Analysis Of James Joyce's The Dead And Araby

In James Joyce's, "Araby", the use of light and dark imagery is used to set the tone, or attitude of the story. Joyce simply uses light and darkness to describe the imagery and plot of the beginning of the story. For example, Joyce writes, "When the short days of winter came, dusk fell before we had well eaten our dinners". The season of winter and the time of the day describes the setting of the story which helps the audience illustrate what is going on. The colors of dusk helps then understand that darkness is approaching and Joyce continues to describe the North Richmond Street as dark and only certain "light from the kitchen windows had filled the areas". The whole light and darkness concept of the story is a vital part being that the

In "Araby" by James Joyce, the narrator uses vivid imagery in order to express feelings and situations. The story evolves around a boy's adoration of a girl he refers to as "Mangan's sister" and his promise to her that he shall buy her a present if he goes to the Araby bazaar. Joyce uses visual images of darkness and light as well as the exotic in order to suggest how the boy narrator attempts to achieve the inaccessible. Accordingly, Joyce is expressing the theme of the boys exaggerated desire through the images which are exotic. The theme of "Araby" is a boy's desire to what he cannot achieve.

I will be writing my essay on innocence and experience to show how it relates to “Araby” by James Joyce. While reading the story, and what I’ve understood is that it’s a very depressing story about a young boy that is between 12 to 17 years of age who had his first experience in feeling loved and perhaps having a life alone. Later on in the story towards the end the experience will be very sad as we talk about it.

“Araby” by James Joyce, is a short story about a young boy trying to find and his search for inner happiness. The main setting takes place in the boy’s neighborhood where he lives with his aunt and uncle. The sub setting takes place in an Araby or English bazaar, a carnival if you will. In the neighborhood we find that there is; an uninhabited house that has not been occupied for some time, a girl, who’s referred to as ‘Mangan’s sister’, whom the boy has a lustful crush on, and a story of a deceased priest. In the Araby we find a lot of empty booths, along with some hollow characters. The neighborhood, the Araby, the boy, and other characters in the story have an overall theme

In his short story "Araby", James Joyce portrays a character who strives to achieve a goal and who comes to an epiphany through his failure to accomplish that goal. Written in the first person, "Araby" is about a man recalling an event from his childhood. The narrator's desire to be with the sister of his friend Mangan, leads him on a quest to bring back a gift from the carnival for the girl. It is the quest, the desire to be a knight in shining armor, that sends the narrator to the carnival and it's what he experienced and sees at the carnival that brings him to the realization that some dreams are just not attainable.

Since symbolism first began to be used in the English language, Light has always represented a theme of hope and optimism. The phrase “Light at the end of the tunnel” best encompasses this, implying an opportunity or relief after difficulty or chaos. In the same way, Darkness has represented confusion or despair. James Joyce expands on the traditional connotations of Light and Darkness in his short story “Araby”. The narrative follows a young boy on his futile quest to find love with a girl much older than himself whom he hardly knows. Joyce uses Light to represent not only hope, but unrealistic idealism and illusion. In the same way, Darkness, in addition to despair, represents the reality and truth in the narrator's predicament. Joyce

In her story, "Araby," James Joyce concentrates on character rather than on plot to reveal the ironies inherent in self-deception. On one level "Araby" is a story of initiation, of a boy’s quest for the ideal. The quest ends in failure but results in an inner awareness and a first step into manhood. On another level the story consists of a grown man's remembered experience, for the story is told in retrospect by a man who looks back to a particular moment of intense meaning and insight. As such, the boy's experience is not restricted to youth's encounter with first love. Rather, it is a portrayal of a continuing problem all through life: the incompatibility of the ideal, of the dream

In 'Araby' and 'Eveline' Joyce uses religious symbols to show the importance of the Catholic religion in both of the main characters' lives. Both of these stories take place in Dublin, Ireland, a place that is very strong in its belief in the Catholic religion. In 'Araby,' the imagery of the infamous 'Fall' is presented to the reader within the second paragraph to indicate its importance. The themes of religious masses can be found in 'Eveline.' The concept of the Catholic Ash Wednesday is presented throughout both 'Araby' and 'Eveline.'

