Simile in Eveline

p. 222 "She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal."

This simile mentioned towards the end of "Eveline" is very fitting. In my book is written, and was also brought up by Mr. Costello, was the idea that this animal could be a deer in the headlights. One of the questions answered by my group was about spiritual paralysis . But, in this instance, at the moment of truth, loading the boat, Eveline experiences a moment of physical paralysis. Frozen by fear,  she is unable to pull the trigger and move to Buenos Aires with Frank; this is very similar to a deer being unable to move when faced with the headlights of a car. But, the root of her physical paralysis is her spiritual paralysis. Her spiritual paralysis being unable to change and move. Even though she was abused at her home, she knew what she was getting, which was more than she could say about moving.