Illusion to Reality in Joyces Araby - Book Report/Review Example

2 October From Childhood to Adulthood: Illusion to Reality in Joyce’s “Araby” Childhood experiences tend to be wrought with extreme pleasures and disappointments because of their virtue of innocence. James Joyce explores the frailty of human innocence in “Araby.” The setting is Dublin, Ireland, where a young boy falls in love with his friend’s sister. This paper uses formalism as a literary analysis approach, where imagery, symbols, and ironies seek to uncover the meaning of the text. Childhood love can be perceived as childish love, but in the story, it becomes an important process of transformation for the boy. Because of his dashed dreams of chivalry, he realizes what reality mean everyday for working-class and poor families. “Araby” depicts that the innocence of childhood is a short-lived illusion because adults know that reality is full of falsehood and broken dreams. The images and irony in the story convey the difference between reality and delusions that children eventually learn to differentiate as they mature. The boy conjures images and feelings to exhibit his love for Mangan’s sister, but these emotive representations expose his inexperience with love: “…her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood” (Joyce). Summons pertains to a call made by the authority. The boy thinks that his beloved has become the authority of his being, when he knows that this love is an unrequited one, thereby most likely resulting to a disaster. As a child, however, he does not think of these consequences. Nevertheless, dramatic irony occurs when the boy feels that he has matured because of this love, when in reality, the effects of his love prove his immaturity: “I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child's play, ugly monotonous child's play” (Joyce). He calls his studies, work, and other duties “child’s play,” while his adoration is more real and pertinent to his existence. This alone shows that he has yet to learn what real love is, more so, what reality means to adults. Reality is everyday disappointment for adults, which is why the Oriental fascinates them. In the article ““Turbaned faces going by”: James Joyce and Irish Orientalism,” Bongiovanni argues that the fascination for the Orient in the story signifies the need of the Irish to be distracted from “oppression by the English, but also from the rigid control of the Catholic Church” (26). The boy and his family are Irish but they are interested in Oriental literature. For instance, his uncle knows The Arab's Farewell to his Steed. This is an example of the need of the Irish to escape the social and religious controls of their lives. While boys are dealing with puppy love, adults struggle with something more deeply immobilizing- their loss of freedoms and autonomy. Aside from these images and irony, the unoccupied house stands for the seer, the moral code of Christianity that looks over and judges its believers. Snart, in “Detached and Empty: Subtexts of the Unoccupied House in James Joyce's “Araby,”” asserts that the detached house is not the boy and his emptiness. Instead, the house represents the “self-scrutinizing gaze of his Catholic surroundings” (91). The boy feels the same gaze, but not in the adult sense. As a child, he looks inward in a different way, where he internalizes his admiration for an older girl. But as soon as reality hits him, he discovers a painful truth about life: it is not always what people would want it to be, and most of the time, it turns out for the worst. When the salesgirl talks about a “fib” and looks at the boy, Papi underlines that the child’s fantasy does not conform to the truth (4). In other words, the boy’s chivalrous feeling of bringing something nice for his love foreshadows a mournful disappointment. He sets his expectations too high, and in the end, he fails not only his crush, but most of all, himself: “I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (Joyce). His baptism to adolescence burns him like a fire, and it leaves him angry and jaded. He has become an adult who knows the truth about bitterness and hopelessness. Bitterness can be expressed through silence, where the unsaid holds a powerful meaning, but with different definitions, where the unsaid is critical to the happiness of innocence for children, but for adults, the unsaid pertains to all dreams that will never come true. The young boy does not say anything to others about his love for Mangan’s sister. Being unsaid, it consumes him: “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand” (Joyce). His love has become a spirit that possesses his heart and mind. This is the silliness of childhood love that adults no longer appreciate. Papi, in “The Unsaid in J. Joyce’s “Araby”: A Linguistic Perspective,” analyzes the literature mentioned in the story to underscore that the unsaid for the adults is not innocent or happy, but hidden, so that they will not be always be reminded of the misery of their lives. The priest in the unoccupied house reads genre that seems unfit for his vocation. For instance, Papi notes that The Abbot, written in 1820, narrates the life of Mary Queen of Scots, commonly perceived as a “harlot queen,” and yet in “Araby,” it is “described in a religious and romantic tone” (6). The Memoirs of Vidocq depicts a deceitful Parisian Police Commissioner. These books suggest the disconnection between a priest’s reality and his dreams. Like the young boy, he has his fantasies about his life. But unlike the young boy, he knows that in reality, he cannot live these adventures; he can only experience freedom and adventure through the characters of the books. Thus, the unsaid expresses the sense of loss and lack of meaning in adult lives. “Araby” is not a typical love story. On the contrary, it is a real love story, where heroes do not rescue and kiss the princesses of their dreams in the end. Once the lights are out and the darkness envelopes him, he opens his eyes to the truth of human existence, and the light shatters away his innocence. He can love, but he will not always be loved back. He can dream, but they might just as well be illusions. And life, from then on, will be a series of unfulfilled dreams. Works Cited Bongiovanni, Lynne A. ““Turbaned faces going by”: James Joyce and Irish Orientalism.” Ariel 42.2 (2011): 25-49. Google Scholar. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. Joyce, James. “Araby.” 1914. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. Papi, Marcella Bertuccelli. “The Unsaid in J. Joyce’s “Araby”: A Linguistic Perspective.” Journal of the Short Story in English 40 (2003): 17-28. Google Scholar. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. Snart, Jason A. “Detached and Empty: Subtexts of the Unoccupied House in James Joyce's “Araby.”” English Scholarship, Paper 44 (2006): 90-93. Google Scholar. Web. 29 Sept. 2012. Read More