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Araby by James Joyce

            James Joyce's "Araby" is a short story drawn from Joyce's childhood in Dublin. Within this short story, the unnamed narrator tells the story of a seemingly short incident in a boy's life. This incident has actually brought about a realization or an epiphany of a truth about life that is more of realism than of a warm and fuzzy moment within the boy's young existence. The themes of "Araby" are those of paralysis of anticipation of a joyous trip to a Dublin bazaar, which includes an Oriental motif, Araby. The entire story builds emotionally from the narrator's infatuation with his friend's sister to the allure of going to an exotic retreat from the dingy streets of his dismal neighborhood. Joyce's "Araby" explores the hopes and dreams of a young boy and how those hopes are dashed by the stark realities of inescapable challenges in everyday life.
             The mood of the story is created with the narrator's description of the boy's home and neighborhood. The narrator describes the neighborhood with scenes at dusk, or when the light is withdrawing from the streets. When describing his surroundings, the narrator uses words like "feeble lanterns" (Joyce, 1) as well using the word 'dark' repeatedly to reiterate the depletion of light within the neighborhood: "dark muddy lanes" (1); "dark dripping gardens (1); and "dark odorous stables" (1). Only when the "light from the kitchen windows filled the areas" (1) where the characters able to visualize the activities of the boy's uncle and the 'dark form' of Mangan's sister. .
             It is Mangan's sister with whom the boy is completely enamored; "Her figure defined by the light of the half-opened door" (Joyce, 1). The boy did not want his passion for her detected so he would lie at his parlor window with the blind slightly raised so he could watch for her movements at her door and he could 'accidentally' follow her on his way to school.


Essays Related to Araby by James Joyce

1. John Updike's Araby And James Joyce's A&P

... Another important detail used in this particular story is the use of color, which has more underlying layers than only looking at the color, green, worn by one girl, as only being just another color. According to Updike, he used the color green because it can be looked at in different ways, ... from meaning "go," as in a traffic light, or having a connotation of "money." From looking at the color in this deeper meaning, the girls, by wearing green, are expressing that they have money, and that their bodies are in motion, making them available to Sammy. After examining detail as used in ...

  • Word Count: 985
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Araby James Joyce

... had an enormous amount of authority over Dubliner's. The reader is able to feel the narrators exhausting struggle to escape this influence of the Catholic Church by replacing it with a materialistic driven love for a girl. James writes Araby from a first person narrative and in doing so he may have taken the opportunity to make a long awaited confession that is so deeply embedded in ... our understanding of the boy's adoration to new heights. The boy expresses his devoted love internally through deep meditation and prayer despite the loud commotion surrounding him: "flaring streets, jos...

  • Word Count: 2168
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

3. Araby James Joyce

... had an enormous amount of authority over Dubliner's. The reader is able to feel the narrators exhausting struggle to escape this influence of the Catholic Church by replacing it with a materialistic driven love for a girl. James writes Araby from a first person narrative and in doing so he may have taken the opportunity to make a long awaited confession that is so deeply embedded in ... our understanding of the boy's adoration to new heights. The boy expresses his devoted love internally through deep meditation and prayer despite the loud commotion surrounding him: "flaring streets, jos...

  • Word Count: 2168
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Literary Devices and Modernism in Araby

... organizations, but their works were inspired by the disillusionment created after World War I. Among many modernist authors is James Joyce. Joyce is the author of Dubliners, a collection of fifteen short stories published in 1914. One of these short stories is Araby. The literary devices used by Joyce in his short story Araby display aspects of modernism. Joyce uses diction, characters, and themes to ... show evidence of an epiphany and psychological conflict, which are both aspects of literary modernism. In the story Araby ... experiencing. The psychological conflict the boy encounter...

  • Word Count: 992
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Araby

Pilgrimage to Clarity After a close examination of the short story "Araby" by James Joyce, several instances of religious symbolism seem to be intertwined throughout the story. The story unfolds from the viewpoint of a young child while simultaneously raising moral questions representative of a much more mature Joyce. This enlightened perspective allows for some very intricate examples of symbolism. Although the symbolism can be observed on two very ... an adult. This symbolism is painted with religious overtones that evidently stem from Joyce's adolescence. Through the use of symbolism, Jame...

  • Word Count: 1286
  • Approx Pages: 5

6. Analysis of Araby by James Joyce

In James Joyce' short story "Araby" he describes a young boy's first experience with love and obsession. Initially, the story is set in the narrator's neighborhood in Dublin where ... his uncle forgot and came home late from work on the evening of the bazar. By the time the boy arrived at Araby, it was virtually closed down for the night. The story ends with the narrator feeling extremely angry and dejected. James Joyce wrote this story to reflect on the irrational complexities of a young man's first love. ... author does not offer any clear cut resolution to the narrator's internal confli...

  • Word Count: 691
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

7. araby analysis

Araby is a story by James Joyce which takes place in Dublin in the late 1800's told to us in a first-person narrative point of view. It examines how a boy's infatuation with a girl is shattered when he sees what she is really like. The boy in "Araby", like Joyce as a youth, must begin to free himself from his dreams and see reality (Stone 375-410). This story uses ... is a spiritual person (Foster 91-108). Strong characterization is revealed throughout the story through Joyce's choice and arrangement of his words. In Araby the theme is extracted from all the major methods of fiction. The the...

  • Word Count: 422
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Araby

"araby's" setting reinforces the theme and the characters by using the imagery of light and darkness. The experiences of the young boy in the story illustrate how people often expect more than ordinary reality can ... The story expresses it's theme through characterization of the boy and his point of view as the narrator. Darkness is used throughtout the story as the prevailing theme. James Joyce's story begins at dusk and continues throught the eveing during the winter. He choses this gloomy setting to be the home of the young boy who is infactuated with ... in order to give her a heavenl...

  • Word Count: 365
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Explication of Araby by James Joyce

"Araby," a short story written by James Joyce, is about the life of a sexually frustrated boy and his obsession with a young girl. The boy, who is nameless in this story, goes against his religious beliefs because of his sexual desires. We, as the readers, see the boy's actions as he sets through a journey of new experiences, one being sexually aroused. James Joyce uses religious imagery and ... sexual implications to make us understand how the boy's religious background impacts the way he handles the challenges he faces and how it is very hard for him to find his true self. The main characte...

  • Word Count: 701
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

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