"Paper" by Catherine Lim

The short story paper is about greed and how a terrible sickness it can be to those who do not warn it off before it sets in your mind and soul and takes over your daily life.  The story is set in Singapore and it depicts the ambitious ways of the young people in that time who only seem to value material gain. The greed, which takes over the lives of Tay Soon and Yie Liang ultimately, costs the life of Tay Soon and the sanity of Yie Lang. People often associate money and material possession with happiness and joy, these are the great lies of the world. The world portrayed in the story and the world we live in nowadays is no different. Humanity has, since the creation of the monetary system and civilization, always took advantage of the poor and weak to gain more money and lands in a quest to be the richest and most powerful human on the face of the Earth. What the don’t realize is that when we die we are all turned to same thing, dust, and that no matter the virtues we acquired in life, and in death it is but a dream, as Shakespeare stated in his famous speech of Hamlet “To be, or not to be”. We live our lives, much like Tay Soon, working and lusting for money which is only paper that is worthless when we die, and the last image of the story of the burning house made of paper is the irony of which what was most precious to him in life, money, was something as fragile and easily burned as paper. In all to better ourselves as humans we must first change the structure and society we live in.

"I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen

The story is about a single mother trying to raise her children during the time of the Great Depression. It tells us how difficult was just to get by let alone raise 5 children. The narrator of the story tells us how hard it was to raise her children but her voice seems of regret, as she feels guilty on how her first child, Emily, was brought up. When she looks at Emily she feels a kind of remorse she does not feel for her other children, probably because she didn’t show her the affection and love that she constantly remained herself to show the others. It was her first child and being the first child of a young mother, she did not have the experience or knew anything she knows now. The narrator describes us how she worked for six years of Emily’s young life and how this affected her overall development, this is reassured when she compares her second child, Susan, and Emily, as to being just one year apart in development despite being the two having a five year difference. The story describes the mother-daughter relationship and how difficult were the years to brought up a child in the Great Depression when the economy went downhill, and before World War II. 

Ultimately the narrator indicates that society has to take the responsibility of forcing young mother into a difficult task of raising children in that era and for giving her the horrible guidance they told her when they said to send Emily to a sanatorium. The narrator cannot accept the mistakes she made by not following her own instincts instead of what experts said and this is portrayed when she used book to nurture Emily and when she did not have the necessary will to go against what others were telling her to do. If she so accepts that she was wrong then she would have to face the consequences of her actions but in blaming everyone but herself she is in a way escaping from feeling a lot more than remorse when she looks at Emily, she is trying to escape feeling guilty and mournful of what she made Emily go through by her lack of parenting and this is what she fears the most, to be told that she has failed as a parent. 

"Eveline" by James Joyce

Eveline is a character that has a mixture between a round character and a static character. She is a person that wishes for change but doesn't have the necessary will power to make it. Her lack of will is in part by the abusive behavior her father has portrayed over the years, and her relationship with her father is an example of how men used to treat women in the 1920’s. At that time women we’re still viewed as being inferior to men. Here unwillingness to go with Frank is most in due part by how women were viewed in that era, she stayed at her house and keep the family together not only because of the vow she made to her mother, but also because that was what it was expected of he. 

Eveline loved Frank but her love for Frank was somehow pushed, she wanted to love him. It was not something that came naturally but in fact in her eyes she wanted to see Frank as her escape from her miserable life. She is also very insecure and as such she feels that she does not fully know Frank to be swept away into a life that she fears will only repeat what her mother went through, even though by staying she is exactly doing what she fears the most. At the end of the story Joyce writes “She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal.” This tells us that Eveline is a allegory of the way men used to view women in the twentieth century and that that is how they were supposed to be, ever constantly a helpless animal that can only do housework and nothing more.