Longing for the Past

There are quite a few themes that literary artists use quite frequently, these often used themes are called conventional themes. Some examples of conventional themes are: the pain of love, the nostalgia for a vanished past, conflict between parents and children, the inevitability of fate, and various others. While these themes may be conventional, the authors may use them in a non-traditional way. In the two stories "Eveline" by James Joyce and "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen, we can see how the conventional theme of a nostalgia for a vanished past can be used in different ways.

When one thinks of a nostalgia for a vanished past, they may typically think of someone, maybe in an unstable part of their life, who is longing for a happier or more stable part of their past. This could be depicted as a homeless man thinking of his childhood with family and friends. There are many ways this theme may be depicted, but all the traditional ways are basically along the same lines. "Eveline" uses this theme, not to look back on happier, more stable times in her life, but to look back upon the past that, while certainly was not the best, but a more familiar time. It was as if she wanted to look to the past, no matter how bad it was, so she would not have to look to the future. In "I Stand Here Ironing" a mother tells of the life of her daughter, she thinks she has been a bad mother and wishes she could go back in time and change the past. This might be a situation that many of us are familiar with. Many of us have done something, and then after seeing the consequences of our actions we wish we could go back and do something different.

The story of "Eveline" is of a young woman that has the opportunity to go with a rich man to another land and to live happily with him as his wife. At the beginning of the story we come to know this through her thoughts:

"...in her new home, in a distant unknown country, it would not be like that. Then she would be married... People would treat her with respect then (Joyce, p.641)."

She does love him, and was not forced into this situation, but for some reason she looks for reasons to justify not going with him. As the story goes along we get a view into her past. We see that her mother has died and that her father can be verbally abusive with her, especially when he is drunk. Over time he has become even more so, and she has began to feel in danger from it. They are a poor family with very little income to live on; she is in charge of caring for her younger siblings and does most if not all of the work around the home. We don't see much of what is happening in the present, only a few glances here and there, because she focuses mostly on her past throughout the entire story.

Through these pieces of the past that Eveline shares with us, we learn about her tragic life. She shares them, not as a means to tell her story, but give reason as to why she must stay instead of leave. Eveline may seem to be a difficult girl to understand. Why would anyone want to give up a possibly bright future, for a certainly dim one? She does have her connections to the home, it is the place she grew up, and she does have a few cherished memories of her childhood, including playing with some neighborhood friends.

"The children of the avenue used to play together in that field-the Devines, the Waters, the Dunns, little Keogh the cripple, she and her brothers and sisters...they seem to have been rather happy then...and besides, her mother was alive (Joyce, p.641)."

Perhaps she felt she would lose a connection with her mother. She had died a few years previous, it seems as though things started going downhill for Eveline from that time. Eveline even recalls a promise she made to her mother, a promise to keep their home together as long as she possibly could. These memories of her lost mother, though only a few in comparison with other more frustrating and disheartening memories, gave Eveline a connection to that home, and perhaps a reason to stay. The memories could have given her feelings of guilt, maybe like she was leaving her mother behind, or breaking her promise to her. Her heart was torn between two loves: a man, Frank, who would "save her (Joyce, p.643)", and her connections to her past and mother. In the case of this story, the memories won, and Eveline gave up her chance to have a better life for them.

The story of "I Stand Here Ironing" takes us on a different path. In this story we learn about a girl named Emily through the telling of her mother. The mother believes that, through her actions, she has compromised the life and future of Emily. Due to her life situations, many times she was unable to give much attention and affection to Emily, causing Emily to shy away from her and other people. We are unsure as to what happens to Emily further in her life, so we do not know if the mother's actions do take a large toll of her life. The mother looks on her past with sorrow, wishing she could change some of the things she has done with Emily. Instead of longing for a happier vanquished past, the mother longs to change certain aspects of her past. We see the present is not wholly unstable, and certainly her life has improved over the time when Emily was first born, but she feels uncertain about the future and what consequences she will have to face.

Emily's mother recalls different parts of Emily's life throughout the story, giving us an idea of why she thinks she has ruined her daughter's life. The mother explains how Emily was a beautiful baby, even saying it more than once in the story, but then says:

"You did not know her all those years she was thought homely... (Olsen, p.291)."

Perhaps the mother was not speaking solely of a physical nature, but also of the heart of Emily. The things that the girl had already been through in her life had changed her, maybe from being something with a beautiful and love-filled heart, to someone with a bit more of a sad and ugly one. Emily's mother has trouble thinking of the past, it is very troublesome on her and she states:

"...I will become engulfed with all I did or did not do, with what should have been and what cannot be helped (Olsen, p.290)."

She cannot help but to think of the past, but also fears to do so, fears that she will become totally raveled in it, unable able to leave the past in the past. It is possible that Emily's mother is so enveloped with her past and with the life of Emily because she knows that she cannot change it, and perhaps, that she knows even though her decisions were difficult to make, they might be the same ones she would make again. She makes mention of this talking about the treacherous nursery she sent Emily to as a small child, she states:

"...it would have made no difference if I had known. It was the only place there was. It was the only way we could be together, the only way I could hold a job (Olsen, p. 291)."

If she did not have a job, she would not have been able to care for Emily, and yet, to keep it, she had to leave her at a place she later learned was only "parking places for children (Olsen, p.291)."

A very difficult decision for anyone to make, and one that stuck with Emily's mother more many years. This theme is also very relatable to our lives. Surely many of us have had a few past regrets, while maybe we don't dread that we have ruined the life of a family member, almost everyone does at least one thing they regret later on. This story may make one reflect upon that thing.

I think there have been many times in my life in which I have not been able to let go of the past. I too have made tough decisions, some of which still haunt and affect me to this day. I think the authors of these stories are trying to show us how focusing too much on our past and always thinking about our mistakes can greatly affect our future. I, like Eveline have missed a few "chance of a lifetime" opportunities, simply because I could not let go. And I, like Emily's mother, even though I know I cannot change the fact that I let the opportunities pass me, often become engulfed in the things I could or should have done. We must learn from our pasts, and hope we do not make the same mistakes again, but we mustn't lose our future, due to remaining in the past.

These two stories depict two different non-traditional forms of the longing for a vanquished past theme. While they do not show what we might think this theme is typically about, it can still be used to relate these stories to our own lives. They can be used to make even us think or long for our past. "Eveline" and "I Stand Here Ironing" are two powerful stories that make us see that not anyone has a perfect past, and if we focus too much upon it, we lose our future.Bibliography

Olsen, T. "I Stand Here Ironing." Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Compact 7^th Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage, 2010. 290-96. Print.

Joyce, J. "Eveline." Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Compact 7^th Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage, 2010. 640-643. Print.