Psychology and It's function in the criticism of Araby, by James Joyce and As I lay Dyingby William Faulkner
Jenna Hecker
Reality and Literature- approaching literary analysis as a psychologist
Final
The American Heritage dictionary defines psychology as "the science that deals with mental processes and behavior." The difference between a literature and a psychology major is that a literature major is already seeing their patients. Every day a literature major opens up their books, and finds out something else upon a host of characters psyches. They are presented with odd situations, with broken characters, and they must come to an understanding of whom that character is in order to understand their actions. Literature aids us in our understanding of reality by giving us fictionalized example of how real people would act in intense situations. A good author makes you believe his or her characters are real, and understand why they do what they do. This is particularly apparent in Araby by James Joyce, and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Araby, by James Joyce allows its reader to see life through the eyes of an adolescent struggling to be a man. It allows the reader to see the reality of what it's like to feel unaccomplished and pathetic. The boy in the story is trying to make his voyage to the bazaar, his new adventure to mean that he's entered a new phase of life. Time suddenly seems to slow down in the story as the boy waits for Saturday to arrive. "I could not call my wandering thoughts together" he complains "I had hardly any practice 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, 29) Illustrated in the story are the real emotions the boy is feeling as both a man too old to be child, and a child too young to be a man. The boy's arrival at the bazaar, and inability to purchase anything shows him that he is not ready to be the man he is striving to be by triumphantly impressing Mangan's sister. The story is a study on the popular reality of adolescence. "Gazing up
Reality and Literature- approaching literary analysis as a psychologist
Final
The American Heritage dictionary defines psychology as "the science that deals with mental processes and behavior." The difference between a literature and a psychology major is that a literature major is already seeing their patients. Every day a literature major opens up their books, and finds out something else upon a host of characters psyches. They are presented with odd situations, with broken characters, and they must come to an understanding of whom that character is in order to understand their actions. Literature aids us in our understanding of reality by giving us fictionalized example of how real people would act in intense situations. A good author makes you believe his or her characters are real, and understand why they do what they do. This is particularly apparent in Araby by James Joyce, and As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Araby, by James Joyce allows its reader to see life through the eyes of an adolescent struggling to be a man. It allows the reader to see the reality of what it's like to feel unaccomplished and pathetic. The boy in the story is trying to make his voyage to the bazaar, his new adventure to mean that he's entered a new phase of life. Time suddenly seems to slow down in the story as the boy waits for Saturday to arrive. "I could not call my wandering thoughts together" he complains "I had hardly any practice 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, 29) Illustrated in the story are the real emotions the boy is feeling as both a man too old to be child, and a child too young to be a man. The boy's arrival at the bazaar, and inability to purchase anything shows him that he is not ready to be the man he is striving to be by triumphantly impressing Mangan's sister. The story is a study on the popular reality of adolescence. "Gazing up