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St Columba´s College

Transition Year Programme : English Department

Extended Essay

EMIGRATION

ANNIKA FRANZ IV FORM

MICHAELMAS TERM 2010

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Reasons for Emigration

Chapter 2 - Travel

Chapter 3 - Start of New Life

Chapter 4 - Integration of the Characters

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

I have chosen  three different books for my Extended Essay which are Dream Chaser by^[a] John O´Neill, Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín and Famine Diary by Gerald Keegan. The central theme of all three books is Emigration. I chose this topic because I think it has always been a relevant and actual theme in the past as it will be in the future, too.

On top of that it is a topic that is mostly relevant for young people, so I am able to make my own opinion about how I would decide at their place. In my opinion it is interesting to see why people want or don´t want to leave their home country, what their dreams, plans, and fears are, and how the beginning of their new lives look like. Besides, I can compare the developing of the stories, find parallels but also huge differences between the three destinies.^[b]

My first book Dream Chaser is about a young, Irish woman with a lovely and good-thinking character called Eleanor, who has a personal dream, which is to start a new, exciting and successful life in the United States of America. But as she arrives together with her younger sister at her uncles´ house, nothing is as she expected it to be. In the eyes of her evil aunt, she is only good enough to fulfil the condition of a housemaid, without having the chance of getting a proper education. One fine day, she escapes from her awful, new home and gets a hideout at her friends´ house who she got to know on the boat travel. Now, she is able to build up her own life by working hard in a factory, going to a night school and working on her own hat design. Every day she gets closer to her dream, without knowing that her uncle is already searching for her to bring her back to his house...

My second book Brooklyn also tells the story of a young, Irish woman called Eilis, who lives together with her mother and her older sister Rose, with whom she shares a very close relation, also since her father died. She has no proper job that would correspond to her education, and she can pretty much see how the rest of her calm and innocent life will be. Without letting her know, Rose organizes Eilis emigration to America, who first is shocked, but after a while she recognizes that this had been the best her sister could ever done for her. It gives her the chance to start a new life in an amazing and exciting country! Her life is perfect until she comes to know, that her sister died. Now, there is an hard upcoming decision, she has to take. Going back home to her mother or continue building up her new life in America?

My third book Famine Diary, Journey to a New World  is a real diary of a young, Irish teacher who writes about the actual situation in Ireland, by adding also his personal feelings and observations. The facts in this book are based on reality that occurred in and around 1845. The diary shows perfectly what is going on in his home country, what the problems and inequities are and why in the end, he decides to leave his land together with his recently married wife Eileen. It is his last chance and he knows that there is no way out of this awful situation.  But he doesn´t know that the boat journey that he will have to go through is going to ruin his whole life.

In my essay I am going to look at four main chapters which are : Reasons for emigration, the Travel, the start of the new life,and their situation at the end. I want to find out the most as possible about these four main topics in my books to compare them.^[c]

In my essay, I literally go through the emigration process that the characters of all three books have to face, to be able to make my own opinion about this topic.^[d]

1. Reasons^[e] for Emigration

There are many different reasons, that could be cause for emigration. The most popular reasons are : join the family, which already emigrated, looking for a new, proper job, escaping from disease, famine or unhappiness, following a personal dream or wanting to start an adventure in a foreign country.

In my books, there is always one main reason for the emigration. But usually many other various reasons are linked to each other or based on each other. So they might be as important as the main reason, being the small spark to get the decision of the character finally made.

In Dream Chaser, Ellie follows a personal dream of emigrating to America, she wants to start this adventure immediately as she says on p.3 :

America, it´s an exciting place where you don´t know what is going to happen next. Eleanor is a very positive person, carefree, romantic and a dreamer. Her role model is Aunt Mabel who celebrated a great success with her hat design in New York, but an unhappy love brought her back to Ireland. But Eleanor’s dream is to be nearly as successful in this business as her Aunt.  She is not satisfied with the job-possibilities that are offered her at home. On top of that she doesn´t want to spend the rest of her life on the farm of her family, knowing that her distinction is something else. As her father dies,  her mother decides with a heavy heart, to send Eleanor and her little sister to relatives in New York, because she has 4 children and is pregnant again. This is an enormous chance for Eleanor, even if she grieves for her dad.

