Compare and contrast - Essay Example

The story takes the help of a simple dream or illusionary craze of the young boy to show him the stark reality of Dublin’s life that is very different from the world of is own making. This describes the boy’s experience, emphasizing more on the character portrayal than anything else. The narrator describes how the city and the surroundings had eaten into the health of the young boy’s life and contributed towards creating the person that he was. The protagonist of the story is the matured boy who had once been the innocent boy depicted in the story.

The story opens with the lines “North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers School set the boys free” (Joyce). Ironically, even though they were free from school, even their play did not give them the desired pleasure, for it was an equally dull world, where not even play brought any refreshment for the children. All these descriptions of dullness actually creates the backdrop against which the boy took resort of imagination larger than life and hence encounters a surprising disillusionment The antagonist in the story is the culture and life of Dublin, which has a significant role in shaping the boy’s mind along with the other inhabitants in the city.

Joyce refers to Dublin as “indeed sterile”. This coaxes the innocent mind to seek shelter to a world of his own making or imagination where the boy seeks peace and happiness that the reality could not give him. The narrator himself is the young boy in the story who brings out the stark reality and the disillusionment undergone by the innocent soul. In his allegorical piece of work, Joyce intends to make the reader realize the harsh life that people were compelled to face in Dublin. And creates a platform for disillusionment which was a combination of wisdom and