Eveline

            James Joyce is telling the story of a scared young girl, unsure about what to do with her life. In the story "Eveline", the reader is presented with many different conflicts involving herself, her family, the promise she made to her late mother, and the man she supposedly wants to spend the rest of her life with, Frank. In the beginning of the story, Eveline is said to be staring out her window looking at the objects passing by. This gives her a way to clear her head, a way to make up her mind about what she should do. It lets her answer the questions that have been in her mind: Was it right to leave her father? Is she betraying the promise that she made to her mother on her deathbed? Does she or will she ever love Frank?.
             Eveline knows that the life that she has with her father will never make her happy. She has taken on all the responsibilities of running a household and her father expects him done the way he wants. He has become more violent as the years have gone on and could possibly hurt Eveline one day. As she thought about her miserable situation at home and how she couldn't wait to leave it, something clicked in her mind; she would be leaving her home. She would be leaving all the familiar objects and memories that she grew up with. Such objects as a yellowing picture of a man that she did not know. All the memories of happier times when her mother was alive and her father was a decent man. As she thought about this she became scared and became very unsure about leaving everyone and everything she knew. She was leaving with a man that was not that familiar to her, a man that would take her away for good.
             Frank was a sailor with whom Eveline was going to run away with. He was going to take her away from all her misery and give her anything she could ever want. Eveline knew that she would be treated with respect and not how her mother was treated. They were going to leave at night on a boat to a foreign country where they would get married.