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  • Essay / Literal Exposition of “Brooklyn”

    The deliberate manipulation of textual form definitively reveals the importance of people's landscape experiences in the formation of individual identity and the values ​​of social groups. Colm Toibin's novel Brooklyn, a unique blend of historical fiction and bildungsroman, uses characterization and narrative voice to highlight the importance of changing landscapes to the migrant experience. Poetic voice and structure are vehicles in Oodgeroo Noonuccal's lyric poem "Then and Now" which highlights the importance of an indigenous character's interactions with the landscape in obscuring or shaping their identity. Therefore, the culmination of compositional choices regarding textual form highlights the importance of people's interactions with landscapes in the formation of social identity and values. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayThe purposeful construction of texts reveals the fundamental role of an individual's interactions with real landscapes in shaping their identity. In Brooklyn, Toibin demonstrates the significant impact of changing landscapes on the protagonist's identity through corresponding shifts in characterization. The novel opens in Enniscorthy with Eilis "sitting at the window" as she "noticed her sister", the passive connotations associated with these verbs immediately introducing her acquiescent characterization. She only aspires to have “the same friends and neighbors, the same routines in the same streets”. His unchanging experience of Enniscorthy, illustrated by the repetition of 'the same', has a significant stultifying effect on his personal growth. Forced to interact with a new Liverpool landscape before her sea crossing, Eilis adopts “a tone used by a woman in full possession of herself”. She recognizes that this was "something she couldn't have done" in Enniscorthy, an elevated modality underscoring her new recognition of Enniscorthy's rigid social structure as unconducive to her self-discovery. Eilis' characterization continues to evolve during her assimilation into Brooklyn in Part Three. Toibin emphasizes that “she loved her room and its routine,” the repetition of this possessive adjective emphasizing her satisfaction with the sense of belonging and independence that her environment facilitates. However, Toibin demonstrates at the novel's conclusion that the primary significance of Eilis' fleeting experiences of the landscape is the disconnection that comes to define her identity. Toibin concludes the novel with an image of Eilis looking out the window "as the train headed south" following her ambivalent choice to return to Brooklyn. This framing device marks a return to Eilis's initial characterization that she lacks the agency to meaningfully engage with Enniscorthy or Brooklyn. Therefore, Toibin uses characterization as a component of textual form to emphasize the importance of changing landscapes in impacting an individual's identity. While Toibin exploits characterization as the main component of the novel form, Noonuccal uses figurative language as a means of emphasizing the destructive effect of the novel. interact with the urban landscape on the character's indigenous identity. His “dreams are shattered by a rushing car/By the creaking of the tram and the whistling of the train”, this sudden intrusion of a tricolon of vehicles underlining his hostile relationship to the urban landscape. Noonuccal incorporates direct speech to document an outside observer's cursory remarks regarding her assimilation into the urban landscape: "Isn't she lucky to have a good job!" SOthat the urban landscape is here conceptualized as a place of economic opportunity, this exclamation highlights the irony that the significance of his move is its detrimental effect on his sense of identity. The extremely harmful impact of Noonuccal's engagement with the urban landscape is evident in the closing lines of "Then and Now." She claims that it was "It was better when I only had a bag of dill. Better when I only had happiness. Anaphora highlights the disintegration of Noonuccal's sense of self and personal happiness , which highlights the importance of his experiences with the urban landscape. Therefore, the representational elements specific to the respective textual forms of Brooklyn and “Then and Now” are powerful in conveying the importance of individual experience of landscapes. real in the formation of one's identity By exploiting aspects of textual form, composers emphasize the importance of interactions with imagined and remembered landscapes by highlighting the link between the values ​​of social groups and the attributes of their dominant landscape. Conveyed through Toibin's distinctive narrative voice, the characters' interactions with America through imagination or memory are significant because they reveal the inextricable relationship between the nature of a landscape and the social values ​​of its inhabitants. Before her emigration, Eilis perceived America as "totally foreign in its systems", but also with an "almost compensatory glamor" and an "element of romance". Toibin's free indirect narrative style demonstrates that Eilis's recognition of America as a young and progressive landscape is linked to the value that American society places on the outward image, indicated by the splendid imagery. During their sea crossing, Eilis' roommate emphasizes the importance of physical appearance in accessing the "land of the free and the brave." By alluding to the American national anthem through dialogue, another key aspect of narrative voice, Georgina's recollection of her own experience in Brooklyn reveals the importance of outward appearance to advancing in American society. Toibin's use of free indirect speech extends to Tony's imagined landscape of Long Island, as he tells Eilis that "the house would be theirs...they could plan it themselves." The dynamism of the New York landscape demonstrated through Tony's imagined interactions with a still underdeveloped Long Island underscores the values ​​of risk-taking and daring valued by the American dream. Experiencing an American beach through his imagination, Jim remarks to Eilis that "you would attract all types of people there." The dialogue here reveals that the importance of his imagined experience of Brooklyn is the impression of the cultural diversity and dynamism of America. Thus, Toibin's manipulation of the narrative voice within a novelistic form emphasizes imagined and remembered experiences of the landscape as meaningful by revealing the reciprocal relationship between the landscape and the values ​​of its inhabitants. By reliving the Australian natural landscape through memory, Noonuccal, through a poetic voice, reinforces its importance in shaping the predominant values ​​of the Aboriginal community. Noonuccal deliberately chooses first-person narration in this dramatic monologue so that the Aboriginal experience of the Australian natural landscape is concentrated in a single perspective. His direct observations also reflect the oral tradition of storytelling that is integral to Indigenous tradition, with Noonuccal's overall use of a poetic voice emphasizing the cultural values ​​attached to the landscape. Additionally, Noonuccal's use of diction.