Liza and Eve as the Main Characters

30 http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiSimple_living. An individual may pursue this kind of lifestyle for a variety motivation, such as spirituality, health, ecology, social justice, and even because of rejection of consumerism. Those who choose this kind of lifestyle mostly live in conditions of poverty or do not focus on wealth although they actually own more. In the novel, we can see that Eve employs this kind of lifestyle. We can see it from the way she chooses to live in poor condition though actually she has much money in her savings. However, she is rather to live in a simple life by avoiding to get in touch with the outer world which she considers consumptive p.86. Her simple life is also shown by her restricted interaction with people as she does not want to start arguments with people. Mother said she didn’t want to see the world. She had seen enough of it for a lifetime, enough for ever, it was all horrible. Nor did she want the gate-house done-up and bathroom put in. she didn’t want him wasting his money on her. Luxuries of that kind meant nothing to her and Liza. p.86 Eve refuses to use many kinds of facilities which can make her life easier. She has rather live what she has for years and does not have any intention to renew or to make any changes. Life had never been soft. They made their own pleasures with the minimum of aid, without toys, television, videos, CD players, external amusements. p.336 Based on the description provided in the novel, we can see that Eve chooses to live a simple lifestyle. She chooses this kind of lifestyle mainly because of her bad past experiences that later she judges that the world is all horrible. 31

b. Environmentalism

Environmentalism is a lifestyle of those who concern for preservation, reservation, or improvement of the natural environment, such as the conservation of natural resources, prevention of polution, and the proper land using http:en.wikipedia.orgwikiEnvironmentalism. In the novel, we can see that Eve’s biggest ambition is having Shrove as hers. She spends her childhood there, grows up there, and spends her teenage there. She witnesses the beauty of Shrove since she is born and she falls in love with it p.151. She will never let Shrove is contaminated by anything that might harm the purity of the nature. We can say that Eve is an environmentalist. She adores nature and tries to live with the nature. She utilizes what the nature provides her to use. The woods, the garden, and all that Shrove has are her immense love. She teaches Liza to act the same way as her, ‘I hate shooting birds. I hate people shooting anything, rabbits, squirrels, anything, it’s wrong. And I thought Eve - my mother - I thought she did. She said so, she taught me to think like that” p.22-23. Liza also knows that her biggest love is Shrove, and not her, ‘Yes, I expect that’s the word. The dogs would have been destroyed like the ones in Bruno’s story. Mr Tobias loved his dogs and he’d have blamed Eve and given her the sack and turned us out of the gate-house. Or that’s what she thought. Maybe he would and maybe he wouldn’t but she thought he would and that was the important thing. She couldn’t leave Shrove, you see, she couldn’t, that was the most important thing in the world to her, Shrove, more important even than me. Well, Mr Tobias was important to her too but only in special sort of way.’p. 56 From the description in the novel, we can see Eve as an environmentalist because she has a big concern to Shrove. The reason is because Eve considers