James Joyce’s Araby is similar to
his Eveline in many way but yet each is unique it is own way. First, both
stories begin with a person looking out the window into a Dublin Neighbourhood.
Each story describes the neighbourhood, and both neighbourhoods have mostly
brown houses. Each of the Characters talks about people who had died. The girl
talks about her brother, mother and Tizzie Dunn who have died, and the boy
talks about the priest, who was a tenant, who died in their back drawing
room. They also both describe scenes in
which they played in the streets surrounding their house, and tried to avoid
their guardians who would try to send them inside. Both characters, comment on
their infatuation with a connotation that it was foolish.
Another similarity, is both character
describe their work, the boy assists his aunt in running errands and carrying
parcels for her, and, the girl, describes
her time working in a stores in a market for a lady called Mrs. Hill. The boy and the girl both have struggles with
money, and more specifically getting money from their uncle and father,
respectively, on Saturday.
In the end, both the girl and the
boy had both had doubts about what they had set out to do. The boy does not get
the gift for Mangan sister, and the girl does not leave home for South America.
i.e. they both have an epiphany which changes their frame of thinking. It is
also worth noting that they both had their epiphany after they had taken train
rides, but before they are about to do what they intended to do when they got
to their definition.
Thanks Nicholas,
ReplyDeleteA major question whenever you're comparing anything, but for the context of this course, when you're comparing pieces of literature, is recognizing which similarities are significant and which are incidental. If you think long enough, there are similarities between any two random things. So what similarities are really worth focusing on?
I think you've really hit on the more significant similarities in your last paragraph here.