212 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2018
  2. Oct 2017
    1. Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.

      James Joyce is known for is his use of epiphanies: "a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in the vulgarity of speech or of gesture or in a memorable phase of the mind itself" (Stone 371).

      The last line of "Araby" can be seen as the boy's epiphany. Leading up to this moment, Mangan's sister has consumed his mind, and he thought buying something for her from Araby would solve everything. Now that he finally made it to the bazaar, he is utterly disappointed.

      There are many interpretations about what the boy's epiphany actually is. Some scholars posit that the he relates to the men flirting with the sales woman: "The boy looks steadily at this vulgar avatar of his longings; and then his other vision—his vision of a comely waiting presence, of a heavenly dolorous lady—dissolves and finally evaporates. The boy, at last, glimpses reality unadorned; he no longer deceives himself with his usual romanticizing" (Stone 371). He is ultimately just like those two men, and Mangan's sister is just another girl.

      Another possible interpretation is that the boy's realization is a greater metaphor for the deterioration of Ireland's identity. He sees the French "Café Chantant". Moreover, while eavesdropping on the lady and the two men, the boy "remarked their English accents". Perhaps Ireland is not so Irish anymore.

      Yet another meaning could be that the boy is no longer a boy; he has transitioned out of the magical and imaginative world of being a child. The story begins with the boy telling us how he and his friends, "played till our bodies glowed". He then stops playing with his friends because he is infatuated with Mangan's sister: "From the front window I saw my companions playing below in the street". After he hears about Araby the boy has "hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child’s play, ugly monotonous child’s play". His whole outlook on life has rapidly changed. In an essay titled "Closing Time: 'ten minutes to ten' and the End of Childhood in Joyce's Araby'", Steven Doloff notes that the boy arrives at the bazaar at "ten minutes to ten": "While clock hands regularly meet twenty-four times during the course of a day, their particular occurrence at 9:50 P.M. at the end of 'Araby' may have a special contextual significance. Their juncture immediately precedes the boy's anguished self-revelation and what appears to be the near-simultaneous closing of the bazaar at ten o'clock. If we choose to see the longer minute hand of the clock as representing adulthood and the shorter one childhood, then 'ten minutes to ten' would symbolically portend the moment that adulthood overtakes the boy's childhood, eclipses it, and begins to leave it behind—a simple visual icon for a widely acknowledged theme in the story".

      These are just a few of many interpretations of the ending. Ezra Pound wrote that Joyce's "most engaging merit, is that he carefully avoids telling you a lot that you don't want to know".

      sources: http://web.b.ebscohost.com.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=cb6a19bc-74ce-46ea-a40d-117795dd7dfb%40sessionmgr104

      https://muse-jhu-edu.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/article/605563

      http://library.brown.edu/pdfs/1305652712296879.pdf

    2. Christian Brothers’ School set the boys free

      "Araby" is filled with religious allusions; religion was important in Ireland. This passage could be interpreted in a number of ways. In one sense, the boys being set "free" could mean that they are finally able to enjoy being kids. They are literally released from the rigid structure of school, and now they can do what boys do: play. Furthermore, Khorand observes that it is possible that the school "constrains and limits [the boys] so much more with it's didactic religious teachings".

      source: http://epiphany.ius.edu.ba/index.php/epiphany/article/view/109/106

    3. blind

      A street "being blind" means that it is a dead end. North Richmond Street also happens to be a dead end where one is not able to see around the corner (see picture in the annotation for "North Richmond Street"). Furthermore, Joyce's use of the word "blind" has been a topic of discussion among literary scholars. In an essay about symbolism in "Araby", Golbarg Khorand notes that "This blind street (repeated twice in the same paragraph) could be a symbol of the boy’s character that is literally blind due to his young age and immaturity". The blindness could also be connected to all of the people living on the street, or all Dubliners. Perhaps Joyce was even thinking about all the people who never venture out from the little corner of planet earth where they were born.

      source: http://epiphany.ius.edu.ba/index.php/epiphany/article/view/109/106

    1. In all my dreams before my helpless sight He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

      It is interesting that the speaker gives us a graphic image of the sound of death using the language "guttering," "choking," and "drowning," yet it is in contrast to a dream-like state. This creates slight confusion as to whether we are now in the speaker's dream or his reality. This could be a futile attempt in showing how easy it is to have the lines of reality and fantasy cross; making the soldier a prisoner to war and "The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori."

