Araby analysis
Araby
James Joyce’s prose Araby in Dubliners is a story written with a nameless first-person narrator. It is about the narrator’s life on Northern Richmond Street and his tremendous crush on the sister of his companion, Mangan. In my opinion, the girl has significance in symbolizing the frustration and blind pursuit of romance. In view of the portrait of her “brown figure” and that “her dress swung as she moved her body”, as well as the boy’s timidity towards her, she appears to be mysterious, detached, unapproachable yet appealing. The namelessness of the narrator also suggests the story be the reflection of someone’s own experience shared by many others. The prose can be divided into two parts.
The first part is from the beginning to the scene that the narrator talks to Mangan’s sister. The narrator shows great obsession with her by describing how his heart “leaps” when she comes out on the doorsteps and the way he follows her on his way to school in every single morning. Later on, the girl speaks to him and asks if he will go to Araby, an upcoming orientalist bazaar. By depicting the action of “turning a silver bracelet round and round her wrist”, the narrator illustrates how the girl is disappointed, as she cannot go to Araby because of the retreat in her convent. And this disappointment forms a stark contrast with the hilarious scene in the same paragraph that his companions are fighting for their caps. It as a result becomes predictable and conceivable to readers that the narrator promises to go on her behalf and buy a gift to her in the bazaar.
The second part is the remaining story of the prose. Hardly can the narrator focus on his study since then. He uses metaphor to describe serious work as “ugly monotonous child’s play”, which underlines how distracted he is because of the girl and the bazaar. His uncle’s absence of mind highlights the way the narrator is long for the bazaar and meanwhile anxious about being delayed due to his uncle’s lateness.
James Joyce’s prose Araby in Dubliners is a story written with a nameless first-person narrator. It is about the narrator’s life on Northern Richmond Street and his tremendous crush on the sister of his companion, Mangan. In my opinion, the girl has significance in symbolizing the frustration and blind pursuit of romance. In view of the portrait of her “brown figure” and that “her dress swung as she moved her body”, as well as the boy’s timidity towards her, she appears to be mysterious, detached, unapproachable yet appealing. The namelessness of the narrator also suggests the story be the reflection of someone’s own experience shared by many others. The prose can be divided into two parts.
The first part is from the beginning to the scene that the narrator talks to Mangan’s sister. The narrator shows great obsession with her by describing how his heart “leaps” when she comes out on the doorsteps and the way he follows her on his way to school in every single morning. Later on, the girl speaks to him and asks if he will go to Araby, an upcoming orientalist bazaar. By depicting the action of “turning a silver bracelet round and round her wrist”, the narrator illustrates how the girl is disappointed, as she cannot go to Araby because of the retreat in her convent. And this disappointment forms a stark contrast with the hilarious scene in the same paragraph that his companions are fighting for their caps. It as a result becomes predictable and conceivable to readers that the narrator promises to go on her behalf and buy a gift to her in the bazaar.
The second part is the remaining story of the prose. Hardly can the narrator focus on his study since then. He uses metaphor to describe serious work as “ugly monotonous child’s play”, which underlines how distracted he is because of the girl and the bazaar. His uncle’s absence of mind highlights the way the narrator is long for the bazaar and meanwhile anxious about being delayed due to his uncle’s lateness.
References: Barry, P. (2009). Beginning theory: An introduction to literary and cultural theory. Manchester University Press.