Information On Elements Of a Short Story

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Information on Elements of the Short Story The story of “Eveline” is about a girl pondering her past while contemplating her future. She must decide between caring for her father and children or abandoning her homeland with a sailor who has offered her an uncertain future. The author’s unique approach at telling the story gives the audience a deeper look into life in Dublin, Ireland. James Joyce incorporates literary aspects such as plot, point of view, and characterization into “Eveline” to better develop the structure of the story. A plot is a series of events that make up a story. In this short story, the author steers away from the traditional plot. While a plot usually consist of events in chronological order, “Eveline” is filled with flashbacks and uses more of an episodic approach. This allows the reader access to Eveline’s thoughts and desires through her perspective of past events. "It was hard work-a hard life- but now that she was about to leave it she did not find it a wholly undesirable life"(5). We are able to see how her past has influenced her judgment about her present predicament. The point of view is whose perspective the story comes from. In Eveline, Joyce tells the story in third person point of view. At the beginning, he acts as though he is looking at Eveline from across the room, describing her posture, her appearance, and her despair. Then, the narrator enters the mind of Eveline and tells the rest of the story from there, revealing her thoughts as she thinks through her decision to either remain home or go to Buenos Aires to marry Frank. By expressing her thoughts in third person, the audience is able to see both inside and outside her head. "She looked around the room, reviewing all its familiar objects which she had dusted once a week for so many years"(4). Joyce is able to show the concrete objects that surround her to help the

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