Naturalism in “Eveline”
Naturalism emphasizes the effects of environmental and social circumstances on people’s actions and behaviors. “Eveline,” a short story by James Joyce about a young lady who is torn between her duty to her family and her desire for escape, is filled with naturalist elements such as third-person point of view narration, lack of choice due to social or environmental constraint, and reacts against sentimental romantic literature. “Eveline” is initially narrated from a detached third person point of view which transitions into Eveline’s point of view. In the second paragraph, the narrator presents readers with the events occurring outside the window Eveline is leaning on: “few people passed. The man out of the last house passed on his way home, she heard his footstep clacking along the concrete pavement and afterwards crunching on the cider path before the new red houses.”