Eveline and Scar - Literature review Example

Her dedication to form a thoughtful generation is evident from her involvement in encouraging young children to write. The second story Eveline was written by Joyce, James who was thought to be one of the most accomplished English writers. Being born and brought up in a middle class Irish family at Dublin, his fictional works flourished on the beautiful backgrounds of his hometown. Eveline is a story which emphasizes on the importance of environment, circumstances and heredity in developing one’s future and character.

Nevertheless, both these stories speak about the hard realities of girl children growing up in a male dominated society. The story of Eveline Hill begins as she was sitting at her Dublin home. Since she was about to take a big step in her life, she was lost in thoughts of her childhood. Though, she had been leading an unhappy life dealing with the awkward circumstances of her own kin, leaving the dear and near ones caused pain in her consciousness. Where as in Scar, the discomfort in An-Mei’s life was caused by the emotional constraints she had incurred since her childhood at the hands of her existing family members.

People around her told that her mother was not loyal to her father or to the family. She recalls her mother leaving, but, somehow, she never felt that her mother was abandoning her. She, thereafter, grew up under the distasteful care of her grandmother, uncle and aunt. An-Mei’s father was dead even before she could remember him and her grandmother insisted her to think that her mother too was dead. Grandmother accused An-Mei’s mother of bringing great disgrace to the family by becoming the last concubine of a rich man elsewhere.

Grandmother, however, loved the little children, at the same time she wanted to bring the sense of respect for the adult authority in them. Thus she used to tell scary stories of disobedient children being punished or tormented by spirits to the little ones. An-mei and her little brother literally believed those stories; hence she became extremely frightened and unhappy about the life in that large house Ningpo. While An-Mei’s mother was forced to leave her by an abusive husband, Eeveline’s mother surrendered herself to death at the end of an uneventful, sad life.

Since then Eveline was left to live with an abusive father. Even though she was not happy, she endured the hard life, because keeping the family together was her promise to her dying mother. She had kept her word all her life, now it was time for her to free herself from this pitiful life. Her lover Frank was going to take her to a new world, to a new happy life. She discussed it with her lover Frank and agreed to leave with him on the boat that night, but her love for her dear and near ones inflamed her heart to recall the sunnier days of her family.

She recalls that her father was not always mean; he used to be sweet to them while their mother was alive. Her intelligence urged her to escape and live a life of love and comfort, while her heart remained unwilling to take a decision. As a matter of fact, the hearts of the readers sink towards the end of both the stories. Yet Eveline and An-Mei had learned many positives for their lives. An-mei began to realize the meanings of the scary stories her grandmother had told her. She recalled the day on which her mother was forced out of the house.

Her mother was pleading to have An-Mei with her, but her grandmother would never let the child go and have a faceless, fallen life with her mother. As An-mei stood without realizing the impact of losing her mothers love, but recognizing the hysteric cries of her mother, a bowl of boiling soup spilled on her tiny face. The little girl almost died, but now she realized that it was grandmother’