Araby by James Joyce - Book Report/Review Example

James Joyce The present paper deals with the short story “Araby” by James Joyce published in 1914 in his collection of short stories called “Dubliner”. The story is set at the backdrop of nineteenth century Ireland after the occurrence of the great famine of Ireland. The work clearly demonstrated the socio-political conditions of the people of Ireland, especially the impoverished ones. The living conditions of these people and the suffocating situation they faced everyday of their lives in contrast to rapidly changing social conditions at the verge of modernization were the focus of the story. Joyce very carefully in “Araby” depicted the abrupt end of innocence and childhood in the lives of poor people along with the death of their beliefs and fantasies. Thus the story clearly addressed the issue of poverty and darkening social conditions of Dublin post famine. It was the depiction of the social conditions of a community after facing a huge disaster. Dublin showed several ups and downs during its journey since its establishment. With these ever changing economic conditions of Dublin the city also underwent considerable changes from the social and cultural aspects has created a very interesting part of history and thus the socio economic changes affecting the lives of the people of Dublin has become a pressing issue for research. In this paper the researcher tries to focus the nineteenth century socio-economic and living conditions of the people of Dublin in context of the religious and romantic beliefs as depicted in “Araby”. The paper discusses the issue of impoverished and dehumanizing life situations of the people of Dublin caused by severe poverty and changing face of modernity. James Joyce presents the literary evidence on the issue as well as the intervention of the problem in the paper in context of the short story “Araby”. James Joyce was born in Dublin in 1882. He had the first hand experience of the social turmoil taking place in Dublin during the later half of nineteenth century and the during the initiation of twentieth century. Born in an impoverished family failed in business Joyce experienced the hard-core poverty and the consequent social lifestyle of the poor people of Dublin at that time (“James Joyce”, n.d.). The story “Araby” in Dubliner presented the lifestyle of the poor of Dublin from the point of view of an adolescent boy seeking respite in religion and love fantasy. In this context the present paper investigates the socio economic life and beliefs of the people of Dublin with regards to fantasy and reality and the change of the society towards modernity. After the devastating conditions of Ireland during the famine of 1846 the life of people showed significant change as a result of extreme poverty. They shifted focus more towards the material wealth rather than the rich culture and literature of Ireland found during the beginning of nineteenth century. The focus of the government shifted from the core of the city to the suburbs, which were the depictions of flourishing Dublin at that time (O’Connell, 2007). Thus poverty and changes in social structure had become the face of Dublin. In this context while looking at the history of Dublin the socio economic condition of people molding every aspects of their life becomes the most relevant issue to be discussed. Not only the literary sources like “Araby”, the historic sources also pointed towards the impoverished conditions of Dublin in the later half of nineteenth century and the consequent changes in the society not only towards increased poverty level in the inner city but also towards the future cultural upheaval in terms of modernity. Joyce in his story “Araby” depicted the life conditions of the impoverished people of Dublin who could only fantasize about better life but had no options to experience one. The story followed the concept of realization and disillusionment of people (Torchiana, 1986). The adolescent protagonist of the story belonged to an impoverished family residing in North Richmond Street. The description of the area pointed towards the disaster the area had experienced in the recent past and could not really rise from the same. The “blind”, “cold” and “silent” street housing the once decent buildings lived as an impression of the decaying past. The dead priest and his old books symbolized the glory of the cultural and religious richness of the past Dublin city still residing in the minds of people. They found respite in these reminiscent from the past as depicted through the pleasure of the boy in the story. The other source of respite was shown in the form of fantasy in the boy. He fantasized his love for a girl next door who he could not communicate with due to the religious and social customs prevailed in the society but this became his only source of joy. But ultimately his dream came true when the girl herself talked to him and he could not resist himself from promising her a gift from the market of “Araby”. In his impoverished condition the greatest barrier he faced in relation to fulfill his desire was monetary. He somehow managed to borrow money from his neglecting uncle to reach “Araby” but by the time he reached the place most of the market was empty completely shattering his dream and his innocence ended in realization of the harsh reality (Torchiana, 1986). The story used the metaphors of dead end and blind street to depict the situations of the Dublin city in the late