James Joyce Use Of Symbolism In Araby
James Joyce’s Araby is about a boy experiencing emotions of first love in Dublin, Ireland during a time when the Irish were starting to fight for freedom from the British. Although on the surface it is about first love, it becomes more intricate. The character of the boy is used to give the reader an image of everyday life in Ireland and it seems like a dark and an unpleasant place to be. Joyce uses symbolism and imagery to illustrate the struggle of post-colonial Ireland. The symbolism is used to convey what Joyce cannot directly tell the reader about and The imagery used in Araby shows the reader what is happening around the boy; often times the boy is completely unaware of his surroundings because he is day dreaming of the girl.
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“The syllables of the word Araby were called out to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an eastern enchantment over” (156). The boy fantasizing about the bazaar he is expecting something strange and exotic and utterly new to him. However, when he arrives at bazaar his fantasies and expectations are shattered when he finds that the eastern enchantment he wanted to experience was no further east than England. The moment he set foot into the bazaar he has already lost interest due to the familiarity of it. The English woman at the booth he stops at and her hostile tone towards him ignites something inside of him. Joyce mentions her tone to give the reader an idea of how she feels towards him, an Irish boy, which is indifference. This lack of acknowledgment is an example of how the English feel toward the Irish. As he is leaving without purchasing anything he comes to the realization that his quest is all in vain and he was consumed by this hopeless journey to get the unattainable girl next door. “An ocular voyeurism that turns upon itself as a “gaze” and recognizes its own quest for self-knowledge as merely another species of narcissism” Norris, Margot. Suspicious Readings of Joyce’s Dubliners. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 30 September 2015. This quest to win love leads to self-discovery and through it the reader is given
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“The syllables of the word Araby were called out to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an eastern enchantment over” (156). The boy fantasizing about the bazaar he is expecting something strange and exotic and utterly new to him. However, when he arrives at bazaar his fantasies and expectations are shattered when he finds that the eastern enchantment he wanted to experience was no further east than England. The moment he set foot into the bazaar he has already lost interest due to the familiarity of it. The English woman at the booth he stops at and her hostile tone towards him ignites something inside of him. Joyce mentions her tone to give the reader an idea of how she feels towards him, an Irish boy, which is indifference. This lack of acknowledgment is an example of how the English feel toward the Irish. As he is leaving without purchasing anything he comes to the realization that his quest is all in vain and he was consumed by this hopeless journey to get the unattainable girl next door. “An ocular voyeurism that turns upon itself as a “gaze” and recognizes its own quest for self-knowledge as merely another species of narcissism” Norris, Margot. Suspicious Readings of Joyce’s Dubliners. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 30 September 2015. This quest to win love leads to self-discovery and through it the reader is given