ENG4U Essay memorization

What is your chosen prompt?

Show how a conflict between morals or values helps to develop a central theme.

Thesis:

In Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, a conflict between morals and values is used to develop the central theme of identity shaped by the struggle betwen familal duty vs personal freedom, independance vs emotional belonging and honesty vs self-perservation

PARAGRAPH #1 (directional statement, transition word, THREE points + THREE quotes + THREE explanations)

Directional statement: The conflict between betweem personal desire and societal expectations

Point #1: Irish family expectations pressure Eilis to choose duty over happiness

Point #2: American society encourages independance and self-evolution

Point #3: Conflicting values leaves Eilis divided between two idenities

PARAGRAPH #2 (directional statement, transition word, THREE points + THREE quotes + THREE explanations)

Directional statement: The struggle between independence and emotional belonging develops the identity and shift in environment 

Point #1: Emotional ties to Ireland prevent Eilis from fully embracing America

Point #2: Ambition in America encourages Eilis’ personal growth

Point #3: Change forces Eilis to choose growth over comfort

PARAGRAPH #3 (directional statement, transition word, THREE points + THREE quotes + THREE explanations)

Point #1: Eilis compromises honesty to protect her future

Point #2: Eilis keeps the truth to herself in order to preserve her new life

Point #3: FIND ANOTHER POINT

Conclusion:

→ Restate Thesis

→ Briefly summarize main THREE points

→ Add a clinche (Together, these conflicts show that Eilis’ development is driven by difficult choices between competing values she learns to develop and values from where she ultimately belongs)

“She would make them believe, if she could, that she was looking forward to America and leaving home for the first time.” (Tóibín. 33)

→ Provide an explanantion

“She would make them believe, if she could, that she was looking forward to America and leaving home for the first time.” (Tóibín. 33)

→ Demonstrates Eilis’ commitment to duty, family and willingness to fulfill their expectations; showing how duty influences her decisons. Moreover, this passage highlights how Eilis truly doesn’t want to go on her own accord because she has to make them ‘believe’ that she’s happy with this decision. Her desire to stay at home in Ireland but to also not disappoint her mother and sister, leaves Eilis with the conflict of not knowing what truly wants and the start in the book where she figures who she truly is and wants.

“Eilis, I hope you don’t mind if I try and enrol you in a night class. Do you remember we mentioned bookkeeping and accountancy?... it would keep you busy and you could get very good qualifications" (Tóibín. 78)

→ Provide an explanation

→ America gives her the independance and opportunity to pursue to study which helps her adjust and grow into her new life. It also helps her with self-discovery and finding her purpose; establishing and acquiring a bookkeeping job after she gets her qualifications. EIlis challenges societal expectations as she works to acquire a job as female in the 1950s as well pursue something that she enjoys, since in th beginning fo the book, the first scene is set where she’s studying on the window sill. Tying into identity, this stepping stone for her joining the workforce, establishing herself and enhancing the skills she already has, helps into figuring out what she wants and giving her a direction that she was so lost before; with the help and support of Father Flood.

“She was nobody here” (Tóibín. 69)

→ Provide an explanation

→ Highlights her sense of being caught between two worlds and her feelings of alienation in the States. Her immigration and loneliness leaves Eilis doubtful if there’s truly a future there for her. At the start, she’s constantly in a battle where she longs for home and the familairty of those around her. Though she’s at the same time challenged to persevere and stay in the States as those same people who she finds comfort in, worked hard to get her out of Ireland, for a better life abroad. Eilis’ identity is torn between her new one in the States and the one that she knew all her life in Ireland.