The Role Of Eilis In The Hero's Journey

The Hero’s Journey is an “infinitely flexible structure” used for stories from all over the world and across many different time periods, which intends to glorify the protagonist. In Brooklyn, Eilis, the young protagonist, who moved from her little town in Ireland to the US, seems to gradually transition from a passive girl to this strong young women. However, despite gaining self-confidence, she never gained anything from her experience. Although there are stages where her story fits in the hero’s journey, she isn’t a representation of that template, as she didn’t manage to gain anything meaningful from her experience, and instead ultimately lost her free will. At the start of the book, Eilis always let others control her life, and this

However, she was hit with the sudden news of her sister, Rose’s death, prompting her to go back to Ireland. During her time there, which was initially intended to be used to grief, she made the decision to involve herself into an intimate relationship with a fellow countryman, Jim Farrell despite having recently married an American named Tony. Eilis’ life “began to tremble” due to her decisions in involving herself in an extramarital relationship with Jim. She was “filled...with fear”, as she is contemplating whether to leave her mother, Jim, and Ireland or to go back to Brooklyn and Tony, who she had promised about her return to Brooklyn. Her issues would further increase not long after, as Ms. Kelly, her former boss threatened to spread the story to the whole town. She then realized that she had to tell her mother, who was obviously disappointed after uncovering what had happened. However, as she was leaving Ireland, Eilis knew that “sometime in the future, she thought, she would look at them and remember what would soon….seem like a strange, hazy dream to her” (251). Eilis knew that the dilemma she had to face won’t matter in the future. So, what did Eilis gain from her turbulent experience in Ireland? The point of the Hero’s journey is that the protagonist would progress and achieve something or maybe learn an

This passage from Mary Oliver’s The Journey perfectly sums up how Eilis would leave behind Brooklyn. She, “little by little” would begin to “le[ave] their voices behind”, her mother, Jim, and Ms. Kelly’s, back in Ireland. Also, “the stars”, which is a representation of the past in the context of Brooklyn would “beg[i]n to burn”, and be insignificant. Eilis’ story is although a journey, it lacked the components that make it a hero’s journey because ultimately you’re only a hero if you achieve something, and Eilis achieves nothing but rather lost the one thing she always had beside her, the ability to