Brooklyn: A Migration to Growth and Identity Moving to another country is challenging because it involves having to adapt to a certain culture and belief in order to fit in. The novel Brooklyn, written by Colm Toibin, tells the story of a young Irish woman who immigrates to the United States from Ireland. Evidently over time the protagonist develops a deeper sense of character and self-understanding, reflected in the American way of life. Colm Toibin's novel Brooklyn is about the coming-of-age journey of a young woman, whose immigration to the United States defines her life experiences, ultimately shaping her identity, beliefs, and character. The novel Brooklyn written by Colm Toibin is the story of a young Irish immigrant named Eilis Lacey, who travels from Ireland to the United States in hopes of finding better job prospects. Set in the late 1850s, Eilis lives in a small Irish town called Enniscorthy, with her mother and sister. Despite his knowledge in accounting, he struggles to find a decent job in his village. His sister Rose largely supports the family with her earnings as their brothers have already left for England, where jobs are highly available. According to a secondary source written by Eve Walsh Stoddard, the sense of social and economic suffocation in Ireland along with the grief of losing family to emigration pervades the first pages of the novel (Stoddard 160). Evidently, this is represented in the novel through the separation of the Lacey family. Hoping for a better future for her sister, Rose invites a Catholic priest named Father Flood to their home, to encourage Eilis to immigrate to Brooklyn. In the novel, Father Flood states, “'In the United States,' he said, 'there would be plenty of work for someone like you and with good pay'” (Toibin 24). Father Flood tells Eilis about it