Character Of Eveline example essay topic

Jean Treuthart Character and Point of View The story "A good Man Is Hard to Find' begins, "The grandmother didn t want to go to Florida. ' This immediately informs us that the focus is on this character and at the same time sets up some foreboding. Flannery O Connor takes would could have been a southern tale of family discord and twists it into an intriguing, shocking event. The grandmother is the main character. She commands the attention while her son and daughter-in-law lack definition and are merely background noise. Specific physical details are not used to describe the grandmother.

You learn that she is a prim and proper Southern woman mainly through her dress. "Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. ' We are told that she has thin veined fingers, but we are left to flesh out our portrait of the grandmother. What is often revealed is the grandmother's controlling manner. She tells her son to drive the speed limit, disciplines her grandchildren and provides a running commentary on the scenery for everyone. Perhaps the son and his wife are distant because they have simply tuned the old woman out of their lives.

Early on it is clear that the grandmother will play an integral part in whatever befalls the family. It is the grandmother who brings up "The Misfit' and who announces that they are passing 5 or 6 graves in the cemetery. She is pleased with her attire for the trip, noting that "anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady. ' It is not a surprise that her actions alone create the misfortune that kills her entire family and, lastly, herself. What makes this story stand out is the ease with which O Connor moves back and forth between different points of view. The story is narrated in third person, often from the perspective of the Grandmother using limited omniscient narration.

We are privy to her thoughts and her view on the scene. At other times, the story is told in a completely objective style, reporting what has happened in the past and allowing the story to unfold in real time. It is a compelling method and, I believe, a complex one. In the text O Connor herself says, "The meaning of fiction is not abstract meaning, but experienced meaning ' And she does an excellent job of drawing us into the experience of this family by giving us information from which to draw our own conclusions. This creates tension in a masterful way. The story is layered with coincidences, references to colors and clues to the upcoming doom (they family drives near Toombs boro).

Heavy religious overtones are added once "The Misfit' arrives. All of these elements are rich and thought-provoking and, in a less skilled writer, might even be too much for a single short story. O Connor uses the grandmother as the central voice for lost respect, family values, doom, insanity and Jesus in other words, she created the quintessential Southern story. "Eveline' is a story about both hope and hopelessness. James Joyce uses the character of Eveline to symbolize the many Irish people who felt compelled to leave their homeland in the early 1900's in search of a brighter future. Eveline is faced with choosing between her family and Frank, a sailor who wants to marry her and take her away for an adventurous life in Buenos Aires.

When she chooses to reject her suitor and remain in her difficult situation, part of us is urging her to go. Is she staying because the unknown is so frightening or because she doesn t truly love Frank and believes she will be even unhappier? Is the lure of home too strong? Joyce's story gives us no physical description of Eveline. He keeps the focus on her struggle, but she is a round character because of her complexity. "Eveline' is written in 3rd person using the limited omniscient point of view that allows us to see the action through the protagonist's perspective.

We are shown that Eveline has the strength to defy her father and see Frank on the side. She is able to plan to leave and to write letters saying good-bye and to show up on the dock ready to sail away. Yet, she fails to find the strength she needs to carry out her plans. Joyce takes us through the struggle inside of Eveline's head. She is weighing her by-rote existence that is punctuated with occasional moments of violence from her father with the chance of being overwhelmed in her new, strange life. Another author might have devised a plot that left us unsure whether she would stay or leave.

Joyce doesn t do this. He tells us that she will not go, but leaves it up to us to sort out her final motivation. It is confusing. We end up caring about Eveline, feeling sorry for her and hoping that she will find a happier life. In the end it is difficult to imagine that Eveline finds a contented or vital existence. Her only hope would be that coming so close to breaking out might make her braver and more likely to reject what isn t working about her life in Ireland.

That is too optimistic. It is easier to see her a lonely, broken woman living in poverty and fear forever, ending up just like her mother. Toni Cade Bambara brings another female character to life in "The Lesson'. Sylvia is the first-person narrator for this social commentary on class, race, values and injustice.

At the beginning of the story an adult Sylvia recounts the past going back to her childhood to tell about the life lessons that were taught by Miss Moore to a group of neighborhood children. The point of view shifts to that of the young Sylvia and we are returned with her to the tedium she experienced at the hands on a college-educated woman who wanted to have an impact of the lives of these children. During a lesson on money, "real money', Miss Moore transports the children to midtown Manhattan in their first taxi rides. Upon arriving at FAO Schwarz, she shows them a world that they hadn t even imagined existed. In this world, a toy sailboat can costs over one thousand dollars, which is more than these families spend a year on food. Sylvia realizes quickly that Miss Moore is trying to get a rise out of them, to have them feel anger at the world for the way things are.

Sylvia refuses to give Miss Moore any satisfaction by participating in the discussion. Her feisty attitude helps create the conflict between Miss Moore and the children. It is clear that they would rather be off at the movies or running the streets, but more importantly, Sylvia resents Miss Moore's intrusion and the way she makes her feel what doesn t want to feel. "Miss Moore looks at me, sorrowfully I m thinkin. And something weird is goin on, I can feel it in my chest. ' Sylvia doesn t understand how making the children painfully aware of what they lack can do them any good.

She resents the manipulation. The language in the story is contemporary and streetwise. Poor grammar and expletives give Sylvia's thoughts a random quality, but there is strength in this character. Sylvia brings us into her world. She is unfiltered and genuine and she tells us about her the neighborhood children with humor and realism. Is Sylvia telling a story about a funny lady she grew up with or did this moment in time have a serious impact on her?

She expresses her feelings with energy and attitude. We might hope that she uses this energy to change the direction of her life, but the beginning introduction by the adult Sylvia gives no indication that this has happened. She may remember Miss Moore years later, but her long-term influence is not apparent. Each of these protagonists in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find,' "Eveline' and "The Lesson' are female, but beyond gender there are few similarities. The strength of Sylvie is markedly different from the pushy controlling nature of the grandmother. Eveline's lack of courage puts her in a different category altogether.

Each of these characters is key to the plot in their stories, but the points of view are different. Perhaps Eveline could have been told in first-person narrative, but the choices made by the authors seem well-suited to the development of the characters and the story lines. Only "The Lesson' has a predictable ending. The ending in "A Good Man Is Hard To Find' is jarring whereas the ending of "Eveline' is simply a frustration. The characters of Eveline and Sylvia deal with poverty in their lives, but the main similarities in the three stories is that they are thought-provoking. None was an easy read.

It was a fascinating exercise to approach three short stories with no preconceived idea of where they would take me. I believe "A Good Man Is Hard To Find' will stay with me the longest. It is the most complex and I undercover more symbolism with each rereading..