Brooklyn

“Eilis wondered if this was a reference to her own mother’s consistent dealing in another grocery shop, but she was not sure. Miss Kelly’s thick glasses made the expression on her face difficult to read.”

Miss Kelly judges the people of the town and has favorite customers that she will serve before others. In this moment, Eilis wonders if her family is looked down upon by Miss Kelly because her mother shops at a different store or if her mother shops elsewhere because of pre-existing judgment.

“As each customer came into the shop on the days when she was being trained, Eilis noticed that Miss Kelly had a different tone. Sometimes she said nothing at all, merely clenched her jaw and stood behind the counter in a pose that suggested deep disapproval of the customer’s presence in her shop and an impatience for that customer to go.”

Miss Kelly’s judgment results in varying treatment of her customers. She creates a hierarchy in the town, in which preferred customers have access to better service and better products. Because her store is the only one open on Sundays, she has significant power over people’s lives.

“She also did not know if the other two also realized that this was the first time they had laughed at this table since Jack had followed the others to Birmingham.”

Eilis’s three brothers move to England before the beginning of the novel to find work. The atmosphere in her home changes after they leave, and when she makes her mother and sister laugh, she realizes that much of the laughter they once enjoyed left with her brother, demonstrating how they can be homesick for him without ever leaving home.