Where Are You Going Where Have You Been

Women’s role in history has always been incredibly complicated. In majority of cultures around the world, women are most commonly recognized as being compliant to the will of men. However, this recognition is drastically changing along with today’s rapid transformation of technology and other beliefs compared to several generations ago. Women are now holding jobs in prestigious political offices, medical fields, and engineering backgrounds. Of course, there are countless stories of courageous women who defied expectations and challenged the views that defined what a woman is suppose to be rather than accept who she is. In the short stories of “Eveline” and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, two young women face a difficult decision

Their first option was to run off with some boy and tread on unaccustomed waters. And the second option was to stay behind in familiar territory. Eveline was the girl who decided to stay, while Connie followed through the first option. Even though both girls made contrasting choices, they were both persuaded by an outside male authority. Eveline was living in the early 1900s in Ireland, which at the time was extremely Catholic. There was no separation of Church and State which is a well-known concept accepted in the United States. The Catholic Church had a major impact on the country of Ireland and was rarely disputed by humble citizens. The great potato famine in Ireland herded flocks of people into the churches who looked up to the leaders of the Church for guidance in response to the lack of food, hunger, and depression that struck the Irish folk. One of the most critical teachings of the Catholic Church is the importance of having a strong family background with the man as head of the house and the woman behind him. The Irish woman’s responsibility at the time was to raise the next generation of Catholics, while the men take charge of the household and bring home the