4/04/2011
e-journal #10 (4/7)
Recall that an analysis, or explication, “unfolds” the work. That is, it explains in detail how the selected piece of text “communicates” to the reader by focusing on one or more of the elements of literature: sound, structure, figurative language, development of characters, development of plot and action, or irony, to name a few. Using Joyce’s “Araby” offer a written analysis that explains how one or more literary elements present in the story “communicate” to you. Revisit the Analysis and Explanation Guidelines on p.121 and 134, respectively, for assistance with this assignment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In the short story “Araby” there is of imagery, when I was reading I felt as if I was seeing the situation in my head. What got me most hooked was a certain description “Our shouts echoed in the silent street. The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses where we ran the gantlet of the rough tribes from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness “ Which got me hooked because the way it was described and I felt as if I would visualize the plot. There are also different themes such as loss of innocence, poverty idealization, and love. The narrator also has isolation from his family after he has a crush his family doesn’t know. He gets mad when he couldn’t get a souvenir for his crush. He fails to communicate with his family, when we look closer you can see that there is also less communication in the story. There is also a morality issue , it begins the story with the issue of morality and ends with it .
ReplyDeleteDaniel Hoch
ReplyDeleteEnglish 200
Professor D’Amato
Blog Entry #10
4/5/11
“Blog Entry #10”
“Araby”, by James Joyce, is a short story about an attempted trip that did not go so well. What I liked the most about the story was as I was reading there was nothing that I disliked about the story, especially the unfortunate ending.
This story, like many stories, started with an infatuation for a girl who lives in the neighborhood. The narrator describes a sort of obsession with her, in which he waits to be seen by nobody so as to reveal himself to her in secrecy. When the characters get to talking they start talking about Araby, a town that is a decent amount of time away. In fact, you would have to take a train just to get there. Even by today’s standards, that may or may not turn us off depending on the place you’re going to and what there is to do there. Unfortunately though, the girl could not go due to previous commitments. So, the narrator promises to get her something if he does indeed decide to go.
Ultimately he goes and as the events leading up to getting there materialize, it becomes an intriguing experience, one of which he would never forget. From anticipating the ringing of the hat stand in the hallway, to the encounter he had at the club, the evening turned from adventure into fiasco rather quickly. He ends by saying “…my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (l. 44). This means that the evening, like most things that happened that night, ended in frustration. And yet, he seemed so eager to go to this place, investigate what this girl liked to do in her spare time, so the buildup to this is rather amusing.
The thing is that everyone goes through this kind of thing at least once in our lives. Whether it is a family event, a date, or just waiting for your parents to get home from work, we have the right to say ‘been there, done that’ and what not. The important thing is that these things do happen, and sometimes there is nothing else to do but find laughter in the situation.
“Araby”, by James Joyce is a story as about a boy having a crush on a girl that lives in the same neighborhood as him. The one thing I liked about this story was that it had a good imagery. Another thing I really liked about it was that almost anyone can place themselves in the shoes of the boy. Almost everyone has had this experience; a little crush that went wrong or the person got hurt from. This is part of life and growing up. I liked this short story a lot because it had a lot of reality to it which showed the audience what everyone goes through in life. There was not a lot of dialect in this story which made it seem more real to me. The reason for this is when we all experience this for the first time most of the time that actual person is very shy to say anything. The actual reaction in this situation is thinking about the whole situation and being distracted from everything; even ones family or school. The boys actions showed his innocence and that he actually never even had felt that way before. The narrator said that he could not even concentrate in school and isolated himself from his family because of this crush. I really enjoyed this story because it had reminded me of the first time I had a crush go wrong. This is in fact a part of life experience.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story Araby by James Joyce, he introduces the audience to a young boy who has an secret infatuation with a girl from his neighborhood. The main concept I like about this text is that the young boys story is a story that everyone is able to relate too. This type of situation is a situation that everyone encounters. The narrator uses imagery by providing extensive detail within the story for the audience yo be able to imagine the scene throughout the story. After the narrator revels himself to his crush it leads up to an unfortunate event. The narrator learns that his crush wanted to go to"Araby" but could not attend because of a religious event. The narrator decides to go to "Araby" but seems to build up so much excitement and anticipation to go to the event that when something did not happen as planned it made everything seem worst. Everyone can have that feeling of being apart of or going to an event and everything just seems to go wrong. Throughout the story all of the narrators unfortunate events made me feel sympathy for the character because he was so excited to go to this event to impress his crush. Now that he and made it through all of his unfortunate events when he arrived he was filled with anger because his expectations was not meet.
