A Comparative Analysis between Araby and The Bread of Salt
A Comparative Analysis Between “Araby” and “The Bread of Salt”
Age brings maturity, experience ripens it.
― Vimal Athithan
Reality isn 't the way you wish things to be, nor the way they appear to be, but the way they actually are.
― Robert J. Ringer
These two quotes capture what James Joyce’s Araby and N.V.M. Gonzalez’s The Bread of Salt are all about – maturity and realization.
Araby and The Bread of Salt are both coming of age stories, featuring an adolescent boy’s first experience with love, and how this leads to his self realization and entrance to the adult world. Although the narratives have different backgrounds, Araby being written by an Irish author and The Bread of Salt being written in a distinctly Filipino context, there are similarities when it comes to their characters, story and theme. In fact, there are professionals who claim that The Bread of Salt is a remake of Joyce’s piece and serves as Gonzalez 's “loving homage” to it (Conejos, 2012, para.1). In both works, the lead characters are blinded by their romantic desires, but in the end, their eyes are opened to life’s harsh realities.
In Araby, the protagonist, who is also the narrator, is a young boy who becomes attracted to a friend’s sister. He begins the story by describing his environment as dark and bleak, and later on speaks of Mangan’s sister with her figure being “defined by the light from the half-opened door.” In a literary analysis, Donschikowski (2006) writes, “His youthful imagination sees her always surrounded with light; she is the contrast to his dark world” (p. 12). He thinks of her all the time, although he does not fully know her, as he “had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words.” Every morning, he tries to get a glimpse of her and follows her on the way out until they have to go their separate ways.
Similarly, the protagonist in The Bread of Salt also deals with his first encounter with love. He is a fourteen year old violinist who becomes infatuated with
Age brings maturity, experience ripens it.
― Vimal Athithan
Reality isn 't the way you wish things to be, nor the way they appear to be, but the way they actually are.
― Robert J. Ringer
These two quotes capture what James Joyce’s Araby and N.V.M. Gonzalez’s The Bread of Salt are all about – maturity and realization.
Araby and The Bread of Salt are both coming of age stories, featuring an adolescent boy’s first experience with love, and how this leads to his self realization and entrance to the adult world. Although the narratives have different backgrounds, Araby being written by an Irish author and The Bread of Salt being written in a distinctly Filipino context, there are similarities when it comes to their characters, story and theme. In fact, there are professionals who claim that The Bread of Salt is a remake of Joyce’s piece and serves as Gonzalez 's “loving homage” to it (Conejos, 2012, para.1). In both works, the lead characters are blinded by their romantic desires, but in the end, their eyes are opened to life’s harsh realities.
In Araby, the protagonist, who is also the narrator, is a young boy who becomes attracted to a friend’s sister. He begins the story by describing his environment as dark and bleak, and later on speaks of Mangan’s sister with her figure being “defined by the light from the half-opened door.” In a literary analysis, Donschikowski (2006) writes, “His youthful imagination sees her always surrounded with light; she is the contrast to his dark world” (p. 12). He thinks of her all the time, although he does not fully know her, as he “had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words.” Every morning, he tries to get a glimpse of her and follows her on the way out until they have to go their separate ways.
Similarly, the protagonist in The Bread of Salt also deals with his first encounter with love. He is a fourteen year old violinist who becomes infatuated with
References: Conejos, A. (2012, May 25). The Bread of Salt by: N.V.M. Gonzalez. In Lit React. Retrieved from http://www.litreact.com/reactions/bread-of-salt_gonzalez_conejos.html Donschikowski, D. (2006). Literary analysis using James Joyce’s “Araby,” a thematic approach. Retrieved from http://thetalon.org/MISC/araby_analysis.pdf Gonzalez, N.V.M. (1993). The bread of salt. The bread of salt and other stories (pp. 96-106). Seattle: University of Washington Press. Gray, W. (1997). Wallace Gray 's notes for James Joyce 's "Araby". In World Wide Dubliners. Retrieved from http://www.mendele.com/WWD/WWDaraby.notes.html Joyce, J. (1999). Araby. In R. Scholes & A.W. Litz (Eds.), Dubliners (pp. 26-33). Retrieved from http://sparks.eserver.org/books/dubliners.pdf