All about Eve

(chapter 11)

 

YELLOW POST-ITs IN THE BOOK

 

Q1:Find key moments relating to Eve’s role in the book, and use them to illustrate her importance in the narrative.

• Since Eve is at Norma’s age, she highlights Norma’s absurdity. She can be defined not also as a character, but also as a narrative device: while she is normal, natural and beautiful, Norma is artificial, and despite every diligence, still male-looking 
• p158- p166(?): Eve comforts Roy after the almost accident when he nearly run over a little girl with his van

p160: “I’m going to give you a nice cup of tea, and make sure you’re all right. Don’t you worry.”

• Ron/Norma have only learned about love before from women’s magazines and books, hence the language used to describe the relationship between Roy and Eve is very similar with the language used in those texts

p159: “Roy felt a thrill at the touch of her hand on his arm”

p161: “She was very close for a moment. Her nearness held him motionless, and for that long moment he did not breathe. His hands felt heavy at the ends of his arms. […] The play he had been rehearsing all his life was about to begin and there was a danger of him forgetting his lines.”

p169: “Oh, Eve. […] Yes. Oh, yes.”

• Eve is ‘against’ cross-dressing: p353 “I liked the bit where those policemen dressed up as a women, didn’t you? […] Men are never any good at it. You always can tell. […]”

p353  “If it is a mand, dressed up as a woman.” the MAN and WOMEN words are in capital, in big font sizes (the man is bigger) -> highly emphasized, furthermore, there alignment also interesting 

• p353 Eve mentions Norma’s appearance in the laundry: she is talikng about how obvious it was that Norma is  a cross-dresser. Hearing this, Roy becomes angry and frustrated. The alignment of the text becomes messy, and the language used becomes more advertisement like and artificial again (?). Here, Roy is being conflicted with the  truth by Eve, and the illusion of Norma being real starts to fade away.
• p421-423: “Two’s  company, three’s a crowd” Norma has to say goodby, but before, Roy shows her to Eve on purpose. He thinks they have to talk about the issue, and Eve reacts ways more understanding than it could have been expected, especially in the time and place of the novel.

 

Q2:How does Norma intrude on Roy’s relationship with Eve? Where is this evident in the narrative?

• p172: Roy cancels his dinner with Eve and her Auntie, since it is at the same day when Norma has the dress-making with Mary, and when Norma also has the photo shooting with Mr Hands. Even if Eve is a good distruction for Roy, he cannot ‘switch-off’ being Norma completely. To my mind, the guilt he feels because of Norma’s death prevents him from having a normal, everyday relationship and from carrying Norma’s memory without cross-dressing.
• p290-291:  Eve lets Roy to put the suitcase containing Norma’s dress into her wardrobe (since she does not know the truth about Norma). It symbolises how the existence of Eve in Roy’s life keeps Roy away from being Norma -> Norma is a threat to Roy’s relationship with Eve, and Eve is a threat to Norma’s existence