ReplyDeleteThe story "Araby" by James Joyce is about a young boy's love for Mangan's sister, the girl next door. The narrator secret love for Mangan's sister causes him to make his mind wander off in class and he offers to buy her a gift in Araby to express his love for her. This short story contains a lot of imagery. Readers can easily imagine themselves being in the narrator's story because of how it is carefully detailed.
ReplyDeleteFrom the beginning of the story the narrator describe the surroundings and nature of his neighborhood and where he attends school. We can literally imagine standing on North Richmond Street watching young boys running out side after being dismissed from school and playing on the quiet street. The narrator gives us readers a clear, visual setting of his story. Each day the young boy's love for Mangan's sister deepens because of how he describes her figure and image. He says, "her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side". The narrator is unable to communicate with is crush so he uses a gift he wishes to purchase for her in Araby as a start to "properly" address his love for her. Towards the end of the story the narrator becomes disappointed because he was unable to take a good glance around in Araby to buy a gift for his crush which was the real reason why he wanted to go to Araby. But his uncle's tardiness cause him to arrive late and the bazaar were closing so he wasn't able to buy a gift for his love and at the same time he felt that he also disappointed her because she probably expected something from him. We can imagine how disappointed the narrator was feeling because it was obvious how much he really loved the girl next door and he feels that he can't express his love towards her because he didn't buy her a gift.
The story "Araby" written by James Joyce is about a young boy who strongly likes his friend's sister. Throughout the story, it seems like he likes and more and more each and everyday. He speaks to her one day and promises her a gift from Araby. In the story, a lot of imagery is seen. It is used to make the readers feel more in touch with the story through imagining the scenery as described in the story. It gives the readers a sense of how the places in the story correlate with what is going on with the characters in the story. For example, the street where the narrator lives is basically where and how the story starts because that is where he first saw his crush because she also lives on the same street as him- they are neighbors. The author also grabs the attention of the readers by using a topic that people can relate to. The whole story was basically about having a crush. The author demonstrates how strong emotions can evoke people to do certain things. It's like the saying "Love can make people do a lot of crazy things" except in this case, the narrator is not in love. For example, in the story, the narrator had told his crush that he will buy something for her from Araby. He never revealed why but the audience knows that it is because he likes her dearly and just wanted to impress her. He makes an effort to go to Araby but ends up not fulfilling his promise to buy her the gift because he ended up arriving late. It seems like he didn't have many options on what to buy her since Araby was close to being closed when he arrived there and ironically, he just decided not to buy anything because he was disappointed in himself for not being able to try and impress her.
ReplyDeleteIn “Araby”, by James Joyce, is about the narrator's who is in love with the sister of his friend Mangan. He relates to the reader how he waited for her to leave her house for school before he would leave his house, trailing behind her until there are parted, then passing her and going on his way. In the story there was lot imagery and one of the imagery that narrator used to describe his felling by not being with her and that reminded me of my first love. The narrator said, “My eyes were full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom” (Joyce 207). When the narrator used the words tears and flood, it kind of reminded me when I was in my room crying over a girl who broke my heart and she was my first love. This story takes me to back of my middle school days.
ReplyDeleteJoyce uses the setting of the story to help create a mood and to develop characters and themes throughout the story. “An uninhibited house of two stories stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbors in a square ground” (Joyce 206). Joyce uses these words uninhibited, blind and detached not only to describe the narrator's house, but also to describe the narrator himself. The boy lives with his aunt and uncle, not with his parents. He lives on a dead end street of a lower class neighborhood. And he is blindly in love with his friend's sister.
