A Short Discussion on the Use of Imagery in James Joyces Araby - Essay Example

James has explained this side of the world and bitter realities in various parts of the story. For example, the North Richmond Street has been described as a cold silent street with a dead-end. James has also highlighted the details of other parts such as the young boy’s house, the gloominess that surrounds his house and his street, his relationship with his aunt and uncle, the details related to the priest who died in his house and about his belongings that raises the spiritual feelings in young boy’s heart and mind and lastly, the boy’s two trips that took him on the quest of discovering the meaning of real life and bring him back to state of consciousness that unfolded the blindness before his eyes (Donschikwoski).

The background of the place where the young boy lived, well illustrates the true and real meanings of the life. Furthermore, as described by the author that the people who lived there including the boy’s aunt and uncle had a limited vision of life, conservative in their opinions and were unable to value anything in life; bounded to live an isolated life. In his story James Joyce has used various symbolic presentations which helped him to make his reader understand the real background of the story.

For example, the belongings of the dead priest which included the priest’s old bicycle pump that was getting more corrosive in the rain and his old yellow books. These simple things indicate the character of the priest and his devotion towards God and his fellow men through his services. But after his death, his books became more old and yellow as well as his bicycle pump turned rustier. This whole effect signifies the downturn in the spiritual and intellectual condition of the present state in which the young boy was living (Thurston).

And in such environment of “spiritual analysis” the young boy endures his first love, experiences the arousal of sensuous desires and romantic fantasies. The religion has its strong roots entrenched in the lives of the people of North Richmond Street, but it was merely just a religion with shattered faith. However, for a young boy who is enduring the experiences of first love, finds the interpretation for his feelings from his religious learning and the romantic books he read. This ultimately resulted in confused and disillusioned understanding of love combined with religion, faith and pure romance.

This developed the world of dreams inside him (Atherton). Gradually, at different levels the boy encounters the reality and irony of life that he ignores at first but his trip to Araby; a bazaar, which he believed as an “Oriental enchantment” uncovers the hidden reality which made him to believe that life and love have no similarity between them and both of these are different from a person’s understanding of dream and imagination. James Joyce has described the Araby market as a narrow and a dark place, where one could only hear the voice of falling coins and profits, a world that opposes the young boy’s dreams of romance and ideal.

His late arrival at the bazaar with majority of stalls closed, brought him to an opened stall where he received a very cold attention from the saleslady. She was more interested in her conversation with the two gentlemen and paid no attention