In my opinion, Eunice does not show any development at all. She continually uses men as resources and only stays with them when she needs something. Ben (the man she was with in Rome) bought her things and provided for her, but she left due to her insecurities. She then got with Lenny because he offered her a place to stay and gave her his love. Afterwards she dumps him for Joshie because he is a powerful man with money and resources. In the end, she once again continues her circular pattern by leaving Joshie and staying with a man in London.
Not only does Eunice give up on her relationships, but she also continues to give up on her education. Throughout the story, her mother repeatedly urges her to get better scores on her LSATs, but she never goes around to taking them again. In the end of the book, after having spent only one semester in college at London, she again gives up on her education and drops out.
In the beginning of the book, Eunice is seen in Rome, far away from her family. She goes back home to take care of her family, but this is only temporary because she is a person who easily gives up. Although she “promises” to be there for her family, she of course leaves them and instead lives in London with a Scotsman. For someone who supposedly loves and cares about her family, she is rarely ever with them. She wasn’t there for them while in Rome. Even when she came back home to America, she spent the majority of her time with Lenny in New York. And now she is once again gone, this time in London. These reasons show that she does not change as a person.
In my opinion, I thought that the only character in SSTLS who really developed was Lenny. His attitudes towards life changed. In the end of the novel, he realized that he would one day die. By facing his mortality and accepting his death, he was no longer living in an illusion. Also, when he found out about Eunice and Joshie’s relationship, he didn’t resort to his usual begging and pleading. In this scene, he shows a great deal of strength and growth.
Throughout the book we do not see much interaction between Lenny and his parents, but he really does love and care for them. It is near the end of the book when we see Lenny’s love and vulnerable side towards his parents. He feels a pang of guilt and hurt when he realizes that his parents are starving, so he buys them food to show his love. His parents show their appreciation for him, but Lenny is careful not to get too close to them because “where my parents come from, openness can also mean weakness, an invitation to pounce” (292).
“Before I was even born, I had dragged my parents away from Moscow, a city where engineer Papa didn’t have to overturn wastebaskets for a living…and one day God would punish me for what I had done to them” (324). This passage gives us a glimpse of Lenny’s guilt for tearing his parents from their homeland. He loved them “so much it could have been qualified as child abuse” (324), so he strays from them in order to prevent himself from getting hurt. He also blames himself for their misfortunes in America and theorizes that God will punish him by one day killing his parents. Although this deep fear of their death pushes him away from his parents, he still loves them in his own way.
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