<Eveline>

<Eveline>, by James Joyce

Rating: 9/10

    I loved how this story depicted Eveline's inner turmoil so well. She's drawn as a typical woman of a patricentric society. I do sympathize with Eveline's thinking that her family is not so awful after all, as I also fought very often with my parents and had bad times with them, but still love them and those awful memories are covered by happy and warm ones. However, I don't mean that I think she made a smart decision. Eveline knows her mom's end of her life. She knows how she suffered through her life. Maintaining the family together? That should be pursued when she is treated properly as a daughter, as a family, as an independent human being. How can it be more important than pursuing a proper, realized life and her own identity? I think the historical and personal background were a big role in barring her from escaping her paralyzed life and opening a new path with Frank. What could have been the reason for her to change her mind at the last second? Maybe she didn't trust and relied on Frank that much...maybe she was afraid of afecting the rest of the family...maybe it was the society's wrongful norm...