Araby: Life Has No Meaning

1044 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Importance of relationships in literature

Many people try to discover what the meaning of life is and find themselves searching for something that makes them feel complete. Some believe vanity is important, so they struggle to be better than others so they can have the money, the glory, and the luxuries. A desire to find a higher purpose or meaning keeps people from the possibility that life has no meaning. Life is filled with vanity, which is meaningless, therefore life has no meaning. James Joyce's “Araby” displays the theme that life has no meaning through the use of setting, characters, symbols, and motifs. “Araby” takes place in Dublin, Ireland, a city and country whose history has been marked with gloom. The Great Famine of 1740-41 and many years of English persecution has given Ireland an air of hopelessness and trouble. During the time that Joyce wrote “Araby,” Ireland was governed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in London. Irish Catholics, who made up most of the population, were not even allowed representation in Parliament. Ireland is the perfect setting for developing a theme of life as meaningless. Joyce uses Dublin as it is, but does not engross himself in the details. The location helps the theme, but Joyce writes things as how “ they are, not only for Stewart 2 Dublin, but for every city” (Pound). This allows his theme to apply for a person from anywhere in the world. The narrator of “Araby” is a nameless boy who lives in Dublin. Life in Dublin is dark and dreary, but the one light in his life is Mangan's sister. Although he is infatuated with her, they have never had a real conversation. He would watch for her to leave in the morning and follow her on the way to school. Finally, the narrator has a conversation with Mang... ... middle of paper ... ... or Jesus in mind, the narrator carries Mangan's sister with him in thought as he walks through places that are “most hostile to romance.” The narrator even prays to her, exclaiming “ O love! O love” (Joyce 262). When seen in person, she is surrounded by light. This alludes to the many images of Madonna, or the Virgin Mary. In a majority of paintings, the Madonna is alone with a heavenly light around her (Joyce 263). Ultimately, the narrator abandons the thought of Mangan's sister because he believes she will fail to bring meaning to his life as well. Joyce expertly used setting, characters, symbols, and motifs to set a somber theme. The narrator learned that his life was filled with vanity, and that he cannot fill it with religion or romance to make it have meaning. Life is meaningless. People will live their lives until the light is turned out on them.

Show More
Related

  • John Updike’s A & P, Richard Wright’s The Man Who Was Almost a Man, and James Joyce’s Araby

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    Joyce, James. “Araby”. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Eds. R.V. Cassill and Richard Bausch. Shorter Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. 427 - 431.

    Read More

  • The Reality of World in Araby and Boys and Girls

    1184 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story “Araby” opens with a description of North Richmond Street. This gives reader the first view of the young boy's world. The Richmond Street “was a quiet street except.....the boys free” (Joyce 345). The young boy in “Araby” lives with his aunt a...

    Read More

  • The Decline of Chivalry Explored in Araby and A&P

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Araby” tells the story of a young boy who romanticizes over his friend’s older sister. He spends a lot of time admiring the girl from a distance. When the girl finally talks to him, she reveals she cannot go to the bazaar taking place that weekend, he sees it as a chance to impress her. He tells her that he is going and will buy her something. The boy becomes overwhelmed by the opportunity to perform this chivalrous act for her, surely allowing him to win the affections of the girl. The night of the bazaar, he is forced to wait for his drunken uncle to return home to give him money to go. Unfortunately, this causes the boy to arrive at the bazaar as it is closing. Of the stalls that remained open, he visited one where the owner, and English woman, “seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty” (Joyce 89) and he knows he will not be able to buy anything for her. He decides to just go home, realizing he is “a creature driven and derided with vanity” (Joyce 90). He is angry with himself and embarrassed as he...

    Read More

  • Arby

    1404 Words  | 3 Pages

    Some of these issues show up early on in the story "Araby." To begin with, the narrator--the voice of a young Joyce, surely, if not entirely autobiographical--lives in a house whose former t...

    Read More

  • James Joyce's Araby - Setting and Theme in Araby

    422 Words  | 1 Pages

    How the Setting Reinforces the Theme and Characters in Araby. The setting in "Araby" reinforces the theme and the characters by using imagery of light and darkness. The experiences of the boy in James Joyce's The "Araby" illustrates how people often expect more than ordinary reality can. provide and then feel disillusioned and disappointed.

    Read More

  • Loss of Innocence in Araby by James Joyce

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    The short story “Araby” by James Joyce is told by what seems to be the first person point of view of a boy who lives just north of Dublin. As events unfold the boy struggles with dreams versus reality. From the descriptions of his street and neighbors who live close by, the reader gets an image of what the boy’s life is like. His love interest also plays an important role in his quest from boyhood to manhood. The final trip to the bazaar is what pushes him over the edge into a foreshadowed realization. The reader gets the impression that the narrator is the boy looking back on his epiphany as a matured man. The narrator of “Araby” looses his innocence because of the place he lives, his love interest, and his trip to the bazaar.

    Read More

  • General Criticism of Araby by James Joyce

    1439 Words  | 3 Pages

    Connor, Steven. A. James Joyce. Plymouth: Northcote House Publishers, 1996. Print Joyce, James. The. “Araby.”

