Bailes~Composition 2

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

James Joyce's "Araby" and Romantic Irony

You'll be reading "Araby" by James Joyce this week. To the right is a picture of Joyce, the famous Irish author, on the cover of the January, 29, 1934 Time magazine. Joyce's fiction made him famous. "Araby" is a short story in a collection Joyce called Dubliners, a book published in 1914 and whose name refers to the city of Dublin in Ireland. Joyce thought of the Dubliners as a kind of a moral history of his country. You can learn more about James Joyce at the website for the James Joyce Centre.

"Araby" is about an Irish boy awakening to the harsh reality of the world. So this is a short fiction version of a bildungsroman, a work in which the main character grows up or matures. The word "araby" was a romantic term for the Middle East, a popular but dreamy notion that Europeans had of that part of the world. However, such a romance is the stuff of dreams, not reality. How does this story represent the ironic portrayal of that romantic view of the Middle East?

posted by John Bailes at Wednesday, September 27, 2006

7 Comments:

  • I had to read this about three times before I got the jist of it. The main character at first places the Araby bazaar on such a high pedestal, simply because the idea of going was suggested to him by someone he finds incredibly beautiful. This led to him thinking that Araby was going to be romantic and beautiful as well.

    However, when he got there he saw the truth. It was nothing more than stalls with uninviting sellers and porcelain vases. He was not too happy about that.

    By Blogger Tinamari, at September 27, 2006  

  • I think that this story is further proof that doing things to impress someone you have a crush on is ALWAYS the wrong reason for doing them. It ties in to the romantic portrayal of the Middle East because this little Irish boy is blinded by the fact that he adores this girl so much that he thinks that going far away to a market in the middle of the night by himself is a good idea. To those in Europe who have no sense of the real Middle East except for Sheherezad's tales, Aladin's Lamp, curry, perfumes, and ornate rugs, they assume that there isn't any harshness in that world that we now see through the news and such.

    By Blogger Unknown, at September 27, 2006  

  • What is the story about? A young boy with a fantasy that is burst when he gets to the place he desires while trying to win the love of a young girl. I did not like this story. MariaF

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at September 28, 2006  

  • Hated it. Confused by it. BOO

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at September 29, 2006  

  • This story was an utter disappointment from start to finish. By far this is my least favorite reading

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at September 29, 2006  

  • That last comment was me... Alicia Lascelles

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at September 29, 2006  

  • I didn't like this story. The boy in this story is just being stupid, and he is blinded. He trys to do something nice for her, and then he realizes it wasn't worth the effort and gets mad at himself. I didn't like it...

    **ANNIE GARDNER**

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at October 07, 2006  

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