Essay Questions

Is naivety the main reason why Eileen misjudges Rebecca?

Eileen grows up in a difficult environment where she is even abused sexually by her father. Every day she is dreaming of the day when she shall have a better life. However, she has no role model to look up to. Fortunately, Rebecca shows up in her life and she is the perfect woman she would like to be in the future. Rebecca is beautiful, confident, courageous, and successful. Eileen admires Rebecca and concludes that she is a perfect woman. However, after Eileen gets used to Rebecca and learns more about her, she realizes that Rebecca has encountered many challenges in life. It is the naivety that is blinding Eileen to think that any beautiful and successful woman is perfect.

Are Eileen’s dreams valid?

Towards the end of the story, the reader realizes that Eileen achieves her dreams of leading a better life. While she is young, she keeps on dreaming for the day when she can leave her home village to go to America to get a better life. The reader learns that later on, Eileen manages to go to New York and she lives the dream of her life. Despite her being 74 years now, she is living her dream which started fifty years ago. The reader realizes from Eileen’s story that there is nothing impossible in this life as long as one remains determined throughout her life.

What is satirical about Eileen in her story?

Most of the story is about the reflection of Eileen’s past life. At some point, Eileen narrates how her father abused her sexually and her relationship with him started to deteriorate. However, it is satirical that Eileen accepted to use his father’s gun to kill and then trapped her father to the murder. It is not clear what happened to her father but the reader finds it ironic that Eileen kills a person using her father's gun and then pin her father to the murder.