Essay Questions

How are love and relationships highlighted in Eureka Street?

After Jake suffers a heartbreak from his ex-girlfriend, love seems to not be his portion at first. However, the situation changes later when two American girls migrate to Ireland following a war in their home country. Even though Jack and Aoirghe do not seem to click at first, they later manage to handle each other’s differences and fall for each other. On the other hand, Chuckie gets into a relationship with Max, also an American and a friend of Aoirghe’s. Love and relationships are thus explored in this way in this novel.

What role does poverty play in the lives of both Chuckie and Jack?

Both Jack and Chuckie are born into impoverished families. As a result of the unending desire to break free of this poverty confines, the characters each devise ways of improving their lives. Chuckie gets into business selling dildos to women and conning them. In the end, he becomes quite wealthy, a personality. On the other hand, Jack who was also a bad poor but who has now reformed stays clear. Poverty can thus be argued as a major driver of the characters’ need and desire to be successful. Poverty is the driver of their success, in a way.

Compare and contrast the characters of Chuckie and Jack as portrayed in Eureka Street.

Jack and Chuckie, born into impoverished families both share the drive to be successful and break free of poverty. In this way, these characters can be argued as ambitious. On the one hand, however, Chuckie exhibits moral bankruptcy as he cons people whereas Jack, being a reformed individual sticks to his principles. Chuck is dishonest in his business dealings with his customers and uses any method as long as it would help get him out of poverty. In this way, he is a mercenary. While both Jack and Chuckie are different personalities, they share some traits including ambitiousness.