Although it has sad ending which I wasn’t surprise by because your first love never comes true, it has always sad ending. As the narrator fails to bring a gift for Mangan's sister and realizes that a relationship with the girl he is in love with will never happen, that’s when he started to understand about himself and about life in general. After your heart is broken by your first girl, you realize life goes on and so you have to move on too and that’s the lesson I learned my experience so did the narrator in the story.
The story “Araby” by James Joyce contains lot of imagery which provides readers a clear image of the situation and metaphor which states the author’s reaction. To focus on one piece of the text from the story, we can see for instance the author’s use of a visual imagery to describe the condition of his house. The author says, “Air, musty from having been long enclosed….and the waste room behind the kitchen was littered with old useless papers” to create a picture in a reader’s mind to what extent the rooms were messed (Joyce 206). Since the author provides negative description of the place, from this we can confer that the author dislikes the place. However from the imagery of backyard shows the author’s positive side. He says, “The wild garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree…” which gives the reader to visualize the setting in the story and can also see the “apple-tree” on the dull garden as metaphor to describe the meaning for hope. From this we can say that the author somehow finds something to hold on his attention to make things interesting. Similarly he finds his friend’s sister interesting in his “quiet” and “detached” neighborhood, and therefore has adoration. His adoration makes him spring even in streets that are “jolted by drunken men and bargaining women…” (Joyce 207). He says that her image makes those places and the noise to “converge in single” and further adds that “his eyes were often full of tears” thinking about her (Joyce 207). However his adoration goes too far. But in the end he realizes his limits when he fails to bring gift for her from the bazaar.
ReplyDelete"Araby," by James Joyce is about the love the narrator has for his friend Mangan's unnames sister. He never has the courage to speak to her but, he thinks about her constantly. "I kept her brown figure on my eye and, when we came to a point where our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her," (Pg.207 Line.20). She eventually spoke to him and they discussed a bazaar that she wanted to attend but is unable due to a prior commitment. He offers to buy her something and then becomes consumed with only thoughts of that night. "I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child's play," (Pg.208 Line.33). When he finally makes it to the bazaar he is unable to buy anything because he arrived to late, and the stores still open do not interest him. He becomes sad and angry with himself because he could not fulfill his promise and purchase something for his love. "... I saw mydelf as a creature driven and derided by vanity: and my eyes burned with anguish and anger," (Pg.210 Line31).
ReplyDeleteThe extreme use of descriptive language really enables the reader, in my opinion, to become truly interested in the story. For example,when the narrator describes the market which he accompanies his aunt to is described in vivid detail. "We walked through the flaring streets, jostled by drunken men and bargaining women, amid the curses of laborers, the shrill litanies of shop boys who stood on guard by the barrels of pigs, the nasal chanting of street singers..." (Pg.207 Line.26) Joyce's development of the plot also "communicates" to me as a reader. The story is structured properly so that reader can follow the plot from beginning to end.
James Joyce’s short story “Araby” is about a young boy, who is in love for the first time. The boy is in love with his friend, Mangan’s sister. He secretly watches her, and is afraid to express his feelings for her. One day Mangan’s sister actually talks to him. The conversation they had puts the narrator in a trance. All he can do is think about the encounter he had with his secret love. The little chat the narrator had with Mangan’sister was about an Araby Bazaar. Sadly, Mangan sister could not attend the bazaar, but the narrator promises that he would go and buy her something. The day of the bazaar, all the narrator could do is think about the it. He anxiously waits for his uncle to come home to give him money for the train ride. Unfortunately his uncle forgets about the bazaar, and comes back late. The narrator is excited about the bazaar and to buy a gift for his love. But when he gets to the bazaar, it is not what he expected. Everything is dull, and there isn’t much people. He looks around for something to buy, but he couldn’t find anything. As everything closes he stood in middle of the bazaar angrily. In the story, there is irony about the description of the Araby market. It is surely not as amazing as people would think of the Middle East. Rather, it is kind of a disappointing market. It is dark, mostly empty, quiet, and more focused on money.
