James Joyce: The Araby and An Encounter - Literary Analysis Essay

Introduction

James Joyce was an Irish novelist, teacher, poet, literacy critic, and short story writer. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the two work so James Joyce; The Araby and An Encounter while considering the epiphany and paralysis of the main characters. This will entail analyzing what they learn about themselves, reality, the people and the world at large, how this knowledge affects their lives and the decisions that they make.

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James Joyce- The ArabyAraby is a short story about a young boy who goes on a journey in order to impress a lady he likes but in the end he makes a discovery that all he is doing is driven by vanity and is worthless. In the story, we meet a young boy most likely an orphaned teenage boy. He is living in a neighborhood that is not very appealing, he describes the street he lives in as blind, the house he lives in, he says is musty and there are a lot of waste papers and rusty materials in the waste room. During winter, the streets are somber, there is no life and the darkness is great. For the boy, the only time streets in his neighborhood are bustling with life, is when the young boys are released from school.

This darkness of the neighborhood is what spurs the young boy to go on a journey that he expects to be adventurous and fulfilling. The boy's journey is fueled by his desire to please a girl he likes, a sister to one of his friends who lives across the street from his house.

In all the darkness portrayed in the story, the description of the girl comes with a ray of light, he describes the way the light from the house touches her hair, the silver bracelet on her hand and the white of her petticoat. This girl, it seems, is the one good thing that the boy appreciates about his neighborhood, she gives him the reason to look forward to another day hoping he would see her again. He even peers under the blinds of their home just to have a glimpse of her as she goes about her day at home. She gave him the purpose to stay in the neighborhood and also to travel to a far off place out of the neighborhood.

Well, the story of boy meets girl and falls in love does not have a climactic ending when it comes to the Araby. The boy in question here is a thinker. In the story we see him make calculated decisions, living with his aunt and uncle, he knows when to ask for things, and first, he discerns the moods of his two caregivers to determine the best time for him to act. When his uncle comes home, he listens to how he removes his shoes and coat, then takes some time before asking for money to go to the bazaar. With the girl he likes, he makes a calculated plan of walking behind her every morning then passing her just before they go their different ways just for her to notice him.

Being a thinker, we would expect the boy to evaluate every situation before making a decision. He does not do this. The boy ignores the fact that the girl he likes has most likely made a vow to God of celibacy and would never date him. "She would be at a retreat that week at her convent." (Joyce, Popper, Crise & McCourt, 1935). The boy ignores this, he is blinded by the light the girl reflects amid the darkness of the neighborhood. He still goes to the bazaar hoping to have a great time and impress the girl with a gift. The thrill of the bazaar is fueled further in the train when it is declared a "special train" to the bazaar and some passengers are turned away from it. The reality in the train is quite different though, the boy has to ride on the third class section of the train, and from this, and we can discern that the journey itself is not epic and adventurous for the boy. At the bazaar, things are no different, the boy discovers that the entrance fee is way above his budget and has to find an alternative way in. Once inside the bazaar, he is met with disappointment, what he thought would be a busy place full of life and light, turns out to be a building with dark hallways and most of the store closed. There are only a few people at the bazaar, at this point the disappointment on the boy is great, and he has difficulty in remembering why he had made the journey at first.

The boy finally identifies a stall with something he might be interested in buying, he does not make the purchase though, but it is at this point he makes the discovery of his vanity. He lives the stall and darkness falls on the upper part of the building housing the bazaar. He realizes he is back to the darkness he had run away from. He realizes that he was only driven by the idea of liking the girl, that he did not take time to understand her or get to know her. The perceived light that he had seen in the girl had driven him to greater darkness, filled with numerous disappointments far from what he was used to in his neighborhood.

From the story, the writer conveys a message that life is not always as we perceive it would be. What we do not know is not always better than our current reality and new adventures in life are not always fulfilling. One needs to take a step back and evaluate the situation before making a decision, learn the interests of the people around you, get to know their intentions and their role in shaping your future.

There is also a message driven by the writer of appreciating what you have at the moment though it might not be as rosy as the adventures we may have in our imaginations. A course that may seem to bring more life and meaning to our existence may end up leading to disappointment and even anger in the end. The boy in the story is a good example of this for his conclusion at the end of his journey shows how much his perceived epic adventure left him feeling angered and in anguish.

