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ReFLE01:
Eva Character Analysis and Title Meaning“Tell Me a Riddle,” says the title of Tillie Olsen’s short story. “
I know noriddles,” 
declares Eva the dying grandmother when the phrase is echoed byone of her grandchildren (85-6). And why is that? Her husband David knowsmany riddles, and they have lived together for 47 years – so she certainlyhasn’t been lacking for time. Nor is it true that Eva is a shallow or simpleperson, as evidenced by stream of consciousness-type italicized passagesthroughout the story that offer glimpses of her intricate mind. In fact, Eva’sprivate language is insightful and deeply introspective, represented through aplethora of vivid metaphors. One such image is of rocks and stones, foundalmost exclusively in Eva’s internal ruminations, which suggests that it meanssomething very personal i.e. they are deep reflection of her being. Assumingthat the suggestion is true is fruitful and the purpose of this analysis is to usethe implications to describe what Eva’s thoughts and overall self-identity are,providing the reasons for them, and then explain why Eva claims to know noriddles despite the plentitude of knowledge that she has. The central rock image in the story is first instanced in a passingremark by Eva’s grandson Richard. The child mentions how in geology, allrocks are classified into just three types – “
igneous, sedimentary,metamorphic
” (85). Eva characterizes them as “earth’s fire jetting; rock of layered centuries; crucibled new out of the old (
igneous, sedimentary,metamorphic
). But there was that other—frozen to black glass, never totransform or hold the fossil memory” (90). The black glass is obsidian (87)and it is something that has no effect on the world, nor is it affected by theworld. If Eva’s description of rocks is read as a metaphor for the different
 
kinds of human personalities, then her conception of obsidian is clearlyreminiscent of herself – she also is separated from the world. Eva hides inclosets so that she doesn’t have to talk with her family, and when she goes toa concert she
“turned off her hearing aid… as she would have wished to turnoff sight” 
(97). She is purposefully isolated. Eva makes a conscious effort toavoid connecting with people around her because she doesn’t want to beoverwhelmed with other people’s emotions i.e. she does not want to feelempathy. She says that it is “easy to keep your head above water” if it’sempty as “empty things float” (97). By “becoming” obsidian, she is able tostay empty, and afloat, because her head is clear of concern for the worldaround her.Because Eva consciously blocks out the world, her actions seem tosuggest that Eva just isn’t a very caring person – and this is true, somewhat.Indeed, she does not physically care for others (she refuses to play with herdaughter’s new baby), but her lack of caring is more out of ignorance ratherthan malice because Eva has never really been
cared for 
as a person – she isunable to “pay it forward” so to speak. As a girl growing up in CommunistRussia, she was not allowed to pursue her interests, such as reading Tolstoy,since they conflicted with what she was “supposed” to be. So, considerationfor Eva never entered into the minds of her caretakers, and Eva grew up intoa life that held no value for her. In this manner, Eva is not fundamentallyuncaring, but her unsociability is due to external causes - her likeness to theobsidian metaphor was not always present. Olsen sort of already hints at thisrealization because obsidian is not really a fourth kind of rock as Eva states,but is an igneous rock that formed of lava cooled before it has had a chance
 
to crystallize. Metaphorically, Eva’s passions were suppressed before theycould materialize. Also, a possibly more profound implication is that Eva’ssense of self-identity is misguided as she is in fact no different from manyother people.Olsen illustrates literally that Eva isn’t foundationally different fromother people when she has a radical change of attitude in the last days of herlife: “She, who in her life had spoken but seldom and then only whennecessary (never having learned the easy, social uses of words), now indying, spoke incessantly” (103). Moreover, the speech itself was nearincoherent, but not because the words or sentences were nonsensical butbecause they seemed too deep to understand. To Eva’s piercing anddisturbing statements, her husband replies, “Who wanted questions?Everything you have to wake?” (114). Eva, who had once said that she knewno riddles, apparently knows more than anyone else can handle. Herknowledge of riddles was suppressed along with her passion for life. Inactuality, the two are really inseparable because asking riddles requires aperson be
involved 
in life, to
care
about it enough to wonder what it allmeans.Olsen’s use of rock imagery points to a deep incongruence in Eva’sperception of herself and the word – she perceives herself as innatelydifferent from others, even though the reality is that she was indeed born likemany other people; she was only raised in such a negligent manner that shecame to believe that she was different, not formally a
human
. Eva changesright before her death perhaps because she realized that despite her wastedlife, she could not maintain complete isolation from the world, to cover
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