English Review, Brooklyn by Colm Toibín

            Brooklyn is begins in 1950's Wexford, it is  about a young girl named Eilis Lacey. Due to difficulty finding a job, Eilis' sister Rose has arranged for her to emmigrate to Brooklyn, New York. Eilis knows this is the only option for her so she leaves all she knows and loves in Ireland and sets off to start her new life in America. This book describes her journey to Brooklyn and the many trials and tribulations she faces when she arrives.
           There are many aspects of this novel that stood out to me, these include : the characters, themes, style of writing, cultural context and the author's vision.
            I really enjoyed watching the character of Eilis develop through the novel as she adapted to her new life. She started off as a shy timid girl, who depended largely on her family, and grew into an independant capable woman who could fend for herself. She showed great bravery throughout the novel especially when she left Ireland, I found this a very admirable quality in the character of Eilis. I found the charactee easy to connect with and very well portrayed. There were also many other characters that impressed me for example Ms. Kelly, who in my opinion was described impecably, Rose, and Ms.  Kehoe.
            There was also  many interesting themes running through the novel, the one that stood out the most to me is the theme of love. The theme of love mainly featured after Eilis moved to Brooklyn, when she meets Tony, an Italian-American who she meets at a local dance. She almost instantly falls in love with him and his kind gentlemanly manner. She begins her relationship with Tony with a few date, but as the story progresses they begin to see each other more and more until it becomes a daily occurence. They soon marry and make plans for the future, but then a major twist in the plot puts their relationship in jeopardy.
           The style of writing used by the author was in some respects good, such as his narrative which was in the third person, which meant we knew everything that was going on and we were not biased towards the views of one particular character and also the authors use of strong poignant imagery. However there was some parts of the style of writing used in this novel that didn't appeal to me, for example the layout of the novel, it was set into four long sections. I felt that this made the novel much too cramped together and in my opinion the use of chapters of about 10-15 pages would have been much better.
            The cultural context of the novel was quite interesting. It was set in the 1950's where social classes were very predominant and values were very different to today. There was also quite a huge contrast between the way of life as Eilis moves from Enniscorthy to Brooklyn, This showed me how much more advanced in society Americans were to Irish. I believe the cultural context in this novel gave us a great insight into life back in the 50's and educated us about the time.
            The vision of the novel was both optimistic and pessemistic, the optimism was seen in our hope for Eilis, her overcoming of her homesickness, and the prospect of new love. However there was some pessimism in the theme of death and homesickness.
            Personally I really enjoyed the novel and I would definately recommend it to people because of the excellent way in which it was written, I believe Colm Toibin is a fantastic author and would definately read another of his books.

colour me beautiful

last week we had a colour me beautiful talk, we learned all about what colours suit our skin eyes and hair. i learned that i was a soft and the colours that suited me were soft colours like brown, green and red.
it was a very interesting talk and i learned lots

we also went to see don giovanni in the swan cinema in rathmines,it was streamed live from the met opera house in new york! it was very well put together and i enjoyed the day

edublog nomination

I want to nominate caitriona for the best student blog at the edublog awards :)

GO CAITRÍONA !!!!
(goood luck)

Work experience day 5

Today was my last day of work experience :(. I've had such a good time!!
This morning I was cutting out elves (which took forever and my fingers are still sore) and then I took the girls one by one down to the back of the classroom to test their "tricky words", I had to put a tick beside the ones they knee and an x beside the ones they didn't. Then I went into aoifes junior infants class to help them with art. they were doing painting but they put masking tape under the painting to leave parts of it White. After that I finished off cutting elves and playing with the girls. At their home time they gave me a card that they had all signed and a box of quality street. I was so sad when they left. Then I went into emmas class to help her stick things onto paper.
I wish it wasn't over, the week went so fast and I loved it. I know for definate now that I want to be a primary school teacher !!!!

Work experience day 4

This morning the girls in my class had d.e.a.r. Time so I went around helping them to sound out the hard words. After that they had maths, they were doing 'the story of 5' so I had to give them five cubes to count with. After that I went down to the hall to help with the fifth class science fair, some of the projects were pretty cool. After that I helped two girls with their sounds and their alphabet. I helped them to colour in elves too and then I had to cut them all out. I have to say I'm really going to miss the class I'm in, and the school in general :(.

Work experience day 3

When I got in this morning I was sent straights into the sixth class girls to help them finish off their projects and set them up for the intel science fair. All of the projects were amazing. The group that I spent most of the time helping did their project about the calming effects of tea, they won and they are through to the next round.
We had to go on a few shop runs after that to get some vinegar and kitchen roll. Then we went back to our classes ( mine was senior infants ) and I helped with art and we took them down to the science fair to look at the projects. Then before I knew it it was time for lunch. when I got back from lunch I helped the girls with colouring and then I had to rule lines in their copies. By the time I was finished the girls were gone home, so I went in to aoife to help her laminate pages and cut things out. When we were done ms m asked us to help her rule lines in her classes copies too, it took us ages and we stayed back almost an hour longer to get them done.

Work experience day two

Today was amazing, I love being back at my old primary school. I started off the day by making titles for the notice boards and cutting them out, then I made a list of all of the books that we picked out for the class library from the book fair. Afterbreak I took the girls three at a time to do art. We drew out a giant high heel and we stuck fabric scraps onto the shoe and painted the heel and sole red, we also stuck tin foil on the inside of the shoe. It looked pretty good. Then after lunch ms pierce took us down to the hall to take down all of the art off the notice boards and give it out to the different classes. Then we went up to the sixth class girls to help them with their intel science fair projects because the science fair was taking place tomorrow. It was a great day and I was really busy

Work experience day 1

Well today I started my work experience, it was pretty cool. I went back to my old primary school, i only realise how much I miss itnow. I was put in a senior infants class, :)
I started off the day by sorting out the girls folders, then I helped them with their maths and I helped a girl with her sounds and her letters, after that we took the girls to the book fair and they chose 8 books for their class library. They also did drama and religion and SESE, we took them on a walk down the village afterwards to show them all thedifferent shops.
It was a great day and I really enjoyed it :)

Work experience

So tomorrow's the first day of work experience, I'm really exited but a little nervous too. I'm going to scoil Naomh brid, my old primary school. I'm really looking forward to it because I want to be a teacher when I leave school. On Friday we had a workshop telling us what to wear, solving problems, health and safety and stuff like that.