James Joyce - An Encounter

This is a narrative that brings out the point of the similarity in the society in punishing what is deemed as wrong behavior. The story talks of two boys who go off to seek adventure but end up being riddled with the fear of being whipped over the same adventure by an elderly strange man they meet on a field.

The narrative begins by explaining a bond among three boys, fostered by their desire to play cowboys and Indians even when in school. Their bond through the game has grown to the point that they share secrets among themselves. The boys even secretly bring the magazines containing the stories of the cowboys and Indians to school so that they can share the thrill of their adventures with the other boys in their school.

The adventures of the boys are, however, not welcome as we see one of the boys, Dillon, is reprimanded by their teacher, father Butler for choosing to read the worthless material rather than paying attention to the Roman history the students had been directed to read. The other boys in the class are also filled with dread when the magazine is discovered. This shows the levels to which they have to conform to when at school, any other activity that has not been preapproved by the teachers in school is considered useless, there is a lot of restraint on what the boys can do. The boy narrating the story also admits that he is not so much pleased with the Indians' stories much as he is impressed by the detective stories, but he chooses to go along because they provide an escape for him. This shows the sort of frustration the narrator may be stuck in when it comes to the routine of school and home he chooses to do something that is not so pleasing to him just to break the monotony in his life.

"Real adventures, I reflected, do not happen to people who stay at home: they must be sought abroad." (Joyce & McKenna, 1982). With this thought in mind, the narrator and his two friends hatch a plan to ditch school and go on an adventure, they plan to walk through Dublin, visit the ships and the pigeon house. On the day of the adventure though, comes their first disappointment. Dillon does not show up at the meetup point as planned. He was considered the most fierce when it came to playing the game and he always won. Dillon had a special dance and song to celebrate his victory. Here, we see a change of personality, Dillon who was the most adventurous of the three bails out, probably choosing to go to school. Though he had made a commitment to the plan, even paying money, the reprimand he had previously gotten might have made him reflect on what is important. He falls back to the monotonous routine, conforms to the standards that are required of him and even later, he becomes a priest. The society here is seen as a tool that shapes the individuals into what they want him or her to be.

Back to the two boys, the narrator, and Mahony, they break the rules and set out on their adventure. The better part of the day goes as planned until they meet an elderly man in the fields.

The old man who passes the boys then backs up to sit with them, does not appear to be well-groomed. He starts to have small talk with the boys first focusing on the weather, probably to make the boys a bit more comfortable with him. Later on, the old man begins to talk about his past, his days in school and the numerous books that he has read. The man though shabbily dressed and obviously not of high stature in the society, appears to be well educated. A question might arise, did the old man branch out to seek his own adventures in his school days, or did the society fail at shaping him into what they wanted? The narrator finds himself lying to the old man about his reading habits possibly to impress him and to convince himself that he can have the best of both worlds. The old man also shares with the boys the adventures that he had as a boy having a number of girlfriends, Later, though, when he is left alone with the narrator, the old man changes his tone. He now has the stand of a disciplinarian, his previous liberalism is gone. He talks of Mahony as one who needs to be whipped for being a rough boy. He affirms that such boys should be whipped properly at a young age and even those with girlfriends need to be whipped. This man is most likely venting of the regrets he has for the choices he has made in his life, he opts for the standards and the routines that are set out by the society rather than the personal adventures that one may yearn to pursue.

In the end, the narrator is left riddled with fear, what he thought would be an adventure has ended up as an experience that has left him yearning for the monotony and routine that he had left behind.

The narrator makes a revelation that he personally had some resentment towards his friend Mahony. The decisions he had made, to seek an adventure, and spend the day with a friend he did not like, was due to the lack of options he faced back in his school.

In the narration, the main character realizes that he is somehow better off conforming to the standards and the expectations that are set out for him as opposed to going out on his own adventures. He realizes that people do change, the adventure does not always lead to thrill and the society has a lot of scrutiny on the individuals it is supposedly responsible for.

References

Joyce, J., & McKenna, T. P. (1982). An Encounter. Creative Education. Retrieved from: https://norek.pw/ki_h_zu_lim.pdf

Joyce, J., Popper, A., Crise, S., & McCourt, J. (1935). Araby. Triestina Carlo Moscheni. Retrieved from: https://theshortstory.co.uk/devsitegkl/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Short-stories-James-Joyce-Araby.pdf