Evaline

Personally, I did not like the story of Evaline. I thought it was too short and it left you hanging and I hate when stories do that! The ending is what really made me not like the story. I think that Frank could have offered her more of a life than what she had with her father and her other family. I hate that she left Frank to go back to her abusive father. She could have escaped her past, but instead she felt obligated by her dead mother to stay. Honestly, I do not think that Evaline was really needed at home because all of her siblings were grown up and I think that they could have take care of themselves on their own. The father deserved to be alone because of what he did to Evaline. I always wonder when I read about the father whether he was always absusive toward his family when his wife was alive. Maybe when she was alive, he was not abusive. That's kind of how I imagine it. If this is true, then I think the father needs to get over his wife's death and stop taking out his problems on his family. I know death is hard but there's no excuse to take it out on other people, especially your family, people you love. I also didn't like how the father expected Evaline to pay for dinners and such. The father should have taken care of dinners on his own. I think that if Evaline did leave, that maybe the father would realize that. I kind of think that Evaline needed to leave in order to be happy again, because throughout the whole story she was so unhappy and she was so caught up in what other people would think about her. Maybe if she left, she could find herself and realize what she has been missing in life.
I do like James Joyce's writing style. It all flows very nicely together and I love her strong adjectives. Whenever she describes something, it's almost like you're there and I can really see it. I love writers with that capability. Just from the first paragraph, when she says, "She sat at the window watching evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the odor or dusty cretonne. She was tired," you get such a good idea of where the story is and it pulls you in (Joyce 218). Just from reading those three sentences, I had already so many questions in my mind; Who is she, is the window opened or closed?, what is cretonne?, what was she tried about?. Already you are involved in the story and that is what I like most about her; you're sucked in and want to know more. That's what I think makes a good writer.