The Plague Of Doves

The audience watches Evelina grow from a young girl into a conflicted woman throughout the trajectory of the novel. Evelina often serves as a spectator for the memories of others — the voice by which the audience listens to her grandfather, Seraph, speak of the lynching, as well as the mechanism by which the audience watches Marn Wolde’s transformation. However, as the narrative develops, Evelina herself transforms from her passive role as spectator into interrogating the root of her own inner turmoil. The audience witnesses Evelina pulled in many directions, such as her desire to go to Paris while simultaneously not wanting to leave her family behind. When Evelina goes to college, she remarks, “In spite of my determination to go to Paris, I had actually dreaded leaving home even to go as far as Grand Forks, and in the end my parents did not want me to go either […] Their love […] allowed me to survive myself” (221-22). Of course, this conflict becomes a part of Evelina’s most central conflict — her sexual identity. Evelina effectively renders herself outside of her familial narrative because of her attraction to women.