Araby

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Araby

• Why
• an impossible quest?

2
Outline

1. Your QA
2. Social Background
3. You Araby
4. The Boys Language Image Symbol
5. Group Discussion/Rehearsal
6. Performance and Analysis

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Q A (1)

• Why is Mangan's sister not given a name in the sto
  ry? (a nobody easy for us to identify with)
•  What do you think made the protagonist angry  in
  the end of the story? (Not getting what he
  wants, dream broken, realizing how vainglorious he
   was. ? story of initiation/disillusionment)
• Why did the author use the word wires instead of
   strings" in this following sentence
  "But my body was like a harp and
  her words and gestures were like fingers running u
  pon the wires"?

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QA

• Wire vs. String
• Harp strings may be made of nylon, gut (???),
  wire or silk. (Wikipedia)
• The wire strung harp is often called the Irish
  or Scottish harp. It is an early musical
  instrument (source)

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Q A (2)

• Do you think whether the author purposely
  set the boy's family background as one different
  from most people's? (see Note below)
• How does the woman at the stall influence the nar
  rator by merely asking him whether to buy anythin
  g out of a sense of duty?  And why did the author
   write down the detailed conversation?
• How does religion influence the characters? A
  apple, chalice, the sisters not being able to go
  to Araby, etc.

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Social Factors Religion, Alcoholism and
Family/Class Background
Comic Araby
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Irish Society Catholicism, Politics and
Alcoholism
Comic Araby
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James Joyce (18821941)
James Joyce The Dubliners

1. 424 N. Richman st.
2. 3100 Dublin as the center of paralysis 4
   aspects Childhood, Adolescence, Maturity and
   Public Life
3. 3400 - Araby not all about paralysis and
   meanness

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James Joyce (1882-1941) Personal Background

• Born into a middle-class, Catholic family
• Religious
• Attended a Jesuit school and went on to study
  philosophy and languages at University College,
  Dublin.
• Almost declared priesthood but then renounced it
  for the pursuit of his art.
• Exiled Moved to Paris after graduation, and
  then, except for a short return to Dublin, stayed
  being an expatriate. (source)

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Social Background the Story

• Three Major Issues in Dublin in and after the
  Turn of the 20th Century
• Poverty and the rise of Irish Nationalism
  (cultural, political and military? song of
  Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa in the market)
• For Joyce, alcoholism (e.g. Joyces father, the
  boys uncle)
• Irish Catholicism in decline (? the dead priest
  and the boys religious sentiment I'm afraid
  you may put off your bazaar for this night of Our
  Lord.)

Noises vs. Romantic Feelings
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Signs of Poverty and Materialist Needs in the
Story

• Spiritual Poverty
• The boy without parents praying alone.
• The priest dead
• Material Poverty
• The boys need of money
• The visit of Mrs. Mercer, a pawnbroker's widow
  The uncle owes her some money?
• A combination
• --O, there's a . . . fib!
• I allowed the two pennies to fall against the
  sixpence in my pocket.

Noises vs. Romantic Feelings
Feelings of being driven and derided by vanity
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FYI Joyce Plan on The Dubliners

• "My intention was to write a chapter of the moral
  history of my country and I chose Dublin for the
  scene because the city seemed to me the centre of
  paralysis. I have tried to present it to the
  indifferent public under four of its aspects
  childhood, adolescence, maturity, and public
  life. The stories are arranged in this order. I
  have written it for the most part in a style of
  scrupulous meanness and with the conviction that
  he is a very bold man who dares to alter in the
  presentment, still more to deform, whatever he
  has seen and heard. I cannot do any more than
  this. I cannot alter what I have written. "
  Letters, 2134 .

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FYI Joyce on The Dubliners? the Universal

• "For myself, I always write about Dublin, because
  if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to
  the heart of all the cities of the world. In the
  particular is contained the universal."

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Questions for YOU!

• Is the boy self-centered? Is the story fair to
  the girl? Can you relate to him in any way?
• Pay attention to images of light, darkness and
  religion. Is the darkness described in the
  middle part of the story (e.g. in the priests
  room), the same with that at the end? Or does
  the boy feel the same about it?
• The story of a quest Read it in its social
  context or as a universal story?
• Describeand compare--the functions and
  implications of the dominant images in the
  stories we have read Boys and Girls, AP and
  Araby.

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Have you had any experience similar to that of
Araby?

