The loneliness of the immigrant experience
At the beginning of the book, Eilis did not want to go the United States and leave everything she knows so well behind so she could start a new life. At that point the only thing she had known was Ireland and the traditions and customs that applied to her town/area. Albeit she has probably visited places around the U.K., she had not been anywhere across the ocean, and this is evident because of the way she did not know about the sickness she would endure on the ship if she ate as much food as she did. “She was nobody here. It was not just that she had no friends and family; it was rather that she was a ghost in this room, in the streets on the way to work, on the shop floor. Nothing meant anything.” This quote is a great example of how she thought of herself after she got to America and she felt alone and that her being there had no value to those around her, and how everything around her meant very little as well. Another great example is “I wish that I could stop feeling that I want to be an Irish girl in Ireland.” which very clearly projects the homesickness she feels at the start of her time in the U.S. She felt out of place and like she didn’t belong, and this idea is quite prominent throughout the book. Throughout various stages of the book she would feel like she was not in the right place. After she started dating Tony, however, she felt like she had more of a connection to the people, and this helped her settle in.