Eveline Symbolism

“Change your thoughts and you change your world” (Norman Vincent Peale). A person’s ways of thinking ultimately decide whether they will live in the world of oppression dictated by the rules of others or to break free and live freely as they choose. James Joyce tells the story of a young women’s battle with her own preconceptions/prejudice to break away from the status quo of a male dominant society and elope with her lover, frank, to a world where happiness awaits her. In Eveline Joyce employs signature craft elements to show the minds’ ability to imprison/entrap people into a state of stasis and isolation Eveline is narrated in third person point of view to show ultimately Eveline’s choice lies within herself. The change that she seeks lies within her. She can be the master of her own destiny if she chooses. The only obstacle standing between her and the future that she desires .Through Eveline’s thoughts it is clear the people she cares about ultimate leaves her, her mother’s death, earnest’s death, her playmates who have moved away and Tizzie Dunn who was dead as well. She realizes that “everything changes.”(Joyce, 25) and it is time for her to leave like …show more content…
The struggle she feels are prevalent in people’s daily lives whether it’s the strength to leave an abusive relationship to the courage to change and overcome oppression in the world. If people can’t overcome the shackle their minds place on them they are no different than a helpless animal waiting to be slaughtered. The ability to break free from the status quo ended slavery, the holocaust and brought about a better world. Change may not always be good but without it there is no progress. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we 've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”( Barack