Brooklyn

Eilis returns home, and her mother shows her Rose’s room. Eilis lets it sink in that her sister is actually gone before excusing herself to take a nap. Afterward, she and her mother write notes of thanks to those who visited or attended the wake and funeral. Her mother is very controlling about what goes into the letters and wants Eilis to mention that since she is home, her mother now needs no company. Eilis hates keeping Tony a secret from her mother, but her mother refuses to even acknowledge Eilis’s time in America. Eilis thinks of Tony and hopes to be back soon. She tries to see her friends, but her mother keeps her occupied with letters and cleaning out Rose’s room. She insists Eilis take clothes, but Eilis refuses. One day, they go out to lay a wreath from Eilis on Rose’s gravestone, and Eilis thinks of how her relationship with her mother has changed and how much influence Rose had on that relationship, keeping their mother both engaged and at a healthy distance. As they walk through town, Eilis senses eyes on her and realizes everyone knows she is back.

Eilis finally invites her friends over. Nancy tells her that she is marrying George Sheridan and that Jim Farrell is single. The wedding is four days after Eilis is due to depart, but Eilis’s mother has already told Nancy that she and Eilis will both be there. Though Eilis is suspicious of her mother’s motives for doing this, she decides to stay an extra week and notifies the travel agency of her plans. Nancy invites Eilis to the beach with George and their friend Annette, though when the day arrives, Eilis is surprised to see Jim in Annette’s place. She is upset at his presence and commits to ignoring him because of how he treated her. When they arrive at the beach, Eilis realizes that she is confident in her body now because of her time in America in ways she never was before. Despite her commitment to silence, the more Jim speaks with her, the more she opens up to him, and after the trip, the four get a drink at Jim’s family’s pub and decide to go to the beach again and attend a dance afterward.

When Eilis returns home, she finds that she is more comfortable back in Ireland now and not as eager to return to Brooklyn and Tony. Her mother tells her that she has volunteered Eilis to do some bookkeeping at Rose’s former workplace the next morning to help them out in a dire time. Eilis finds herself yet again suspicious of her mother’s motives but excited for the work. She finds a letter from Tony and wishes she had not married him because she now feels a split identity between her need for home and her love for him. The next morning, she goes to the office and feels like the ghost of Rose, filling in her place. The task they assign her is complex, but she figures it out and completes it by the end of the day. She enjoys the work and thinks of how she will want to keep working even after having children. She realizes that she never wrote Tony back and that he no longer takes up as much space in her mind.

Eilis again goes to the beach with Nancy, George, and Jim, and she grows more at ease with Jim and his patient humility. While the boys wander, Nancy admits to Eilis that she planned the earlier beach trip to set her up with Jim. Eilis realizes Jim’s intentions and thinks of how her spending time with Jim would hurt Tony, something he would never do to her. She commits to staying cold toward Jim, but his gentle approach convinces her to swim with him and take a picture. They go to a dance that night, and Eilis considers how Jim ignored her two years prior. He considered her unimportant then because her family did not own anything in town. Now, her new American glamour makes her worthy of attention. She enjoys their time together and at the end of the night, they kiss. She realizes that her mother now has no problem with her going out, as she hopes this will convince Eilis to stay.

Mr. Brown calls Eilis down to his office and offers her a job in bookkeeping. She declines because of her plans to return to Brooklyn, but he asks her not to decide anything yet. When she returns home, she finds two letters from Tony and realizes she forgot to write him back, promising herself that she will the next day. Tony and Brooklyn are fading from Eilis’s mind, and she feels pain when she considers leaving Ireland. She begins thinking of her marriage to Tony as a mere alliance she is bound to. She still does not call to schedule her return trip, and with no departure in sight, Jim invites her to tea to meet his parents after Nancy and George’s wedding.

The day of the wedding comes, and because of the rain, Jim picks up Eilis and her mother, who loves the attention this draws from the neighbors. She thinks throughout the ceremony of the two lives she can have, in Ireland and in Brooklyn, and how different Tony and Jim are. She sees that her mother is happy she is home, and she understands that no matter what she decides, someone will be hurt. She begins to think she no longer loves Tony. At the reception, Eilis sits with Jim while her mother watches her closely. Eilis’s mother finds another ride home, leaving Jim and Eilis alone. They are soon accosted by Nancy’s drunk mother claiming that they will be the next to marry. With the rain cleared, Eilis and Jim flea the wedding and go to the beach, where Jim explains that not having siblings makes it difficult for him to socialize and that two years ago, his girlfriend broke up with him on their way into the dance. This, he claims, is why he ignored her that night. He tells her that he does not want to lose her again and asks if they can be engaged before she leaves again for America. She tells him they can talk about it later.

Eilis soon realizes that Jim cannot handle her being married or even divorced and that he is a conservative man who likes his place in town and will never do anything unusual. With this in mind, she commits to returning to Brooklyn and to setting a date for her departure. Eilis visits Rose’s grave and feels guilt and regret that she cannot speak with her. As she walks back through town, she is called to visit Miss Kelly, who reveals that her cousin is Mrs. Kehoe. She heavily implies that Mrs. Kehoe told her of Eilis’s marriage to Tony, though how Mrs. Kehoe knows this is a mystery to Eilis. In a panic, Eilis leaves and goes to the post office, where she calls the travel agency and books a trip home in two days’ time. She then writes letters to Father Flood, Mrs. Kehoe, Miss Fortini, and Tony explaining her delay.

At home, Eilis tells her mother she must leave the next day because she is married. Her mother is upset but supportive of Eilis, saying that if she has found a husband who really loves her, she must return to him. She leaves to arrange a ride for Eilis in the morning and says goodbye then, not wanting to say more than one. Eilis packs and leaves her mother alone, though she promises to write, telling her all about Tony when she returns to Brooklyn. She packs the photo with Jim, knowing that the memory will fade over time. The next morning, Eilis drops a note at Jim’s house, promising that she will write to explain her sudden flight later. As she leaves town, she imagines Jim going to her mother and her mother telling him that she left for Brooklyn. She smiles, thinking how much these imagined words will always mean to her.