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James Joyce's Araby

 
      In James Joyce's short story "Araby," several different micro-cosms are

evident. The story demonstrates adolescence, maturity, and public life in Dublin

at that time. As the reader, you learn how this city has grown to destroy this

young boy's life and hopes, and create the person that he is as a narrator.


      In "Araby," the "mature narrator and not the naive boy is the story's

protagonist."(Coulthard) Throughout the story this is easily shown, especially

when it refers to "the hour when the Christian Brothers' school set the boys

free."(Joyce 2112) Although they were freed, they were placed into an "equally

grim world, where not even play brought pleasure."(Coulthard) Joyce demonstrates

this culture by showing a boy's love for a girl throughout the story. This young

boy, is completely mystified by this girl, but at the end, the girl is replaced

by the girl with an "English accent" attending the booth at the bazaar. This

shows the power and persuasiveness that England has at that time over Dublin.

 

      The antagonist in this story, which can easily be determined is the

culture and life in Dublin. This has a great effect on the boy and the rest of

the people from this city. Dublin is referred to as the "center of

paralyses,"(Internet) and "indeed sterile."(Joyce) This plays a huge role in the

forming of this boy's life, where there is no fun. "Araby" is a story "of a

soul-shriveling Irish asceticism, which renders hopes and dreams not only

foolish, but sinful."(Coulthard) In the story, the only thing that the young boy

has to look forward to is buying something for the girl he loves, and in the end

he can't even do that; and by making the final characters English, the story

leaves an impact on the reader about the Dublin society. It shows the antagonist

of the story to be "a repressive Dublin culture."(Coulthard)

 

      Through this allegorical piece, the reader can understand the harsh life

that people are forced to deal with in Dublin society. "The narrator has become

embittered rather than wiser, which was his destiny from the first for desiring

joy in an environment that forbade it."(Coulthard) "Araby" seems to be

reflection on Joyce's own life in a repressive Dublin culture.

 

Works Cited

 

Coulthard, A.R.. World Literature in Review. (Internet)

      http://www.elibrary.com/id/2525/getdoc.cg...2D000&form=

      RL&pubname=explicator&puburl=0

 

(No Author). Exhibition and inhibition. (Internet) http://

      www.elibrary.com/id/2525/getdoc.cg...ame=twentieth_

      century_literature&puburl=0

 

Joyce, James. Works of James Joyce. (Internet) http://www.

      Elibrary.com/id/2525/getdoc.cg...13&form=rl&pubname=

      monarch_notes&puburl=0

 

Joyce, James. "Araby." The Harper Collins World Reader.

      Ed. Mary Ann Caws and Christopher Prendergast. New

      York: Harper Collins, 1994. 2112-2116.