In Brooklyn, Eilis never thought of emigrating and leaving her mother alone, knowing that the death of her father a few months ago was a slap in the face for them all. It isn´t Eilis who gets the idea of emigrating. It is her older sister, Rose who wants to offer her younger sister this opportunity. But Eilis’ feelings about this on p.29 :

Even when she woke in the night and thought about it, she did not allow herself to conclude that she did not want to go.^[f] 

But as she recognizes that her job is ridiculous and boring (she works in Miss Kelly´s grocery shop), and she never really tried something different or exciting in her life, she decides to follow the examples of her 2 older brother who are already living their new lives in America.

In Famine Diary, Gerald Keegan, a school teacher, loves his home country over all. p.6:The average Irishman is a lover of conversation, music, poetry and^[g] with a great sense of decency.

But his reasons for leaving are the awful Famine, the suppression of English landlords and the State Church who control and take advantage of the Irish people.  

We are the victims of England´s economic policies.

All the crop that Irish farmers produce are directly exported to the United Kingdom. Gerald says at one point in the book :

 It is such a contradiction that , in one of the richest agricultural lands on the world, people are dying of hunger!(p.14/15)

He doesn´t recognize his home land anymore which is full of sadness and poverty. Over a period of time, he notices how the situation in his country gets worse and worse.He sees the emigration as his last chance to get out of this misery and as a chance to begin a better life together with his love, Eileen.

I notice that all three stories have in common that there is a disaffection in their lives or in their environment which affects that the emigration gets interesting for them because it is a new point of view. It shows them that it´s up to them, that they are free and could leave their country whenever they want to. On top of that, I discovered that between Dream Chaser^[h] and Brooklyn are much more parallels from the beginning of the story. On the whole it is about a young woman who wants to experience something new in her life, whereas the main character in Famine Diary is absolutely against emigration until he sees that there is no other way out of it.^[i]

2.Travel

All three characters chose the most popular and easiest way to emigrate. The travel by boat, which is the very start of the great adventure. During this chapter I am going to find the most important points of the different travels to be able to compare them and to decide which one was the worst.

First, the emigrants had to get a place on the boat that was always overcrowded. If they got a place in the second class, everything was fine, except from the seasickness that a lot of traveller had to go through. But in second class they had a small room with a bed, they got food and were safe. Unfortunately most of the emigrants did not have this chance and were together with hundreds of people in the boat, treated like animals and the hygienic circumstances were horrific. A great number of people died during this time, mostly because they got ill or weak and their bodies weren´t strong enough anymore. Perhaps most of them would have survived if the travel wouldn´t last an amount of weeks.

In Dream Chaser, Eleanor and her younger sister Alice travel together to America. They are so glad having each other, that they decide on the first day on the boat, to never fight again about silly things. Eleanor and Alice are travelling steerage, that means that they sleep together with a lot of people in a big room.Both of them have to overcome the seasickness, and as they get to know Viola and Zak with whom they make friends with, the rest of the travel is without any tumult. Between Eleanor and Zak is even more than friendship, and as Zak likes Eleanor very much, he offers her the possibility to take part in tea dances, and other entertainment because he travels first class, what Eleanor enjoys a lot.

In Brooklyn Eilis has to face that she travels the long way to America all alone. But briefly after she settles down in her 2-bed cabin, she is lucky to get to know Georgina who can help and gives her advice in a lot of things because she lives already in the United States and is used to the occurrence of seasickness, homesickness, etc. On top of that she can prepare her for the emigration inspections in Staten Island and helps her to bring her appearance to perfection. So Eilis has a great luck to have Georgina, comparing to Eilis and Alice having Viola and Zak I think it is very similar, except that Eilis falls in love with her acquaintance and Eleanor obviously not.

In Famine Diary Gerald and Eileen read a newspaper description of ocean travel before going on the boat :

The crossing takes thirty-six to eighty days. The passengers are herded into small crafts, with usually 250 to 500 per boat. Sleeping quarters are in the low, dark steerage between decks and midship. Sanitation, if any, is of the slop jar variety.

