In "Eveline," James Joyce utilizes many literary devices to convey the difficult choice that has been presented to Eveline. The story is about a girl named Eveline, who feels it is time for her to start living her dreams. Her first chance comes to her in the form of a man named Frank, whom she may love. On the other hand she feels devoted to her father because of the promise she made to her mother on her death bed. Joyce uses literary devices to express how Eveline's decision will affect her for the rest of her life. She must decide to stay with all that is familiar to her or to go away with Frank to an unknown world, that has never before been available to her. Joyce expresses the choice for the known world rather than the unknown in "Eveline" by using symbolism, characterization, and setting.
             Joyce introduces the reader to "dust" in "Eveline" to symbolize Eveline's familiarity and suffocation with her home. In the beginning and towards the end of the story Eveline smells the "odour of dusty cretonne" (4). This suggests that the dusty odour is known to her because she has lived in her father's house for so long. Furthermore, she has grown to be familiar with the scents that have always been around her. The readers come to the fact that she has lived in her father's house all her life when she talks about all the changes that have happened over the years. For example, Eveline remembers when "there used to be a field in which they used to play" (4). Obviously she was very young if she was playing. Now she is "over nineteen" (4). Therefore she is familiar with all that surrounds her and she is used to being familiar with her surroundings. Joyce mentions "dust," in the second paragraph, "Home! She looked round the room, reviewing all its familiar objects,!
             which she had dusted once a week for so many years&q...