Eveline

Eveline by James Joyce was slightly disappointing to say the least.  It was rather anticlimactic; however, if looked at with a little Hollywood pizzaz, it becomes a very interesting story.  Eveline is a girl in an extremely tough situation.  She is stuck in a drab, possibly abusive, and degrading situation up keeping the house with her father.  Contrasting that is Frank's promise.  Frank is promising Eveline a wonderful life in Buenos Aires that leaves all of the worries that she has had behind.  We see her attempt to defend that wondrous dream; however, this quote may show that deep down, she has not fully bought into the full idea of leaving.  "Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition"(Joyce, 222).  Additionally, she feels a sense of obligation towards her father.  Even though her father is possibly becoming violent, she remembers that kind sides that her father occasionally has and feels she must stay.  Along with that is her promise that she made to her terminal mother.  Before her mother died, Eveline promised her that she would keep the home together for as long as she could.  However, with all of the awful memories of her mother's death, her brother's death, the drabness of the atmosphere, and her long departed friends, it would seem that her solution to the problem would be to move out.  In the end though, she realizes she cannot just leave onto some voyage she does not know she wants to take and abandon her struggling father.