ReplyDeleteThe story "Araby" by James Joyce is a story about a boy and his first crush; however his was no ordinary crush. Soon after his first meet with the girl he slowly became obsessed with the idea of her. The boys life was slowly revolving around this girl, all throughout the day she is all he thinks about. This then leads to him becoming distracted in school and isolated from his family. I was very fond of this poem because I too experienced a similar experience. I feel as though any person that reads this short story can relate to it. The way the boy reacted in the situation showed a very common innocence. I feel that the development of the plot in “Araby” was very realistic because many people are familiar with having a first crush and the strains it can have on one’s life. Also the absence of the dialect helped the story to come alive. The reason for this being when a person has a first crush there is not much conversation taking place due to the fact that when you meet someone for the first time there is always that sense of shyness. The development of the action in the story was also quite interesting; it made for a more intriguing story.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story “Araby” by James Joyce, the unnamed narrator, a boy beginning to transition into adulthood, has a seemingly innocent infatuation with his friend Mangan’s sister. However, as the story progresses, the boy develops a exagerrated view of the girl and eventually his quest for the girl’s attention leads to a bitter and debilitating self-realization of his profound naivete. He reaches this cynical climax by witnessing the deception and impiety of those around him. The imagery in “Araby” is incredibly detailed and greatly serves to offer insight into the boy’s psyche, this story being a first person limited narrative. The boy describes the dreary dead-end street where he lives as having houses with “imperturbable faces” and growing “somber” in the winter (206). The dead priest in conjunction with the “wild garden […] contained a central apple-tree” introduces the start of a strong religious overtone (206). Furthermore, the boys are not dismissed from Catholic school, but are “set free” leading to a perception of imprisonment occurring. The priest’s “musty” room and various religious-themed books contrasts with the “rusty bicycle-pump” that he owned, which priests generally do not require, suggests that the priest may have been just like the boys from the school, but he was unable to escape and retain a semblance of his childhood (206). Also, it seems like the nighttime holds some sense of freedom in the story as the children play until they “glowed” while other characters such as Mrs. Mercer says that the “night air was bad for her” and the man at the turnstile is “weary-looking”; the narrator’s uncle comes home drunk and is “talking to himself” and fumbling with his coat on the stand (207, 209-210). The boy develops the girl into a saintly figure, mentioning how “her figure [was] defined by the light” and how he seems to pray to her while “murmuring: O love! O love! many times” (207,208) When he gets to the bazaar in his mission to buy the girl a gift, misleadingly named Araby to elicit an idea of exotic and eccentric wares, he finds it nearly empty except for some people counting up money and no hint of anything exciting or meaningful. Furthermore, earlier in the story when he goes to the market with his aunt, the market seems very much like the “bazaar” would be; it is described as having “flaring streets, […] drunken men and bargaining women, […] curses of laborers,[…] chanting of street-singers” (207). This is an intense disappointment for the narrator as the bazaar is just like everything else around him: concentrated on deception and vanity.
ReplyDeleteIn James Joyce short story "Araby" he introduces the audience to a young boy who has an secret infatuation with a girl from his neighborhood but not any girl, he's in love with the sister of his friend, Mangan. He hopes to buy a gift for her at the Araby bazaar, which serves to him as an image of escape from the environment with the train ride over.
ReplyDelete"Araby" irony involves the young boy's character going on a journey, the end result of which is just dreadful and ends with the character going back to where he came from "... I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity: and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.." (l.31). "Araby" themes the pain that often comes when one encounters love in reality instead of its elevated form. The theme build on one another entirely through the thoughts of the young boy.
