Learning Paths » 5A Interacting
Between the article appeared on the Messaggero Veneto of the 18th of January 2012 and the extract of James Joyce Eveline there are several similarities.
The definition of adolescence that gives Claudia Sfilli represents the feelings and the inner conflicts that Eveline lives. Adolescence is a mixture of fear and excitement, exhilaration and despair and at the same time laughter and crying fused into a vortex of uncontrollable emotions. Eveline proves all these mixed feelings: on one hand she wants to leave with her lover and forget all about her past, but on the other hand she is unable to leave her home because she promised her mother to take care of her family. Eveline suspends herself between the call of home and the past and the call of new experiences and the future, unable to make a decision.
The main problem of Eveline, which coincides with the problem of today's teenagers, is that her father doesn't understand her wants and needs. She loves her father but is fearful of him. When she was a child her father had never hit her, like he used to do with her two brothers, but he begun to threaten her after her mother's death. Obviously the relationship between Eveline and her father is not the same of all today's parents-child relationship. As Claudia Sfilli says in her article adults, before judging teenage people, should make an examination of conscience.
All teenagers, including Eveline, should seek that strength and courage that afforded by the knowledge of their identity.