Eveline
...n the short time they knew each other, Frank gave Eveline attention that she had never witnessed prior. Eveline tells us Frank would meet her outside the Stores every evening and see her home. He would sing to her and call her a pet name, “Poppen” out of fun. He took her to the theater to see The Bohemian Girl. This was adventure, attention and fun that Eveline had never witnessed before. On top of all, Frank had promised to take Eveline away to a distant unknown country to start a life that only Eveline could dream about. Being so caught up in the excitement and dreams, I believe Eveline’s feeling for Frank were less of love and more of the need for attention and the desire to escape to her dreams. As you read the story, you also realize Eveline was not a normal nineteen-year-old, in the fact, that she had to deal with some pretty harsh violence. Throughout the story, although you see Eveline is trying to sugarcoat her life, the mention of abuse and violence comes shining though. In the second paragraph, Eveline tells us her father would “hunt them in out of the field with his blackthorn stick” (Page 4). Not just any stick, but “his” blackthorn stick, which was obviously well known and well used. Eveline goes on to accuse her father of killing her mother because of his violence causing her mother’s palpitations. Eveline talks of missing much of her father’s violence because her mother and brother’s protected her, but now that everyone is gone, her father’s violence is scaring her. Eveline tells us about her father’s “fairly bad” Saturday night behavior and his verbal abuse of squandering money. Lastly, Eveline tell us her feelings about her mother’s death and her mother’s pitiful life that ended in “final craziness” (Page 6). These are harsh accusations of abuse, violence and being alone with such a man. The need to get away and not turn into her mother was so strong that Eveline would have overlooked the lack of love for Frank. Throughout the whole story, Eveline uses the word respect many times. She wonders if the ladies at the Stores would respect her. She tells us her mother had no respect from anyone and she died without respect. She mentions that people would respect her if she married a man like Frank. It seems more than happiness and love; Eveline desire...