Essay on James Joyces Araby - The Ironic Narrator of Araby

The Ironic Narrator of nbsp;Arabynbsp; nbsp; Although James Joyces story Araby is told from the first per-son viewpoint of its young protagonist, we do not receive the impression that a boy tells the story. Instead, the narrator seems to be a man matured well beyond the experience of the story. The mature man reminisces about his youthful hopes, desires, and frustrations. More than if a boys mind had reconstructed the events of the story for us, this particular way of telling the story enables us to perceive clearly the torment youth experiences when ideals, concerning both sacred and earthly love, are destroyed by a suddenly unclouded view of the actual world. Because the man, rather than the boy, recounts the experience,†¦show more content†¦It is a place of potential holiness, shown to us in the irony of the gardens barrenness and the priests worldliness: the garden has now only a central apple tree and a few straggling bushes; the priest had died and left behind him evidence of his preoccupation with secular litera ture and with collecting money and furniture. Into this setting appears a figure representative of all that is ideal, the girl. The narrator shows us in a subtly ironic manner that in his youthful adoration of Mangans sister she is, confusedly, the embodiment of all his boyish dreams of the beauty of physical desire and, at the same time, the embodiment of his adoration of all that is holy. In his dark environment Mangans sister stands out, a figure al-ways shown outlined by light, with the power to set aflame in him a zeal to conquer the uncaring and the unholy. Her image, constantly with him, makes him feel as though he bears a holy chalice through a throng of foes-the Saturday evening throng of drunken men, bargaining women, cursing laborers, and all the others who have no conception of theShow MoreRelatedAraby and James Joyce1207 Words   |  5 PagesThe short story â€Å"Araby† is clearly identifiable as the work of James Joyce. His vocalized ambition of acquainting fellow Irish natives with the true temperament of his homeland is apparent throughout the story. Joyce’s painstakingly precise writing style can be observed throughout â€Å"Araby† as well. Roman Catholicism, which played a heavy role in Joyce’s life, also does so in the story which is another aspect which makes Joyce’s authorship of the story unmistakable. As a result of Irish heritage displayedRead More Comparing James Joyces Araby and Ernest Hemingways A Clean, Well-Lighted Place1363 Words   |  6 PagesComparing James Joyces Araby and Ernest Hemingways A Clean, Well-Lighted Place As divergent as James Joyces Araby and Ernest Hemingways A Clean, Well-Lighted Place are in style, they handle many of the same themes. Both stories explore hope, anguish, faith, and despair. While Araby depicts a youth being set up for his first great disappointment, and A Clean, Well-Lighted Place shows two older men who have long ago settled for despair, both stories use a number of analogous symbolsRead MoreAnalysis Of James Joyce s Araby 1246 Words   |  5 Pages16 October 2014 Araby – James Joyce – Critical Analysis - Revision The visual and emblematic details established throughout the story are highly concentrated, with Araby culminating, largely, in the epiphany of the young unnamed narrator. 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In James Joyce’s â€Å"Araby† and in a number of the other companion stories in â€Å"Dubliners† the crisis – in the form of a sudden illumination that Joyce called an epiphany – occurs at the very end of the story, and the falling action and the resolution are dispensed with