Eveline is a short story written between 1904 and 1914 by James Joyce and belonging to Dubliners. In J. Joyce's idea Dubliners as a collection had a function to write a chapter of the moral history of his country. Dublin represented the centre of paralysis for the novel (both from the physical and the metaphorical poin of view). The short story is indeed part of the section of Dubliner devoted to adolescence.
The text is arranged into six sequences.

Right from the start, the protagonist, an adolescent belonging to the working class, is looking at the outside world from her house. Eveline, the protagonist, perceives external reality as a threat. As the intelligent reader can see in "the evening invaded the avenue" the verb "invaded" is taken from the semantic field of fight. She's rememberin how her life was before her mother and some of her friends died. So the function of the first sequence is to present Eveline situation, the first reasons to leave her house and to start another life in another far away country.

The second sequence is linked to the first because it deals with the reasons that goes against this decision. She's looking around herself in her room and she's thinking she doesn't want to leave her childhood objects. She's undecided but keeps on thinking all the possibilities.

In the third sequence Eveline thinks about what other people would say about her decision and in which way her decision would influence her relation with the world. So the third sequence function is to introduce Eveline relationship with the world. She has a bad relationship with her boss and doesn't like the way her father was bad with her mother and brothers. After her mother's death her father started to be quiet bad also with her so the reader can understand that Eveline's decision to leave her house means she wants to be respected.

In the fourth sequence is presented Frank's character and another possible Eveline's life with him: he offers to Eveline a better life in another far away country. Her father quarrelled with Frank and she's an adolescence so her love for him is maybe influenced by the impossibility to see him.

In the fifth sequence she thinks again about the reason because of she mustn't leave. She remembers something happy connected to her father and the promise to her mother to keep the home together as long as she could. The affection felt for the family is significant for her decision and overcomes all bad thinks about his father.

The last sequence is about the decision Eveline takes. She can't leave. She can't find a good reason to leave and she realizes that she does'nt really loves Frank.

In this short story is presented a commonplace of an adolescence's life: the wish of  leave everything and became indipendent often linked to a love story. James Joyce uses the omniscent narrator and the third person but get into Eveline's mind and shows perfectly what she feels and think. He uses some quotations of others characters when Eveline is remembering something about them. These quotations are very important because are the reasons why Eveline makes the decision not to leave but to stay with her family.