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James Joyce Araby

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James Joyce Araby
Dawann Bellamy
Ms. Jennings
Eng-113
8 November 2013

James Joyce’s “Araby” demonstrates
Disappointment and Alcoholism connects to a theme of Darkness

The setting in “Araby” supports the theme and the characters that by using imagery of light, a formation of love and surely darkness. The experiences that the narrator faces throughout this story shows how humans expect way more than regular reality, and how people aren’t really caring for the boy these actions eventually show how disappointment and Alcoholism destroys the narrators desires.

Joyce goes about writing this story by using extremely dark and abstruse references to show the narrators reality of living in this gloomy town of Dublin, Ireland that is extremely vivid. For example, “The former tenant of our house, a priest, had died in the back drawing-room. Air, musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room behind the kitchen was littered with old useless papers” (Joyce). One can easily see that this is a dark moment that is something the boy deals with. This story explains its theme through the setting, and it brings the boys character alive as the narrator.

Darkness is a major aspect and it’s heavily used in this story with the various situations in this story,”Joyce dimly lights this psychic landscape, and hems it on all sides with a bleak darkness” (Ponder). The story starts at dusk and goes through the evening in Dublin, Ireland. The narrator lives in a very dark area and him and his friends play the same games every single day and the boy is literally fed up with doing the same exact thing every single day. However, there is one thing that can brighten up the boys day. One of the kids whom the narrator plays with “Mangan’s” sister. The boy is young and to a certain extent is naive and he lives a very dull life. Lastly, Joyce used darkness to make the boys reality way more interesting and by using deep and dark descriptions.

The one

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