Surname 1
Name of student
Name of Professor
Course Code
Date
An Analysis of James Joyce's Araby
Araby can be described as a short complex story by James Joyce which I believe could be
a reflection of his own life as a boy growing up in Dublin. He uses the voice of a young boy as a
narrator; however the narrator seems much more mature than the boy captured in the story. The
story focuses on a number of issues including the escape and fantasy in relation to darkness,
despair, and enlightenment. I hold the opinion that it is a retrospective of Joyce's look back at life
and the constant struggle between ideals and reality.
The story is written in the past tense and from a third-person’s perspective with a fixed
depiction of the character’s limited perceptual grasp of the world. This puts the story in what
several analysts refers to as a “figural narrative situation” that forces the reader to rely on the
character’s perceptions and concepts. At the same time, being told by a covert narrator, the story
only contains information and thus leaves the entire task of evaluation to the reader. Even the
brief supposed shift into a variable focalization in form of a newspaper article is in reality a mere
gathering of information that is in turn filtered through the eyes of James Duffy, yet again
without evaluation. This also applies to the descriptions of interaction between the characters that
are, with but one exception, limited to the use of narrative report of speech acts. The mentioned
exception is found in line 16 on page 105, where Joyce introduces James Duffy and Emily Sinico
to each other. It is most likely that the author chose direct speech here in order to emphasize the
change that takes place at their moment of encounter. The fact that he then returns to the mere
Surname 2
reporting of speech acts, however, indicates that the change did not have the anticipated result,
meaning that their relationship did not develop according to the expectations fueled by the
intensity of their first contact.
As for the duration of the narrative, Joyce only uses simple past tense, so as to ensure
compatibility with the figural narrative situation he employs. At the same time he mostly
summarizes the story time in order to emphasize the unspectacular manner in which Duffy’s life
“rolled out evenly. This point of view is supported by the fact that Joyce allows an unspecified
amount of story time to pass before Duffy eventually encounters Emily Sinico, whereas, as their
“affair” begins, time seems to pass more quickly than before. And after their eventual breakup,
Joyce allows four years to pass within a single sentence without revealing any information on
what has happened during this period. These examples strongly suggest that Joyce consciously
employed time as a narrative element to emphasize the “hopelessness” of the overall story.
I believe Araby employs many themes; the two most apparent to me are escape and
fantasy though I see signs of religion and a boy's first love. Araby is an attempt by the boy to
escape the bleak darkness of North Richmond Street. Joyce orchestrates an attempt to escape the
"short days of winter", "where night falls early" and streetlights are but "feeble lanterns" failing
miserably to light the somberness of the "dark muddy lanes. Metaphorically, Joyce calls the
street blind, a dead end; much like Dublin itself in the mid-1890s during which Joyce lived on
North Richmond Street as a young boy. The genius of this collection revolving round the, in
some ways, ill-fated lower middle class life in early 20th century Dublin is undoubtedly the
lively description of the individual characters contained therein. It is no secret that Joyce
accomplished his detailed characterizations by using actual friends and acquaintances as well as
enemies as models for his characters. A recurrent theme of darkness weaves itself through the
Surname 3
story; the boy hides in shadows from his uncle or to coyly catch a glimpse of his friend Mangan's
sister who obliviously is his first love.
Araby is about escaping into the world of fantasy. The narrator is infatuated with his
friend's sister; he hides in the shadows, peering secluded from a distance trying to spy her
"brown figure"(Joyce 38). She is the light in his fantasy, someone who will lift him out of
darkness. I see many parallels to my life as a boy growing up in the inner city of Jersey City. We
looked for escape also, a trip uptown to Lincoln Park, or take a train ride to New York City
where we would gaze at the beauties on 7th Ave.
The boy sees the bazaar at Araby as an opportunity to win her over, as a way to light the
candle in her eyes. However, the boy is more awkward then shy, his adolescence is an
impediment to his quest and he lost for words to speak. I vividly recall those times in my young
life, driven by desires and struggling with the lack of experience to get through the moment. He
fantasizes about her, how bringing her a gift from the bazaar will capture her heart. He has
promised her a gift and he anguishes over his uncle’s late return home and his forgetfulness.
Nevertheless, he is undeterred and catches an empty train to reality. He finds Araby much like
North Richmond Street, empty and dark with few people. The young lady at the booth ignores
him while she flirts with the men.
When she finally approaches, he freezes in stare, transfixed by his awkwardness. As the
woman turns and walks away, he realizes the opportunity of winning his friends sister through
gift has slipped away. In the end, anguish burns in his eyes as the cold grip of reality takes hold
of him as he fumbles with the coins in his pocket. There is much juxtaposition in the novel
between West Egg and East Egg, and the comparable fortunes of the men who arrive at Jay
Gatsby’s famous parties. Fitzgerald also uses irony throughout the novel, including readers’
Surname 4
knowledge of Jay and Daisy’s affair of which Daisy’s husband Tom is unaware and Daisy’s
decision to stay with Tom at the end of the novel, contrary to readers’ expectation