    Read More

  • Themes in James Joyce's Araby

    653 Words  | 2 Pages

    The narrator alienated himself from friends and family which caused loneliness and despair, being one of the first themes of the story. He developed a crush on Mangan's sister, who is somewhat older than the boys, however he never had the confidence to confess his inner-most feelings to her. Mentally, he began to drift away from his childlike games, and started having fantasies about Mangan's sister in his own isolation. He desperately wanted to share his feelings, however, he didn't know how to explain his "confused adoration." (Joyce 390). Later in the story, she asked him if he was going to Araby, the bazaar held in Dublin, and he replied, "If I go I will bring you something.' (Joyce 390). She was consumed in his thoughts, and all he could think about was the upcoming bazaar, and his latest desire. The boy's aunt and uncle forgot about the bazaar and didn't understand his need to go, which deepened the isolation he felt (Borey).

    Read More

  • Themes of Alienation and Control in James Joyce's Araby

    1851 Words  | 4 Pages

    Although “Araby” is a fairly short story, author James Joyce does a remarkable job of discussing some very deep issues within it. On the surface it appears to be a story of a boy's trip to the market to get a gift for the girl he has a crush on. Yet deeper down it is about a lonely boy who makes a pilgrimage to an eastern-styled bazaar in hopes that it will somehow alleviate his miserable life. James Joyce’s uses the boy in “Araby” to expose a story of isolation and lack of control. These themes of alienation and control are ultimately linked because it will be seen that the source of the boy's emotional distance is his lack of control over his life.

    Read More

  • Comparison of Araby and The Garden Party

    1260 Words  | 3 Pages

    The theme of light and darkness is apparent throughout Joyce's Araby. The dark, sombre setting of the story creates a sense of hopelessness within the narrator, an unnamed young boy. The negative connotations associated with the city of Dublin are used to illustrate the narrator's state of hopelessness. It is only through his illusions that he is able to catch a glimpse of light amidst the darkness.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Epiphany In Araby By James Joyce

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    The visual and emblematic details established throughout the story are highly concentrated, with Araby culminating, largely, in the epiphany of the young unnamed narrator. To Joyce, an epiphany occurs at the instant when the essence of a character is revealed, when all the forces that endure and influence his life converge, and when we can, in that moment, comprehend and appreciate him. As follows, Araby is a story of an epiphany that is centered on a principal deception or failure, a fundamental imperfection that results in an ultimate realization of life, spirit, and disillusionment. The significance is exposed in the boy’s intellectual and emotional journey from first love to first dejection,

    Read More

  • A Journey into Self-Discovery in Araby by James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield’s, The Garden Party

    1267 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout “Araby”, the main character experiences a dynamic character shift as he recognizes that his idealized vision of his love, as well as the bazaar Araby, is not as grandiose as he once thought. The main character is infatuated with the sister of his friend Mangan; as “every morning [he] lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door…when she came on the doorstep [his] heart leaped” (Joyce 108). Although the main character had never spoken to her before, “her name was like a summons to all [his] foolish blood” (Joyce 108). In a sense, the image of Mangan’s sister was the light to his fantasy. She seemed to serve as a person who would lift him up out of the darkness of the life that he lived. This infatuation knew no bounds as “her image accompanied [him] even in places the most hostile to romance…her name sprang to [his] lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which [he] did not understand” (Joyce 109). The first encounter the narrator ex...

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Araby And The Dead By James Joyce

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    The narrator in “Araby” is a young man who lives in an uninteresting area and dreary house in Dublin. The only seemingly exciting thing about the boy’s existence is the sister of his friend Mangum that he is hopelessly in love with; “…her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.” (Joyce 2279) In an attempt to impress her and bring some color into his own gray life, he impulsively lies to her that he is planning on attending a bazaar called Arab. He also promises the gi...

    Read More

  • James Joyce's Araby - An Analysis of Araby

    528 Words  | 2 Pages

    I believe Araby employs many themes; the two most apparent to me are escape and fantasy though I see signs of religion and a boy's first love. Araby is an attempt by the boy to escape the bleak darkness of North Richmond Street. Joyce orchestrates an attempt to escape the "short days of winter", "where night falls early" and streetlights are but "feeble lanterns" failing miserably to light the somberness of the "dark muddy lanes"(Joyce 38). Metaphorically, Joyce calls the street blind, a dead end; much like Dublin itself in the mid 1890s when Joyce lived on North Richmond Street as a young boy. A recurrent theme of darkness weaves itself through the story; the boy hides in shadows from his uncle or to coyly catch a glimpse of his friend Mangan's sister who obliviously is his first love.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis of Joyce's Araby

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although he had endured trials and tribulations to attend the bazaar, he soon finds that, exotic name withstanding, he is still in Dublin, is still impoverished, and his dreams of Araby were merely that, dreams. Our narrator remains a prisoner of his environment, his economic situation, and painful reality. North Richmond Street, the dead-end street described in the first sentence of “Araby” is more than a street. It is a symbol for the way that our protagonist views his life.

    Read More

More about Araby: Life Has No Meaning

Open Document