James Joyce Literature Review (Dissertation Review Sample)

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ARABY
‘Araby’ is a short story by James Joyce (1882 1941). ("Araby" 1914)
The nameless narrator of the book talks about the North Richmond Street. A young boy is raised by his aunt and uncle. The young man has one of his playmate named Mangan, the narrator then later develops a crush on his friend Mangan’s sister. Mangan and his sister live across the street. The primary characters involved in the story are the narrator of the story that is a young man with unspecified age, but we are told that he was able to attend the nearby school. Another character is Mangan’s sister who lives across the street. The last character is narrator’s uncle who lives with him. From the story, there is no explicit information regarding the narrator’s home life, but was under the care of his uncle who always kept him attending the bazaar in a timely manner ("Araby" 1914).
Criticism of Araby begun in the early 1960s, largely buoyed by an article by Harry Stone that helped uncovers the dense symbolism is undergirding the story. It is after that that the book has now been distinguished under three major threads: the first thread is based on Harry Stone is the symbolic thread. This seeks to uncover allusions to the readers of the book as well as other writers the veiled meaning behind objects in the passage, or view its plot as a prime example of some kind (Harry, 1965).
Secondly is the theoretical thread, it attempts to apply contemporary literary criticism to the tale. And lastly is the pedagogical thread. This thread views Araby as a supreme story that can be used for teaching purposes or as a testing platform for theoretical approaches (Harry, 1965).
Harry Stone published "Araby and the writings of James Joyce in Antioch review" (1965). Stone claims the story to be a representation of the character as a young boy, arguing that for an autobiographical basis of the story. Stone looks at Joyce’s use of Mangan arguably begins the symbolic thread of criticism. He claims that although that Mangan is a significant name Joyce borrowed a lot from the poet James Clarence, as both uses Mangan as the boy’s friend and idealized sister. He continues to claim that the poem, "Dark Rosaleen," takes the central part of Araby due to the reason that it contains the same blend of physical love and religious adoration that Joyce makes the show Mangan’s sister (Harry, 1965).
Harry Stone argued that the dead priest was greedy and immoral; this is used to symbolize the decaying of the church. His indication is the announcement that he contributed money after he died and that his reading material was The Devout Communicant, an anti-Catholic work by Abednego Seller.
Araby proved to be a fruitful training ground in a larger pedagogical project. James and Joyce devoted a substantial portion of its space to analysing the story as and disclosure. They identified the two main characters as the narrator and the young boy and list three traits. All this material is useful in the study of Araby although one would be correct to question the objectivity of every aspect of the project.
Harry Stone helps understand the story through the identification of writing skills applied to Joyce. For example the time of events; for instance the narrator’s uncle comes home late to give him money and, therefore, the narrator was late to the bazaar. This brings in the urge to know what would have happened if the narrator’s uncle would have arrived on time. The whole story would have changed and have a different twist. Timing is a funny thing, and Joyce can incorporate it into the story. By use of such elements and literary devices, Araby comes alive. The story is dramatic, intense and engaging (Joyce, 2005).
The writing threads identified and well analysed by Harry stone makes it understand other related stories to Araby, the symbolic thread dominates, as critics have continued to fins code meanings in the story obje...