As they enter the boat which is already full, a crowd of people begins to climb aboard, so there is hardly room to turn on the deck. The only food the emigrants get are sea biscuits,p.66:

the mouldy and tough sea biscuits were served every day, but the people were so famished that they ate them without complaint.

After a time, the majority of the passengers  turn sick from the unhealthy air in the hold. On top of that the steerage is filthy and the water unfit to drink. But as he confronts the captain with these observations he doesn´t get any sign of comprehension. He even gets in a big fight with an aggressive mate and his situation could not get worse as Eileen turns seriously ill so he has to fight for her life by supporting her in any kind of way without medical help.

In this Chapter I must say that Famine Diary is by far the most shocking, pulsating and enthralling book of all three. The conditions under which the passengers had to hold out for several weeks were unacceptable and inhuman. Gerald and Eilis and all the other passengers didn´t get any support or pitifulness, they had to help themselves, trying to stay alive even if they felt so weak that they wanted to die. In the books Dream Chaser and Brooklyn the conditions were fairly similar to each other, they weren´t brilliant but indeed thousand times better than in Famine Diary. In my opinion, the time during which the book takes place, plays a big role. Dream Chaser and Brooklyn occur in the early nineteenth century whereas Famine Diary takes place in 1847 when Ireland has to face a great famine and is oppressed by the British Empire. The conditions were so bad because such a huge amount of people wanted to emigrate at the same time, so they were pound like animals in the underground of the boats.^[j]

3. Start of New Life

In Dream Chaser Eleanor and Alice arrive with following expectations at their uncles´ house. They will get a proper education, a nice, warmhearted and caring aunt that will replace their mother in a certain kind of way, and of course, a new and better life with more freedom and chances. But as they arrive, everything is different. The two sisters are treated like servants and cleaners by the evil aunt. Alice goes to school, but Eleanor is not allowed to go to college, because she has to work all day long in the house. As she begs for education her aunt says on p.94 : 

You are not here for a holiday !

Eleanor is desperate and totally unhappy in her situation but she doesn´t talk to anyone about it.

In Brooklyn Eilis arrives at the boarders house and she describes the living with 8 other people, mostly young women as she is who came from abroad and want to find a job and a man. Eilis is completely focused on her plan which is to study bookkeeping to become a bookkeeper. During the day she works as a cashier in a shop and at nighttime, when others go out and have fun, she visits her bookkeeping lessons. She does really well and tries to ignore her homesickness. But on p.67 her feelings are obvious: She was nobody here. It was not just that she had no friends and family; it was rather that she was a ghost here. Nothing meant anything. 

Between these two books I see again a lot of parallels. Both arrive at the new country with great expectations, but soon they realize that a lot of hard work is going to face their lives and they learn that some people not always want the best for them. But I must say that both characters possess the force to not let their dream out of their sight and to stay on their way.

In Famine Diary everything did not take course as it was meant to. Gerald and Eileen never arrived at Quebec in Canada. As they helped voluntarily to transport the dead and sick out of the boat and onto Gross île (also known as the Island of Death) both were left there and the boat continued its travel without them! They were told that another steamer full of emigrants would come a week later and pick them up, but as Eileen’s fever gets worse and worse, they are not allowed to leave the Island. Gerald does his best to keep his wife alive without the help of any medical help.But unfortunately she dies shortly after they were dropped off at this horrific place. The tragic death of his wife is at the same time the start of his new life.

Integration of the Characters

In Dream Chaser Eleanor finally escapes from her imprisoned home and hides from her uncle at Violas´ house. This is the second start of her new life because now she gets what she wants. Eleanor starts working as a sewer in a factory and additionally she continues developing hat design. Everything is perfect as she approaches Zak again and they start going out with each other. But as she soon notices, Zak wants more than that, although Eleanor is not ready to let all her job-related success as a hat designer behind her yet to get a housewife and mother.

At this point I see that Eleanor has become a modern and independent woman. Even if she is aware of hurting Zak with her decision, she knows that it is the best for her. Because she learned during her new life that she has to see first what is^[k] best for her and for her well-being before she wants to make others happy. And this has a huge importance for all decisions that she will have to make in her forthcoming life.

