Good And Evil In Eveline

As children our brains are only developed enough to view problems as a choice between good and evil. It is through growing up and learning from experience that adolescents find out this is barely the case for any decision. The conflict presented in the story “Eveline” is a great example of a situation where neither option is a total victory for everybody, especially the titular character caught between people who need her. Eveline’s struggle is to decide between running away for love, by abandoning her family and church, or staying to keep her family alive, ignoring her desires.
When reading the story “Eveline” the first time, the reader can understand why Eveline contemplates abandoning her family and eloping with Frank, and they might even expect her to board the boat to Buenos Ayres with him. She desires a new start away from her town of Dublin and the people pressuring her when she thinks “in her new home, in a distant unknown country, it would not be like that.” This quote follows memories of the condescending commands she was given while working in the stores. Not only is Eveline’s life remorseless at her work, but her home life is another unappreciated full time job. After her mother dies, she assumes the typical matriarchal status of the house. …show more content…
There was no possibility of her making a decision to benefit everybody that she cared about, including herself. Staying with her family would not cause them to know sincere happiness nor relinquish their suffering, but it would keep them alive and that is all Eveline could offer them. The story asks the reader to question what would be important to them, and us rooting for either side reflects our own personal hierarchy of what is important to us. This causes us to realize that the meaningful decisions in life are not simple and should not be rushed into before thinking or else people can negatively be