Eveline

The short story Eveline is about a young woman at a crossroad. She has the decision to leave with her lover, Frank, to Argentina or be with her family at home. She wonders if she has made the correct choice when ultimately deciding to leave her home and family to be with the man she loves. But once the moment of departure arrives, she becomes indecisive and changes her mind.

The story creates an atmosphere that immediately puts us right in the middle of nineteen-year old Eveline's life. The reader is brought through some early childhood memories up to her present day life, where it is then, that Eveline makes the final decision. After taking note of the rather sheltered, confused, and attached life that Eveline had experienced, it is no surprise as to why her resolution was home.

Through out her life, Eveline was a sheltered young lady. I think this sheltered aspect of her life created an insecurity in which she wouldn't know what to do if the town "found out that she had run away with a fellow". Eveline was so sheltered that she had built up a scare to do anything different or diverse in her life. She didn't have enough outer-relationships to build up the confidence in herself to make her own choices. Eveline was walking in uncharted territory, which most young women her age would have already experienced.

Eveline's life was also built up as a confused vision. Her view was slightly off due to the way her mother had been raised. She did not enjoy her mother's upcoming. Eveline wanted people to treat her with respect. She had the image of a princess fixed deep inside her head. She was confused about whether to stay with her father and continue the normal daily routine, or rather open her eyes and breath new life into what she had been suspended of her entire life.