But as she gets a letter from her family her hard mask breaks and she immediately travels back to her home. Eleanor is so happy to see everyone and everything again that is so familiar for her. But deep in her she knows that she already found her place in America and that she won´t stay for the rest of her life on the farm. For her, the emigration is the best she could have ever dared to do in her life, because this gave her the possibility to find out what is best for her and what is really important in her own life.

In Brooklyn Eilis builds up her own life, too, which is dedicated by hard work during the day and meeting her boyfriend, Tony, at night. She becomes accustomed and a new life and happiness are in store for her. As in Dream Chaser it took her some time to fit in and to find her own way but when she gets so close with the Italian plumber, Tony, she knows where she belongs and she can imagine staying with him for the rest of her life. But suddenly the message of the death of her sister, Rose, makes her completely upset and she knows that she must go home to support her mother. After a week she finally lets the cat out of the bag and tells her mother that she got married in America. Her mothers reaction is calm, she just wants to know if he is kind and nice. So she says on p. 248 :  Eilis, if you are married, you should be with your husband. And I´ll miss you. But he must be missing you, too.

The very next day, Eilis travels back to Brooklyn with tears in her eyes but knowing that it is the right decision. For her.

As I could observe in both books, I must say that it is anything but easy to integrate in a foreign country without losing the own plans out of the sight. It takes a certain time until the wounds of the goodbye and the shock of the start heal, but then both of them find their place and can be proud of themselves that they passed the hard times.

Eilis and Eleanor built up their own lives in America but at one point they both feel the strong desire to come back home. Their roots are still there and their families are part of their lives, even if they let them behind them for their dreams.

In Famine Diary Gerald never got the possibility to integrate because he stayed the rest of his short life on the Island of death. But in a certain kind of way he becomes integrated by finding his destination as a helper of the victims. As he soon finds out, the Island is the last stop of all steamers to get rid of sick, nearly dead or dead passengers who were not strong enough for the exhausting travel. He decides to stay and to help his fellow countrymen who get delivered at the island to die. He does the best he can, working 18 hours a day as an attendant among the sick. Because of the shortage of doctors and nurses it is literally impossible to take care of all the victims. Everyday hundreds of new sick arrive at the Island. In this situation, Gerald shows a great strength to stay, knowing that the fever could overcome him anytime. On p. 110 he says:

Here is my destiny. What better way to spend my days in serving people who are going through some of the agony that I felt.

I personally am impressed of this attitude. In my eyes, Gerald is one of these heroes who sacrifice themselves to save others´ lives.

Conclusion

After having written this essay, knowing the books and their characters well enough, I have to say that I am glad that I chose this specific topic. I learned a lot more about the whole emigration process. On top of that I could see how the characters behaved and got on during complicated times, comparing that to me, how I would have acted at their place. I must say that I was throughout reading the books impressed by all 3 main characters. As I wrote in the introduction, I would be able to compare their acting to mine, I have to say that I am unsure if I would have possessed this power to not give up and to stay strong in critical situations.

I noticed that in 2 of my 3 books there were very similar events.These are Dream Chaser and Brooklyn. I could literally go through the the books with a red pen and underline all the parallel things that happened. Fortunately, Famine Diary was totally different.

If I were made to choose my favourite book, I would pick Famine Diary because it was the book where I was fascinated the most by the tragical and shocking true story. I learned a lot about how people can develop a great strength when they are in a difficult situation. I admired the remarkable help that Gerald evolved during his short but intensive lifetime.

Overall the theme of emigration gave rise to some interesting findings as a whole, for example emigration is not easy. It involves a huge process that takes its time. From the beginning with first ideas of emigrating until the start of the new life in another country.

To summarize from the theme of emigration as a whole I conclude that emigration is a great adventure which symbolises a new part of a life but it means also that the old life has to be left behind which isn´t always that easy.^[l][m] 

I am glad to say, that I didn´t have to think about emigration yet because I think it is very hard to decide about such a difficult task. I am satisfied with the situation in my country. But I am sure that one fine day I will have to face this difficult decision, too. Starting a new life in a foreign country, or staying with the ones you already know? This is a question that everyone of us has to answer for themselves more than once in a lifetime.^[n]

Bibliography

• Dream Chaser by John O`Neill
• Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
• Famine Diary- Journey to a New World by Gerald Keegan