Feminism in Eveline and The Day It Happened Essay Sample

Feminism has become a very big part of modern culture. Stories are written a long time ago tie feminism into them, but they weren’t noticed as much back then as they are now. In two stories, “Eveline”, and “The Day It Happened”, feminists would have very different feelings about one over the other. In “The Day It Happened” Josie gets the courage to leave her abusive husband once she finds out she’s pregnant. Yet in “Eveline” she is about to escape, yet she is afraid to leave her father.  These two stories are about two very different girls, with very different mindsets. Yet feminists would most definitely prefer “The Day It Happened” over “Eveline”. 

The story “The Day It Happened” is about a young girl named Josie who marries Ramon, they have only been married for six months, yet they already had a pattern as the story states, “They’d been married for six months but they were already in a pattern, like the Garcias down the block who did everything the same way on the same day, all year” (Morales, 301). Josie was getting tired of this pattern and her husband was very abusive to her, so she wanted to leave Ramon but could never find the guts to. Until one day, she ends up finding out she is pregnant. She was terrified of what Ramon would do to the poor baby, knowing what he already was doing to her, as the story states, “After she found out she was pregnant Josie had talked it over with Dona Tona and Dona Tona has talked it over with Mami and by and by we all knew she was scared he would hurt the baby growing inside her and worried about the child growing up with Ramon for a father” (Morales, 301). After she had found out she was pregnant and talked with people she loved, she finally got the courage to leave her abusive husband for her sake, but mainly for her babies’ sake. If she hadn’t gotten pregnant, she most likely would’ve stayed with Ramon and dealt with his abuse for the rest of her life.  

The story “Eveline” on the other hand is a story about a girl who lives with her abusive father. It’s just her and her father in the house, as all her siblings had grown up and moved on, and her mother had passed away, as the story states, “Her father was no so bad then; and besides, her mother was alive. That was a long time ago; she and her brothers and sisters were all grown up; her mother was dead” (Joyce, 3). Before her mother had passed away her father was a fun, happy man, but without his wife, his life has gone down the drain and gotten worse. Eveline was the only one to stay by his side, so she was the one who endured his abuse when he got angry. Eventually, Eveline had met a boy named Frank who promised to take her to a better life, “She was about to explore another life with Frank. Frank was very kind, manly, open-hearted. She was to go away with him by the night-boat to be his wife and to live with him in Buenos Aires where he had a home waiting for her” (Joyce, 3). Yet when the day came for her to leave with him, she found that she couldn’t let herself leave her father by himself and that she had grown so attached to him she was afraid to leave him, “She set her white face on him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition” (Joyce, 6). Her father had made her feel trapped as she could never leave his side till the day he dies. 

The two girls in this story are very different; Josie gets the courage to up and leaves her abusive lifestyle, while Eveline feels trapped and unable to escape hers. Josie ends up finding the courage to leave her abusive husband after finding out that he had gotten her pregnant. She was too scared to leave him, but thanks to the little human in her stomach she was able to leave him (The day it happened: Rosario Morales: Short story report: Reflection). On the other hand, Eveline doesn’t leave her abusive lifestyle since her father has shamed her and hurt her so much, that she feels trapped and unable to leave. When she finally gets the chance to leave and is about to leave, she gets scared and frozen, she is afraid of what will happen to her father if she does leave. So she leaves her freedom behind and decides to stay in her abusive home (SparkNotes Editors Eveline). Feminists would prefer the story, “The Day It Happened” much more appealing to their group/lifestyle as she gets the courage to be a strong woman and leave her abusive husband to keep herself and her baby safe. Unlike “Eveline” where she is about to escape and gets weak and lets her father take over her thoughts and control her into this trapped lifestyle.   

These two stories are very different in the eyes of feminists. “The Day It Happened” is a story that feminists would love since it shows a woman in an abusive marriage escape after she gets pregnant to save herself and her child. On the other hand, “Eveline” is a story that they would not like, as it’s about a woman about to escape her abusive household/abusive father; yet due to her father being so abusive and manipulating, she ends up getting trapped and unable to leave from her thoughts. Feminism is a movement for women’s rights and strong women getting out of situations on their own, so based on these two stories, feminists would love “The Day it Happened” over “Eveline”.