• Puppy love and quest
• Mixture of passion and religious sentiment (e.g.
  ecstasy)
• First Shopping Experience
• First Negative Encounter with Adults
• If so, what makes your experience less
  frustrating than the boys?

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"Araby" -- Performance

• 1 childhood game and Mangans sister (par 1-6)
  setting N. Richmond St
• 3 talking with Mangan's sister  (par 7-11)
• 5 waiting alone for the action (par 12) Dublin
• 7 the boy waiting for his uncle (par 13-22)
  -Home
• 9 going to the Bazaar (par 23-24) train
  station street of Dublin
• 11 at the Bazaar (25-end)
•  

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Araby -- Analysis

• 2 Setting (1) Images that tell us about the
  social environment
• 4 Roles of Religion vs. that of Materialism
  Depiction of Mangans sister and the boys
  feelings for her
• 6 The boys changes The boy before and after
  he talks with Mangans sister (Araby)
• 8 Setting (2)  Family (The boys uncle and
  aunt)
• 10 Setting (3) Dublin
• 12 Setting (4) the bazaar, (Araby)
•  

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Lets Take a Break!!!

• Group Discussion
• 1010 1030
• Come back at 1040

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Religion Society in Figurative Language

• Image, Metaphor and Symbol

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Language in Setting (1) images of enclosure,
darkness and decay dead religion

• North Richmond Street blind, expressionless
  and imperturbable.
• The priests room musty air, littered useless
  papers, The Abbot, by Walter Scott, The Devout
  Communicant, and The Memoirs of Vidocq.
• I liked the last best because its leaves were
  yellow.
• the backyard rusty bike-pump, wild garden with
  an apple tree

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Language in Setting (2)light in darkness,
femininity

• Mangans sister
• Railroad and the street scenes
• The bazaar

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The Boys Love -- Mangans Sister

• Images of light vs. browness (pars. 3, 10 vs. 4,
  15). Why?
• She was waiting for us, her figure defined by the
  light from the half-opened door. . . . Her
  dress swung as she moved her body, and the soft
  rope of her hair tossed from side to side.
• I kept her brown figure always in my eye
• the brown-clad figure cast by my imagination

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Characterization Narration, Dialogue Thought
Bubbles

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Characters The Boy

• par 5-6 ?3rd-person narration thought bubble.
  (confusing his religious sentiment with the
  romantic) (film chap 5-6)
• par 10, 16 ? Dialogue between the boy and
  Mangans sister par 16, when he waits for his
  uncle. (film chap 7)
• Par 25 ending Dialogue Narration Thought
  Bubbles
• Note Thought Bubble

Too late . Dont forget your mission.
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The Boy his puppy love

• Stands by the railing when seeing or talking to
  her.
• Possible Readings of Mangans sister
• She is unaware of his adoration
• She is limited by her environment which is a
  mixture of religious devoutness and materialism.
  

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The boys emotions religious images

• Par 5 In the market, he imagined that he bore
  his chalice safely through a throng of foes.
• Speaks of her names in strange prayers and
  praises he does not understand, his eyes full of
  tears.
• Par 6 At the priests room All his senses
  seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling
  that he was about to slip from them, he pressed
  the palms of my hands together until they
  trembled, murmuring O love! O love! many times.
  ? religious devotion and ecstasy?

You are my sunshine!
O Love! O love!
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Final Question Creative Adaptation

• Can this be a story set in Taiwan or where you
  are from?
• How will the setting be changed?
• (Setting commerce, religion and politics)

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"A Rose for Emily" Emily on Trial --Did she
kill Homer Barren?

• 2 Judge jury trial (see next slide)
• 4 Prosecutor ref.
• 6 Defendant, Emily (at age 80)
• 8 Defendant's Lawyer ref.
• 10 Witness (1) the first-generation town
  people (e.g. Colonel Sartoris)
• 12 Witness (2) Town people of the 2nd
  generation (who went into her house twice)  

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Trial Procedure Simplified

• Opening statements. The prosecution and then the
  defense make opening statements to the judge or
  jury. These statements provide an outline of the
  case that each side expects to prove.
• Prosecution case-in-chief. The prosecution
  presents its main case through direct examination
  of prosecution witnesses.
• Cross-examination. The defense may cross-examine
  the prosecution witnesses.
• Defense case-in-chief. The defense presents its
  main case through direct examination of defense
  witnesses.
• Cross-examination. The prosecutor cross-examines
  the defense witnesses.
• Jurys questions deliberation Ref. 1, 2