According to short story, “Araby” by James Joyce, the narrator describes his neighborhood on Dublin Street. He constantly thinks about the priest who passed away and was the previous owner of the house the narrator and his family moved into. The narrator uses very strong imagery to describe home and the games that he and his friends play in the street. He secretly has a fixated crush on his friend Mangan’s sister, as he states, “I kept her brown figure always in my eye and, when we came near the point at which our way diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her” (Joyce 207). The narrator and Mangan’s sister talk very little, but she is always on his mind. Then one morning, she asks if he plans to go to Araby, even though she has plans of her own. The narrator tells her that he would bring her back something, which leads him to a state of eagerness and to not focus in school. The narrator reminds his uncle that he plans to go to Araby and that he needs train fare. The uncle eventually arrives late and the narrator still has his mind made up to go to Araby, also known as the bazaar. His uncle provides him with the money and he gets there before closing. That is when the narrator realizes his desire for Mangan’s sister wasn’t really a desire for her, but a desire for change.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator develops as a character as his perception on his crush changes. His feelings for her were strong and eventually faded, creating a sense of lust. As the narrator’s uncle comments about an old saying, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” (Joyce 209). The uncle feels that if you really want something you should get out there and take whatever means necessary to achieve it. Compared to his uncle, the narrator has little knowledge about life and is isolated with his emotions getting the best of him. There was a time that there was an awareness of obsession, hence when he asserts, “[I was] leaning my forehead against the cool glass, I looked over at the dark house where she lived” (Joyce 209). I believe his uncle would have reacted differently by asking her out and not being shy. The narrator illustrates the joys and frustrations of his young love. His inability to pursue his desires starts to anger him.
James Joyce short story “Araby”, describes a young boys infatuation with his friend’s sister and his attempt at trying to impress her. The boy has a conversation with his crush where she tells him about wanting to go to the bazaar but being unable to because of a prior commitment. The narrator sees this as an opportunity to form a relationship with her and tells her he will bring her a gift when he goes. His days after seem to become dull and not as important as him going to the bizarre, he stated “I wished to annihilate the tedious days” (Joyce, 208). This absentminded thought also begins to affect him in school since he would not answer as many questions and his teacher went “from amiability to sternness; [as] he hoped I was not beginning to idle” (Joyce, 208). When the day to go to Araby comes, he reminds his uncle that he would like to go to the bazaar. Later in the day the narrator is waiting for his uncle’s arrival, but he doesn’t get home until 9 which is much later than the narrator anticipated to leave. The narrator finally arrives at the bazaar and sees that most of the stalls are closed. As he stands in front of one of the few open stalls he no longer has any attraction in buying anything there. The narrator realizes at this point that his fantasy with his friend’s sister is just that, a fantasy and gives up.
ReplyDeleteThe story “Araby” by James Joyce is about a young boy who has an infatuation with a girl that lives in the same neighborhood as him. From reading the story, one of the literary elements that appear most is imagery. I say this because the narrator talks about different situations where the text can be visualized and seen as a vivid picture in the readers mind. However, also while reading this, I can somewhat relate to this. Joyce uses details and settings where average people feel the same way and can feel what the boy in the story can feel. As the story goes on the narrator tries to impress his crush by attending a religious event. Deep inside he is excited because he knows the girl he likes will be there. However, things don’t go as planned. When he gets there and finds out that she is not there, he feels the opposite of what he felt before. That feeling of not getting what you want is a feeling that everybody can relate to. Nonetheless, having read this story, many readers can relate to every detail and can be seen in every setting which makes the text more life like.
ReplyDelete“Araby” by James Joyce, is a short story of a boy that has a crush on a girl from his neighborhood. He thinks of her, watches her, and imagines her often, but does not have the courage to speak to her just yet. Finally, the girl speaks to him and he is unable to respond for a moment, “At last shes spoke to me. When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer” (Joyce 208). They discuss the Araby bazaar and how the girl is unable to go due to a retreat in her convent. The boy then says he will get her something if does go. Joyce uses very descriptive language to express the boys thoughts and experiences throughout the short story. For example, just after his brief encounter with the girl, the boy grows anxious and impatient for the day he will go to the marketplace, “What innumerable follies liad waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening. I wished to annihilate the intervening days. I chafed against the work of school” (208). His everyday life has become tedious and cumbersome because he is too excited for the bazaar, hoping the gift he will buy for the girl will win her over to him. However, the irony of the story becomes clear at the end when the boy realizes the Araby market is nothing like he'd imagined, but rather a dark and gloomy place. He leaves the bazaar disappointed and angry, and without buying a gift for the girl.