James Joyce, the author of both “Araby” and “The Dead,” exploits a sense of imagery throughout both short stories. “Araby” and “The Dead” both share and differ from each other in the ways the imagery is shown. The vivid imagery in “Araby” is applied to express feelings and expressions from one character to another. The main character, an unnamed boy, has an undying admiration for Mangan’s sister. James Joyce describes the boy’s obsession with Mangan’s sister in vast imagery. “The Dead” also includes many senses of imagery, but shows kinesthetic imagery rather than vivid imagery. Kinesthetic imagery is an imagery that is portrayed through the movement and physical tension. In “The Dead,” Gabriel, the main character, dislikes the country of Ireland he lives in, so he flees. Throughout this, Gabriel describes how Ireland is boring and cold, displaying kinesthetic imagery. “The Dead” and “Araby” both include vivid imagery, kinesthetic imagery, and auditory imagery.

His thoughts are composed of her, in the same way Aylmer’s thoughts are controlled by the birthmark. The narrator thinks about this girl all the time, “Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance” (Joyce). The girl is always what the narrator is thinking about, even when he is in a situation that is the opposite to love. The narrator also mentions how he followers her around, always keeping her in his vision (Joyce). She is in the front of his thoughts, in the same manner as the birthmark is the first thing Aylmer thinks and dreams

The main characters in both these stories are young adults who call Dublin, Ireland, home. Gabriel Conroy, the protagonist of “The Dead,” seems to be at the upper end of the middle class, while the nameless boy in “Araby” is at the lower end. We get an idea of each character’s social status in the opening passages of the stories. The boy in “Araby” lives on a street where all the houses, “conscious of the decent lives within them,” have the same “brown imperturbable faces” (182)—a description which conveys a dull, less fortunate scene. The opening paragraphs of “The Dead” portray a different, more cosmopolitan kind of scene. The setting is an evening party, whose hostesses live a “modest” life, yet keep a servant and believe in eating “the best of everything: diamond-bone sirloins, three-shilling tea and the best bottled stout” (198).

Recent trends in literature heavily rely on crossover between genres. Science fiction is becoming more integrated with young adult novels, and even murder mysteries are starting to incorporate romance. This crossover insures authors that they will be able to reach a broader audience, with the hopes that more people will read their books. Short stories have blended countless genres together for a long time, so it’s not surprising to see a short mystery, or a short romance. Poet James Joyce has recently become just as recognized for his prose, especially when that prose is in the form of a short story. His collection, Dubliners, includes a handful of well-recognized stories that have similar themes run throughout. One of the most famous, Araby, quickly melds between a mystery and a love story, famously ending on a cliffhanger that leads readers to interpret the finale for themselves. Throughout the brief entirety of Araby, James Joyce continues to create an aura of mystery and confusion, even going as far as to end the novel in a cliffhanger. This ambiguity allows for the reader to input their own experiences and ideas into the characters, which leads to the extensive feeling of relatability that most readers have with the little boy.

In this excerpt, you can plainly see that the boy thinks he is in love with the girl, but in

“Araby,” is a story of emotional passion carefully articulated by the author, James Joyce, to mark the end of childhood and the start of adolescence. It is told from the perspective of a young boy who is filled with lust for his friend, Mangan’s, sister. He lives in a cheerless town on a street hosting simply complacent families who own brown faced houses that stare vacantly into one another. The boy temporarily detaches himself from this gloomy atmosphere and dwells on the keeper of his affection. Only when he journeys to a festival titled Araby, does he realize that his attempt at winning the heart of Mangan’s sister has been done in an act of vanity. Joyce takes advantage of literary elements such as diction and imagery to convey an at times dreary and foolishly optimistic tone.

Despite these discouraging surroundings, the boy is determined to find some evidence of the loveliness his idealistic dreams tell him should exist within the Church. His first love becomes the focal point of this determination. In the person of Mangan's sister, obviously somewhat older than the boy and his companions, his longings find an object of worship. The boy's feelings for the girl are a confused mixture of sexual desire and of sacred adoration, as