyn a novel about unlocking suppressed desires and ambitions?
Is Brooklyn advocating the benefits of immigration, or warning about its dangers?
To what extent is Eilis a victim of her upbringing and family expectations?
Tóibín’s characterisation of women in 1950s Ireland and the USA shows that their primary
concerns are the same.
Does Eilis truly ‘belong’ in Brooklyn or Enniscorthy, or neither?
How does the construction of the text, including the characterisation and plot structure, help
to reflect Eilis’ central values?
Critics suggest that the novel’s pace is too slow and that nothing happens. Do you agree?
In choosing to return to Tony, Eilis is symbolically embracing the American way of life and
discarding her Irish cultural legacy. Is this a fair representation of her decision?
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©Insight Publications 2016