ReplyDelete"Araby" by James Joyce tells of a story about a boy who like many boys has a crush on one his neighbors.It's a pretty good story as it is something most humans go through having crushes that like the word have crushed them in many ways. I personally find it to be very graphic as in that while the speaker spekas i can picture everything he says so the text has a lot of imagery in it. For example everytime he spoke of how he watched her, and imagined himself with her i can picture myself and howi personally would crush on someone.Because of the many connections this story can have with almost every person who reads the story it makes it attractice it makes you put yourself in his shoes and then makes you think about your personal experiences which then allows us to get away from the text and kind of try to change the story in our minds in a way that we believe is the correct way of being succesful.
ReplyDeleteIn the short story, “ Araby” by James Joyce, the theme is explicated in depth using imagery to account the obsession that a young boy has over a young girl. This secret infatuation leads him to some surveillance over her. As explained in the short story, he waited for her to come out and he would be heading somewhere she could not see her. He could not stop thinking about her and she was everything that crossed his mind. In the fifth paragraph it says,” Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance” (P.5). Everywhere he went the thought of her haunted him. Even when he was doing other things, just the thought of seeing her made his mind go wild. The author used imagery very well, not only to describe what the little boy was doing or what was going on around him but also to explain his feelings. The description of what he would do for this girl was the meaning of how strong his infatuation was for her. His biggest disappointment was not being able to get the girl a gift from the Araby. Not getting what could’ve been what she was waiting for was his fear of not being able to show her how much she meant to him. Many of us, as readers, can relate to this story. At some point of time, we all had a crush and would do anything and everything to get them to notice us. The imagery of this short story plays a huge part on the theme that the reader would capture from reading this story.
ReplyDelete“Araby”, written by James Joyce is a short story about the narrator’s admiration for his friend Mangan’s sister. She and the narrator talk about Araby, which is a bazaar. The narrator learns she cannot attend the bazaar so he decides he wants to get her something from there. In a sense, this could be a way to earn her love. When the narrator finally goes to Araby, he ends up not getting anything for her because the bazaar was quite disappointing. This makes him angry because he was so eager to go to Araby to only be let down. This event shows how the character grows/develops. In the beginning he’s optimistic about Araby and being able to buy something for Mangan’s sister. In the end, since things did not go as planned he realizes that love is not always going to be a cakewalk.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Joyce used a lot of allusion on his story. He alludes four literary works, The Abbott by Walter Scott, The Devout Communicant, The Memoirs of Vidoca, and The Arab’s Farewell to his Steed” by Caroline Norton. With research, I learned that among these works, the themes include love, deception, and dishonesty, which tie into the boy’s character and his experiences.
The short story "Araby", by James Joyce is about a boy who strongly loves a girl from his community. He fears expressing himself to her openly and he wishes not to be seen with her. After finaly conversating with her, she brought to his attention the quest of going to Araby. Now, she couldn't go, but he, along with his crazed heroic fantasy felt the need to display courage to her. His journey was soley motivated by his young, unthoughtful desire. This however turned out sour. After anxiously anticipating how this seemingly good deed might benefit their friendship, the predicament unfortunately made him angry to arrive at the bazaar and it was over. So mad at himself he was that he didn't even brought back a thing for his admirer. This is, however not just an experince that he goes through because we all do. By the way the narrator expresses himself we can all identify with him. In the begining he was so secretive and covert in his admiration for the girl, gradually he more and more dream about her, which affected his attitude in school work. This is just like childhood days for some of us. We discover our growth and puberty takes hold of us, making us go crazy about our first crush. Then when our youthful, unprofessional approach fails we go crazy and get angry at ourselves privately, just as the narrator expressed his anger at the end where the lights went out on him.
ReplyDelete