Eveline Short Story Analysis

From the beginning of Counterparts, there is a clear indication that Farrington a father of five children, has issues with work colleagues which causes him to drink excessively and become aggressive. Failure is a theme that elaborates with dysfunctional families. Many factors caused Farrington ‘the man’ to turn to alcohol which then turned into violence. Straight away this represents Farrington as an angry drunk, and also an abusive drunk. The theme dysfunctional family plays a large role in this short story. Like Eveline, Farrington is the main character however, the tables turn as he is in fact the reason for the family being dysfunctional. Farrington seen as a very occasional drinker, which causes his rage to rise over anything In the

The story shows that her father abused her mother like it was normal. Had her mother still be alive she would be the victim, and it would only be a matter of time before the father would move onto the children. Not only was Eveline living a life of hell, she felt paralyzed in the decision of leaving for a new life with Frank. The theme paralysis comes into contact with dysfunctional families more than we could expect. It seems as if Eveline’s life was planned for when her mother passed away. There is no happy ending for Eveline and her siblings. This theme of dysfunctional families was clear and very occurring throughout each short story. Counterparts also represented an abusive father who too was the reason for their families being dysfunctional. Both of these stories began with hopelessness and the endings both succeeded in proving that the two short stories in fact included the theme dysfunctional families. Not only due to the fathers, but how the children in both stories are paralyzed and afraid of their own household. Had both of these stories involved different scenarios rather than abusive fathers, they would still be seen as dysfunctional due to the lack of love and bond in both