A Comparison Of Wild Berry Blue And James Joyce's Araby

Although Rivka Galchen’s “Wild Berry Blue” and James Joyce’s “Araby” have some differences, there even more similarities. The narrators, their journeys, and their conclusions at the end of their journeys are analogous. Both attempt to win over the object of their affection through a gift, and yet thorough the purchase of that gift they realize their folly in love. As Joyce wrote “Araby” in 1914, yet Galchen did not write “Wild Berry Blue” until nearly 100 years later, Galchen may have written “Wild Berry Blue” as a modern retelling of Joyce’s classic short story.

Galchen creates the character of her narrator to be very similar to that of the young narrator in “Araby” in a modern setting. In their youth, each narrator becomes infatuated and obsessed with someone who does not realize. The narrator of “Araby” falls in love with his friend Mangan’s sister, as seen in that he states that “when she came out on the doorstep [his] heart leaped” (123). He forms an obsession with her, as evidenced by the fact that he “had never spoken to her . . . and yet her name was like a summons to all [his] foolish blood” and in that “her image accompanied [him] even in places the most hostile to romance” (123).

Despite their differences in time period, location, and gender, the narrators of “Araby” and “Wild Berry Blue” are alike in their infatuations and in their journeys. Within each story, the young narrators come to the conclusion their actions reflect their immaturity and folly with regard to their first loves. The appearance of this conclusion in both “Wild Berry Blue” and “Araby” indicates Galchen’s deep understanding of “Araby”. Rivka Galchen must have read James Joyce’s classic short story “Araby” prior to writing her narrative “Wild Berry Blue” with a similar plot but a contemporary