Araby †James Joyce Essay

One of the most intriguing works by Irish writer James Joyce is Araby in which a young male child, who is the cashier, leads a raffish life in a capital of Ireland neighborhood before dropping in bang with his friends babe. He is always reflexion her steps, e actually single morning. When they finally speak, the girl mentions the existence of an exotic bazar in town, heeld Araby. The vote counter then becomes obssessed with the idea of going to the bazaar to contract the girl a present.Nevertheless, disap testifyment is an important theme of the novel. The young boy is ultimately faced with reality when he goes to Araby and realizes that he cannot afford the things that are sold there. In others articulates, Joyce deals with the dichotomy of fantasy versus reality in Araby, well-favoured it a rather pessimistic approach, where reality and its negativity prevail. In hallow to better comprehend Joyces Araby, it is important to understand the authors biography and the tim e in history in which Dubliners was scripted.Joyce was born in a poor family in February of 1884. His father had several jobs and his mother was a devout Catholic. A young Joyce hithertotually moved to Paris, where he worked as a teacher and journalist, and later, during World War I, he took refuge in Zurich, Switzerland. Since Joyce spent great part of his adult life outside of Ireland, Dubliners is written through the look of a refugee, as a member of Dublins order who is also an outsider.Through Dubliners and its short stories, including Araby, Joyce describes life in Dublin, how godliness influenced and dominated Irish troupe and how a national identity came to be. At that time, Ireland, a country that had suffered the horrors of the Great Famine in the prehistoric along with the death and emigration of millions of its people was now struggling culturally and semipolitically to create its own identity and breakaway from British political control and cultural influence. T he conflict between Catholics and Protestants was at its peak, as the integral island was under United Kingdoms rule.In other words, Ireland and its society were going through a turbulent period in history, which touched Joyces use of language in Dubliners as well as the themes cointained in his works, such as religion, the hardships of reality and Anglo-Irish relations. Dubliners is a unique digest of stories because it follows a chronological pattern. Araby falls in the category of childhood, because its fibber is a young boy and also due to the fact that cardinal of its central themes is offset and maturity.In order for such harvest-feast to draw off place, Araby follows a clear sequence of events, which is described by William York Tindall in A Readers Guide to James Joyce as head game, disillusionment and climax to awareness (19). These three elements that result in the characters growth are well defined in the story. Mangans sister and the bazaar both represent illusi on. Disillusionment is present when the cashier goes to Araby and realizes that it is not what he had expected.Finally, disillusionment is shown in the end, when he comes to the end point that he is not capable to buy Mangans sister a gift, which in turn, leads to the final present moment of epiphany, a concept that will be further discussed. Another internal aspect to Araby is the presence of images and symbols throughout the story, in particular those with apparitional conotations. Since religion and the church played an important role in Irish society and Joyce was Irish himself, ghostlike themes are abundant in some of Joyces works, Araby being one of them.Religious imagery is present in the actually beginning of the story, when the narrator mentions that the former tenant of the house where he lives was a priest. The house itself also contains religious symbol, in this case, in the garden The brutal garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree and a hardly a(prenominal) struggling bushes under one of which I found the late tenants rusty bicycle-pump (373). It is evident that the apple-tree in the story evokes images of the Adam and even passage in the Bible, where they were tempted to eat the forbidden fruit which was an apple.Mangans sister, the prey of the narrator affection, is perhaps the most significant religious symbol in the story. The narrator is devoted to her much standardised a religious person is devoted to God or a Saint. The connection between Mangans sister and religious worship is shown in the passage where the narrator goes marketing with his aunt, while passing through the crowded and disorganized streets I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through the throng of foes.Her Mangans sister touch sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand My eyeball were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at time a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out in to my bosom (179). The narrators feelings to Mangans sister are so intense to the point of being compared to a religious experience. When he mentions Mangans sister name in strange prayers he is describing the powerful burden that she has on him, like the power of a prayer to a religious person.To the narrator, her name in the strange prayers has the same force as the name of Jesus or Mary in a traditional Catholic prayer. Cleanth Brooks, Jr. and Robert Penn rabbit warren reinforce the link between the narrators desire and religion in their work, titled The Chalice Bearer by affirming that ( ) when he the narrator speaks of his wooly adoration, we see that the approve of the girls takes on, for him, something of the nature of a mystic, religious experience. The use of the very word confused hints of the fact that romantic love and religious love are mixed up in his mind (95).The narrator, thus, is yet to peck reality. He is still trapped in a world of illusion where the lines of pure, religious love and physical desire are somewhat blurred. The bazaar, called Araby, furthers the narrator into illusionment. The name of the bazaar evokes images of a far and exotic place The syllables of the word Araby were called to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an Eastern trance over me (375). It can be argued that the bazaar also represents a religious symbol in the story.Such view is supported by William York Tindall The Church, later all, is a to a greater extent or less Oriental foundation, and the ecclesiastical suggestion of Araby (not some Freemason affair) is supported by allegory (20). In other words, Araby can be regarded as a religious institution that takes over the life of the narrator. His anticipation of the visit to the bazaar becomes a focal point of his life, interfering with his everyday activities I answered few questions in class. I watched my masters face pass from amiability to stringency I could not call my wandering thoughts together (375).The story ends with dissapointment and frustration when the boy arrives at the bazaar and realizes that most mof the stalls are closed, and even if they were open, he would not be able to buy Mangans sister a gift. The narrator finally understands that life is harsh. In other words, Araby presents a moment of epiphany. Nevertheless, Joyce goes against the traditional concept of epiphany in Araby. Epiphany is usually associated with enlightment and positive growth whereas in Araby epiphany is linked with negativity.Such idea is supported by Florence L. Walzl in A Companion to Joyces Studies. She argues that His the narrator inability to buy even a bauble for the girl and his perception of the inanity of the flirtation he has just witnessed climax in an epiphanic vison, not of light, but of darkness (175). With such statement, Walzl acknowledges that the pattern of illusion, disillutionment and coming to awareness in the story comes full circle. Instead of enlightment, the narrators epiphany causes him to become bitter Gazing up into the darkness I cut myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity and my eyes burned with anguish and anger (377).Since religious symbols are a constant presence in the story, it has been argued that the narrators dashing hopes is, in reality, disappointment with the Church and the values that it represents. This position is shared by Florence Walzl in her conclusion of her analysis At the narrative level, Araby manifests disillusionment in young love at a symbolic level, it represents disillusionment in the theological sexual abstention of charity. Faith, hope and love are diminished in this first terce of tales of childhood (176). In conclusion, Araby is a story of a young love.As such, it presents moments of illusion throughout most of the story. However, illusion is shattered by the narrators dark epiphany. A closer analysis of Araby reveals that there is more to the story than a young boys f irst love. The teemingness of religious imagery shows the readers that the story is very much about animadversion of the Churchs role in the lives of the Irish people and its effect on a nation that was struggling politically to be assoil from the United Kingdoms influence and ideologically, with the animosity between Catholics and Protestants.