nineteenth century when the city dwellers failed to find any respite from their poverty and fantasized about better life once they escape their daily life. They took great difficulties to arrange for the escape but after reaching the place of their dream they were disappointed and disillusioned to find that the place had nothing to offer him rather than a decaying economy. The place of their escape was unable to improve their life. This situation was clearly demonstrated through the disillusionment of the boy in the market of “Araby”. The story represented a time period after the great famine of Ireland. Famine has long terms effects on the society in terms of the nature of people, social behaviors and economy. It is often seen that migration of people at a huge rate is an effect of famine. Due to the unbearable situations in the rural areas people tend to move towards the urban areas in search of food and better life. They fantasize about the removal of their poverty once they reach the city and take great efforts to realize their fantasy but once they reach the city they often find that there is no chance to remove their poverty rather the situation is even more dangerous for them in the city. This very condition of famine situations and their effects were demonstrated in the story using the metaphor of the travel of the boy to the market of “Araby” and the subsequent disillusionment. From historic accounts this very migration of people from Irish rural areas was found to be evident. The population of Ireland was seen to reduce to around six million people by 1855 from the 1845 count of eight and a half million owing to starvation, diseases related to malnutrition and migration to other countries. But the people who were unable to move to any other country made their way to Dublin in search of food and employment. To their utter disappointment Dublin failed to offer them enough economic opportunity and most of them ended up living the life of casual laborers in impoverished corners of the city (O’Connell, 2007). The once flourishing corners of Dublin were turned into living areas for the poor. The symbols of architecture of the previous century, the Georgian townhouses were divided into tenements and even the coaches and stables had been converted to houses for the poor. The entire family and often more than one family shared a single room of the Georgian townhouses. The slum conditions prevailed in the city and the tenement houses accounted for more than 40% of the total houses in the city (O’Connell, 2007). This very situation was depicted in “Araby” by Joyce where the North Richmond Street showed the presence of such houses decent from outside housing poor people inside. In the context of such poverty ridden conditions the social behavior of people was found to change significantly. The normal social behavior disappeared leaving behind the struggle for personal survival. Thus the human emotions, culture, religion, etc. took back seat in human life focusing their entire concentration towards earning livings. The situation made them ignorant and negligent about human emotions and they tended to live life self satisfactorily when they succeeded in earning the living. Despite of their good intentions they often found the issues other than life support less important in the context of their daily life. Thus they reached a stagnation and isolation in terms of cultural development as a result of the narrowness in their views caused by the extreme situations faced by them (Bhradaigh, 2007). The stagnation in terms of spirituality or religion was also visible in the late nineteenth century Dublin in this context. The North of Ireland, the traditional believers of catholic beliefs failed to cause any progress to the religion as a result of their false self satisfaction. They were attached to the previous thoughts and intellect but did not apply them to the future development. The social custom of the time also did not permit any criticism of the existing religious beliefs causing even more stagnation of the thoughts. The story “Araby” also depicted such situation in terms of the dead priest who symbolized the earlier religious beliefs which were dead and useless for the time but still provided respite to the boy representing the city dwellers (Bhradaigh, 2007). The situations in the late nineteenth century not only depicted the deteriorating conditions of life in Dublin but also represented the social changes taking place in terms of migrating society and religious openness leading to modernity. In the first half of nineteenth century following the Act of union of 1801, the wealthy and powerful classes of Ireland relocated to London causing severe damage to the working classes of Dublin who were primarily dependent on the wealthy Irish people for their livelihood. The famine of 1846 added to the situation when the rest of the wealthy people of Dublin shifted to the suburban regions shifting the entire focus of development of Dublin towards the suburbs depriving the city. The migrants reaching the city of Dublin began to use the city as the halt before migrating to any foreign destination. In contrast to any other Irish region the Dublin county experienced an increase of 23% of migration in the period following the great famine (O’Connell, 2007). These huge rates of migration caused some previously unknown effects on the society in terms of increased mobility among the women. The traditionally confined women found their way outside their