Another literary device Joyce makes extensive use of is the simile. Through these similes, Joyce is able to showcase the profundity of the narrator's relationship with Mangan's sister.
To the narrator, Mangan's sister represents a new experience as the sensations of lust and love are things he has not felt before. Therefore, Joyce uses similes to evoke particularly vivid imagery to represent this.
Examples of this are, "...her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood," (paragraph 4, lines 9-11) and "my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires" (paragraph 5, lines 19-21) .
In the first example Joyce compares Mangan's sister's name to "foolish blood", thereby indicating that the narrator is new to love and lust as well as foreshadowing the ending where his pursuit of her ends foolishly.
In the second example, Joyce draws a comparison between the way the narrator interprets the girl's actions and the music of a harp. This is especially significant because by choosing to emphasize music, Joyce is telling the reader that these sensations are new to the narrator. Nowhere else in the story is music really mentioned.
Epiphany
Auditory Imagery
The narrator in Araby does in fact experience an epiphany. However in the case of Araby, this epiphany actually effectively ends the narrator's relationship with Mangan's sister and only serves to drive home the story's theme.
The main passage where this occurs begins when the narrator reaches the bazaar. You see, when the narrator finally reaches the bazaar after all his travails, he is expected to be greeted by some sort of spectacle. Something sufficiently out of the ordinary and exotic. After all, the bazaar is called "araby" after Arabia and it is a "bazaar" which suggests a foreign fair.
Instead, the narrator finds the place less than charming and incredibly familiar as is referenced by the lines, "Nearly all the stalls were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness." (paragraph 15, lines 5-6) and "...went over to one of the stalls and examined porcelain vases and flowered tea-sets...I remarked their English accents..."(paragraph 16, lines 1-3)
From the first line, it is clear that the bazaar cuts a lonely figure, half shrouded in darkness and neither appealing nor intriguing. From the second line, it is clear that the bazaar is hardly foreign at all, instead, there are stalls that sell tea-sets and many English folk. This implies that although the bazaar is supposed to be "exotic", much of what can be found there is merely the same as what can be found at home in Dublin.
Having realized all of this, the narrator comes to the conclusion that the chase of escape from routine and the longing for new sensations and foreign lands is futile. Since he associates Mangan's sister with these new sensations and yearning for something out of the ordinary, he comes to the conclusion that his chasing of her is futile as well and gives up trying.
Joyce uses a large dose of imagery in Araby in order to truly bring the reader into both the mind of the narrator and the lives of the Dubliners.
One specific type of imagery Joyce applies in particular is auditory imagery, or imagery that describes sounds. He uses auditory imagery in such a way as to make the reader understand that even the sounds in Araby reflect the boredom and routineness of the lives of the Dubliners.
Examples of this are: "a silence like that which pervades a church after a church service" (paragraph 16, lines 6-8) and "fine incessant needles of water" (paragraph 6, lines 3-5)
Both of these quotes showcase a certain amount of repetition that is represents the lives of the Dubliners and hands the reader the impression that they are stuck in this constant unending cycle.
Araby
Through Araby, James Joyce wants us (the readers) to question the unadulterated pursuit of new sensations and feelings for the sake of said pursuit. Is it really worth it when it is likely that disappointment awaits? Moreover, like the narrator in Araby, is it worthwhile to chase after "new-ness" when you are uncertain as to exactly what you are chasing after? In the case of the narrator, this chase is futile only because he has no real specific goal in mind but rather a vague idea of what he wants, which is a break from the routine and mundane lives of the Dubliners.
Why does Joyce write about striving for change?
How do Joyce's "Araby" and Updike's "A&P" compare?
Why do you think Araby is considered such a seminal work of psychological realism? Or just such an important piece of writing in general?
Personification
Light vs. Dark Motif
Joyce uses personification extensively in Araby to represent the dreariness and boredom of even the inanimate objects in Araby.
Examples of this include, "When we met in the street the houses had grown sombre." (Paragraph 3, Lines 2-3) and "Our shouts echoed in the silent streets."(Paragraph 3, Line 7)
By making even the inanimate objects in the story dreary and mundane, Joyce is emphasizing just how lifeless the Dubliners must be such that even their houses are sombre and their streets are silent.
Joyce uses the light versus dark motif extensively throughout Araby to highlight the contrast between the dull, mundane everyday lives of the Dubliners, particularly that of the narrator, and the new, intriguing escape represented by both the bazaar and Mangan's sister.
He uses darkness to represent the dreary routine lives of the Dubliners. An example of this would be, "It was a dark rainy evening and there was no sound in the house." (Paragraph 6, Lines 2-3)
On the other hand he uses light to represent the wonder and mystique of Mangan's sister in particular. An example of this would be, "The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck..." (Paragraph 9, Lines 5-6)
About James Joyce
Theme
Relevance
Born on February 2nd 1882 in Dublin, Ireland
Grew up in Ireland and graduated from Univerisity College Dublin in 1902.
He was a heavy drinker and he often found himself financially compromised because of this
Among his best noted works are the novels: A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939) as well as the short story collection Dubliners (1914) in which Araby was published.
He is critically acclaimed for inventing the "stream of consciousness" literary method which has since become a hallmark of psychological realism.
One of the seminal works of both James Joyce and the genre of psychological realism. Strongly influenced John Updike's A&P.
One of the first stories to discuss the mundane lives of the common man and their yearning for diversity and break from conformity.
In the story James Joyce uses various literary techniques, especially metaphor, to represent the narrator's obsession and eventual disillusionment with his longing for change.
Era and Mode of Fiction
The Theme in Araby can be thought of as a pre-cursor to the theme in A&P by John Updike.
In order to truly understand the theme though one has to understand that Araby was part of a collection of short stories called "Dubliners" which Joyce wrote about the people of his homeland, Dublin.
The main theme throughout this collection of short stories is that of escape from routine. Throughout the collection, Joyce paints a picture of the Dubliners as a group of people bound tight by regiment, who yearn for a change in their lifestyle. However, over the course of the collection, Joyce makes it clear that this longing for a change is often misguided or unattainable.
In Araby, this is represented by the the narrator's obsession with the bazaar and Mangan's sister, both of which represent a change from the norm for him. However, by the end of the story, he realizes that the pursuit of both is futile and presumably returns to his usual dreary life.
Christianity Motif
"Araby" is a work of psychological realism.
One of the key elements of psychological realism is discovering what happens when one goes inside a character. Works of psychological realism also have endings that exist inside the consciousness of the protagonist
The story would fall in the category of modernism as it was published in 1914
The story is chalk-full of Christianity symbolism.
For example, in paragraph five (lines eleven to fifteen), Joyce uses Christian symbolism to represent the narrator's burgeoning love for Mangan's sister because it represents a way by which the narrator can understand something foreign to him.
In general, throughout the story Joyce over-utilizes Christianity to portray the fact that the people of Dublin lead a mundane life in which even religion has become monotonous.