    2. The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori.

      We come back to this Latin phrase, “Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori” yet again. After being exposed to the imagery of the cruelties produced by chemical warfare, the soldiers are forever altered like the state of being “drunk” or in "An ecstasy" with now having to constantly live in the aftermath of war. The allusion of this phrase creates a shattering of one owns belief and alters the idea of what it means to be patriotic; just as the gas alters the mental capacity of the individual fighting for their country.

      To quote W.B. Yeats), a poet during the 1920's post-war Europe, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;" Our perception of war is forever changed through the lens and perspective of those used as human sacrifice.

    3. Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

      WWI marked the introduction of chemical warfare which in return created complete terror and pandemonium; soldiers were not prepared for the effects of chemical warfare. As Jones indicates, the use of chemical warfare was to “terrorize the enemy and make their troops temporarily lose their minds.” Alexander Watson also claimed in his study (as cited in Jones, 2014) “gas created uncertainty: unlike shrapnel, it killed from the inside, eroding a soldier’s sense of control, while raising the terrifying fear of being suffocated." Going off the “created uncertainty” we have the use of "ecstasy" which encompasses a trance-like state; coinciding with the idea of being "drunk with fatigue" (see above annotation) from the effects of the gas. The delayed reactions of the soldiers against the gas would result in a behavior of "fumbling." The gas was designed to attack the nervous system; accelerating the deterioration of the body and mind.

    4. like old beggars

      With the introduction and evolution of chemical weapons used in this war (WWI); human bodies were no match for the damage these weapons were designed to inflict. Leading into the imagery of soldiers physically deteriorating when using phrases such as "bent double," "coughing like hags," and "men marched asleep;" would not lead one to believe that war is “sweet and fitting” in any capacity. With the use of the word “beggars” our minds may envision the effects of poverty and desperation which war seems to produce, and in this sense, we are given language expressing the overwhelming misery and accelerated age progression with the use of “old.” These descriptions challenge the assumptions the mind tends to gravitate towards when picturing what it means to "die for ones country."

  3. blog.ashleyalexandraa.com blog.ashleyalexandraa.com
    1. Roosevelt

      Marshall Nunn states that "For Ruben, [Roosevelt] is the representative man of the United States...[and the poem details] The imperialistic attitude that Roosevelt took regarding the building of the Panama Canal" Here, Roosevelt is not only literally the leader of the United States, but also represents the same ideals the United States was founded on. Throughout the poem Dario no longer addresses Roosevelt, but rather addresses the United States as a whole. With the assumption that Roosevelt represents the greater collective beliefs of the United States.

    2. you oppose Tolstoy

      Another great contrast in the poem occurs when Dario alludes to Tolstoy. A Russian writer in many ways represents a great contrast to Roosevelt himself. Acereda suggests that in fact Tolstoy represents the a vastly different moral view than Roosevelt. Acereda suggests that in fact Tolstoy is an image for opposition against Roosevelt's "Big Stick" policy. Where Tolstoy was working to liberate and educate his people Roosevelt was living an alternate justice system.

      Comic illustrating Roosevelts "Big Stick" policy

    3. verse of Walt Whitman

      According to Marshall Nunn Dario "far from admiring of his [Whitman] democratic ideals," With Dunn's information the inference then becomes that Dario believes the only way that the American people will understand his message through Walt Whitman's poetry. However, given the knowledge that Dario does not respect Whitman this line can be seen as an insult to the American people. Or in contrast, as Acereda states Dario can be speaking on the American people's terms, Whitman being a classic American poet, in a desperate attempt to communicate a message to them. )