home as well as the country. The mobility of the women outside their homes caused women liberalization in terms of their social rights, socio economic conditions, etc. The comparatively modern problems of child care were also visible during this time owing to the job related mobility of women. Thus the face of the society had begun to change in this period (Siddle, 2000). At the religious front the period showed liberalization of thoughts. Joyce symbolized this very phenomenon in his story “Araby” where the freedom of the boys from the Christian Brothers’ School demonstrated the freedom of the society from the restrictions imposed by the church and the noise made by the boys was stated to shatter the blindness of the street, i.e., the stagnation of the society. The release of the enclosed air of the dead priest’s room also depicted the changing religious scenario which had the courage to question the existing beliefs for the betterment of the society and also to remove the stagnation in the society (Bhradaigh, 2007). In the changing facet of the Irish society cultural revolution set the background for the 20th century revival of the country. The artistic, architectural and literary developments had their roots in the late 19th century. emergence of literary figures like Richard Brinsley Sheridan, John Millington Synge, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, William Butler Yeats, George Bernard, and so on, revival of Irish drama, museum, etc. all began during the late 19th century leading to the development of Irish society from the disastrous phase it faced as a result of famine and other socio-political problems (“The history of Dublin”, 2007). Thus from the existing literature the late 19th century Dublin was found to present an era of revolutionary social change. The first change visible was the shift of aristocratic section of Irish society to London following the Act of 1801. This caused an upheaval in the society hurting the livelihoods of the labor class offering services to the wealthy ones. Irish fascination for suburban living also changed the condition of the city making it more impoverished while flourishing the suburban areas. Following the famine the condition of the city had deteriorated even more. In order to provide home for the more and more migrating people to the city the corporation began to demolish and re-house the entire city causing severe damage to the previously elite Georgian constructions. The dwellers of the Georgian houses could not afford the newer ones built for the comparatively well off people and faced greater decline. Thus as a whole, poverty was found to be the face of Dublin in the later half of 19th century. The redevelopment began towards the end of the 19th century when reconstruction and redevelopment of several housing societies, market complexes, clearance of slum areas, etc. were able to provide a better living condition to the Irish society. Romanesque and gothic architecture, catholic and protestant church influenced construction, etc. became visible in the newer constructions of schools, hospitals and other buildings (Bhradaigh, 2007). Thus the social changes were visible mainly through the religious and living conditions of the 19th century Irish society. Thus to conclude it can be said that the impoverished Irish urban life following the famine of 1846 was the most pressing issue discussed in the paper in relation to the changing social beliefs and customs. Changing human nature and socio-economic deterioration of Dublin in the later half of the 19th century is discussed in the paper. As a whole the 19th century was found to be revolutionizing for Dublin as it showed both deterioration of an age and redevelopment of the society into a newer more modern aspect. References 1) Torchiana, D.T. (1986) Backgrounds for Joyces Dubliners. Northwestern University. Allen and Unwin Inc, Winchester Massachusetts 1986. The author concentrates on all the stories. For the story ‘Araby’, he lays emphasis on the little boy of the story. He analyses the context and place in which the character resides. 2) Bhradaigh, E.N., (2007). The overlooked rugged communitarians of Ireland. Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and places in the global economy, 1 (2): 155-161. The article provides a critical review of the religious contributions and beliefs in constructing Ireland in late nineteenth century to early twenty first century. 3) “James Joyce”, (n.d.). The Literature Network, available at: http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/ (accessed on 20 October 2008). The site presented the biography of James Joyce and the literary works done by him. 4) O’Connell, C., (2007). The state and housing in Ireland: Ideology, policy and practice. New York: Nova Publishers. The book focuses on the living standards and housing situations of Ireland as the building block of the society in the late nineteenth century. 5) Siddle, D.J., (2000). Migration, mobility and modernization. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. The book focused on the migratory behavior of people and analyzed the migration in Ireland after the great famine and the characteristics of the migrant families, women, labors, etc. 6) “The history of Dublin”, (2007). Dublin History, available at: http://www.dublinuncovered.net/history.html (accessed on 20 October 2008). The site demonstrated the historic aspects and development of Ireland since its establishment in different phases. Read More