Between Two World: Creating a Home in Tibns Brooklyn: A Novel Where is home?

Today, it is all but assumed that we will not spend our entire lives in the ommunity o! our birth" #ven i! it is $ust moving a ross the ountry or provin e, most people have the e%perien e o! leaving home and ma&ing a new home !or themselves somewhere else" 'n Colm Tibns Brooklyn: A Novel, #ilis (a ey emigrates !rom 'reland to the )nited *tates and e%perien es a ultural identity risis" While she ma&es a new home !or hersel! in Broo&lyn, the allure o! her home in #nnis orthy remains a power!ul temptation" 'n the lima% o! the novel, she must hoose between her native and adopted homes" 'n ma&ing this de ision, #ilis is !or ed to balan e her own wants with various so ial obligations and her hoi e to return to Broo&lyn represents an ultimate assertion o! her own on eption o! home" #ilis is pra ti ally de!ined by a re!usal to ma&e a tive de isions about her li!e" 'nstead, she spends the novel rea ting to the wants o! others and ideali+ing the liminal spa e where she ould e%ist without ma&ing de isions o! any &ind" When she is preparing to depart !or ,meri a, we are told that her pre!eren e would be to remain in #nnis orthy but that it would be impossible sin e the arrangements have already been made" *he says, even, that it would be better i! the person leaving was -someone else. someone li&e her, someone the same age and si+e, who maybe even loo&ed the same as she did, as

long as she, the person who was thin&ing now, ould wa&e in this bed every morning and move as the day went on in these !amiliar streets/ 0Tibn, 123" Her !antasy is that she ould be both the person who remains 4home and the person who goes out into the world5 that there ould be, e!!e tively, two o! her" ,s time goes on, the idea that there is a 4Broo&lyn #ilis that is distin t !rom the 4#nnis orthy #ilis seems to in reasingly a!!e t her ons iousness" When she returns to 'reland in the !inal part o! the novel, she has all but disasso iated with her ,meri an return: -'t made her !eel strangely as though she were two people, one who had battled against two old winters and many hard days in Broo&lyn and !allen in love there, and the other who was her mothers daughter, the #ilis whom everyone &new, or thought they &new/ 0Tibn, 6673" #ilis re!uses, as mu h as she an, to pi & a home, pre!erring instead to let those around her onstru t homes !or her" 8ost o! the hara ters in the novel attempt to reate a sense o! home where #ilis ould belong" Her landlady, 8rs" 9ehoe, arranges !or her to have a room that -might have been reated in the time be!ore 8r" 9ehoe le!t home" ,s she loo&ed at the double bed she wondered i! this had been their bedroom/ 0Tibn, 2:13" ;ather ;lood, the priest who arranges her immigration, is &een to get more -'rish girls in Broo&lyn/ so that his own en lave ommunity an prosper and grow 0Tibn, <23" When she returns to #nnis orthy, her !riends and !amily are eager to reate a home !or her, setting her up with a lo al man and

arranging a lo al $ob 0Tibn, 66=>66?3" ,ll o! these potential homes o!!er a ommunity to whi h #ilis ould belong, and it is up to her to de ide whi h one is her true home" 't is un lear, though, i! any o! these proposals represents #ilis best interest or i! others want #ilis to be a part o! their home !or sel!ish reasons" *he ultimately de ides that the home !or her is with Tony in Broo&lyn, yet in the midst o! her return to #nnis orthy she on ludes that -she was sure that she did not love Tony now" He seemed part o! a dream !rom whi h she had wo&en with onsiderable !or e some time be!ore, and in this wa&ing time his presen e, on e so solid, la &ed any substan e or !orm/ 0Tibn, 6=73" *he seems to only de ide to return to Broo&lyn and Tony be ause o! 8rs" 9elleys threat to reveal her se ret marriage 0Tibn, 6?=>6?73" 'n this way, it seems less li&ely that she has a tively hosen her pre!erred home out o! all the available options but has rather opted to ta&e the path o! least resistan e" @et Tony also proposes a very spe i!i 4home !or #ilis and himsel!, and this home is potentially the one that best re!le ts #ilis wants and ambitions" Tony shows an ability to navigate the multiple worlds that #ilis inhabits" ;or e%ample, when he meets her $udgmental landlady, he uses a !alse name as i! he were some sort o! under over $ournalist so that his 'talian ba &ground is not &nown 0Tibn, 21A3" Bespite his wor&ing lass so io>e onomi position, he is supportive o! her pursuit o! a ollege edu ation and meets her at this institution

despite it revealing -something helpless about him as he stood there5 his willingness to be happy, his eagerness, she saw, made him oddly vulnerable/ 0Tibn, 2?:3" 'n this, we get a sense that Tony genuinely ares about what #ilis wants out o! li!e" 'n parti ular, #ilis wants to pursue a pro!essional areer based on her ollege edu ation and while she is doubt!ul that Tony will permit her to wor& a!ter they are married she an imagine s enarios where both an a hieve their goals: -maybe she ould do the boo&&eeping !or the ompany that Tony was going to set up with his brothers/ 0Tibn, 66<>66A3" Civen his ta t and !le%ibility, it is reasonable to assume that Tony would a &nowledge the e onomi and personal bene!its o! a ollege edu ation and o!!er what support he an to #ilis in this regard" 'n this way, #ilis home with Tony is arguably the best option available to her and she is right to return to Broo&lyn regardless o! other so ial pressures" #ilis de ision to return to Broo&lyn means that she has hosen a home where she will arguably have the greatest autonomy" 't is not that her home in #nnis orthy is unappealing, but that she has a better han e o! living the li!e she wants in her adopted home" Home, a ording to the novel, must be more than a pla e o! sa!ety and

om!ort" 't must be a pla e where the individual an !lourish, and a hieve his or her own happiness"

Wor&s Cited Tibn, Colm" Brooklyn: A Novel" Toronto: 8 Clelland D *tewart, 6::A" Erint"