Brooklyn Essay

Brooklyn Essay

Eilis’s discrimination towards Dolores is due to her inability to escape her Irish influence exhibiting no matter how hard one tries to escape their cultural norms they will always shape people. Eilis acts indifferently towards Dolores because of the discrimination she felt in Ireland based on her socioeconomic status. Miss Kelly, the owner of a prosperous shop, likes to discriminate between the rich and the poor and look down upon people who are not equal to her by labeling them as people that need “to sweep the streets” (11). Working for Miss Kelly presented Eilis with an opportunity to see a person that has made a life for her and therefore believes she is above others. Eilis deliberates that her having a job at Bartocci’s and taking classes in bookkeeping places her above Dolores, a scrubber from Cavan, and therefore ignores her and “[clenches] her fists in pure irritation each time her companion spoke” (129). This parallels why Eilis gets together with Jim Farrell when she returns to Ireland because she feels that she has a high status now that she has come back from America an entirely reinvented person. Eilis feels that now that she is supposedly above Jim Farrell, she is worthy of him because of her looks, “‘…also he likes you.’ ‘When did that start?’ ‘When he saw you at eleven o’clock mass with your mother last Sunday’” (231), rather than for who she is. Eilis gets attracted to Jim because her appearance fuels her self-assurance that she is worthy of him now.

Even though Eilis may try to seem like she does not care about her appearance, she uses appearances to hide her insecurities. The insecurities that she tries to hide are relevant when she appraises Dolores on her appearances. Travelling to America presented Eilis with an opportunity to try things she would never have done in Ireland. Eilis putting on makeup shows her wanting to put on a mask and hide her true self by succumbing to the influences of those around her. Eilis is presented as a character that does not have much interest in appearances and takes pride in her sister and how much care she puts into her appearance “whom she mixed with” (11). When Eilis puts on makeup, she “seemed older and, [almost] good-looking” (52). Georgina teaches Eilis how to style herself, however Eilis feels internal discomfort because she wants to present herself as mature but also wants to stay true to herself, “because she knew that people would look at her and might have a view on her that was wrong if she dressed up like this every day” (52). Eilis cares very much of the view people have of her thus she does not want to look too confident, does not want to be promiscuous, or sexualized. Eventually Eilis realizes that putting on makeup is her first step towards her independence and coming out of her innocence. Due to the environment around her, Eilis starts changing and gaining confidence, for example when she criticizes Dolores’s appearances, “She struck Eilis as looking like a horse-dealer’s wife in Enniscorthy” (128). Eilis tried very hard to separate her Irish part from her self-empowering new personality she developed in America but Dolores reminds Eilis of the people in Enniscorthy and makes Eilis realize how much she has changed ever since she came to America. Rather than regretting how she had looked in Ireland as opposed to how she looks now, she decides to ignore Dolores completely displaying her ability to take a stand for herself without having any disappointment.