James Joyces Araby Plot Analyses English Literature Essay

James Joyces Araby Plot Analyses English Literature Essay Araby is viewing the Dubliners who are philistine people (The Norton Anthology of English Literature 1066). Therefore throughout the story one will encounter with the features relating to these kinds of people. Since these people are against art and culture, the overall tone of the story and the choice of the words and the imageries are gloomy and dark. Furthermore the name of the story causes tension to the reader. It reminds one the exotic atmosphere of Eastern world, which leads us toward some strange event. The flow of the story is toward finding the truth and finding one self. The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses, where we ran the gauntlet of the rough tribes from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ã‚ ¦ . (Araby) In this short story the reader faces with many tensions. The beginning or the introductory part of the story gives the reader the idea or the sense of becoming disappointed at the end of the story. In the first two paragraphs of it we expose to the sentences like the streets which is blind and quiet, the uninhabited houses detached from its neighbors. These descriptions make the reader feel hopeless. There is no spirit of life in this city even the houses are detached from each other. These images are going to foreshadow the coming parts of the story. The story is narrated by a boy who is nameless and because the whole part of the story is citing by first person pint of view and therefore a reliable narrator we realize his growing and transferring from childhood to maturity by the changes that is clear in his diction and his worldview. As well as passing childhood to physical maturity by experiencing the love for the opposite sex, he is gaining social and mental maturity. At first, his childish behavior is recognizable through his imaginations and his desire for the girl which is his friends sister. Romantic behavior can be seen in his manner. He is in love with a girl that we dont know her name up to the end of the story. He has the illusion of mutual love between themselves in his mind but the reader is aware of this lack. As a crude boy who just has the illusion of love, he is looking for a moment to prove or show his love to the girl, so when he has this opportunity to do such a thing, willingly he is ready to do whatever his imaginary love wants. After speaking with the girl we can find the matter that he decided to go to Araby and buy her a gift. It could be assumed as a step toward physical maturity because he is accepting responsibility to fulfill a womans desire. After this part his mental struggle and conflict with him self is showing itself. Days and nights on his way to school and back home he is thinking about going to bazaar. From now on, till the end of the story the narrator is using words with negative connotation which make the reader ready for the intensity and harshness of the situation thats going to come up. At the beginning of the story we could see his imagination casts on everything. The sense of a pure, innocent and crude child who hasnt face with the reality and ugly side of life is tangible. But after the first big tension which he decided to go to Araby, the mental struggle concerning this matter doesnt let him to behave like before. As an example playing with his classmates is no more interesting for him. This is another reason which can be concerned as passing childhood toward manhood. He mentally has conflict about going to Araby. The part that he is looking at the clock which its ticking bothers him, shows that the time to go to the bazaar is reaching, but instead of a good feeling for going there he is really anxious. The night before going to the bazaar he is looking at the dark house which the girl lives there. Dark is the most repeated imagery by the narrator in the story, and it causes tension and dramatic situation. The train which he takes to Araby is a deserted train and move slowly as if it doesnt like and is unwilling to go there. On the way to the bazaar he saw ruinous houses, which seems he is going toward destruction. But this is the destruction of his imaginations. All these signs stand as images of mental and to some extent physical harm. His illusion of love is going to shattered. At last when he entered the bazaar he saw that the shops were closed and the greater part of it was in darkness. But even now at this gloomy and dark place he is looking for something romantic and brilliant like a flower tea-sets to buy for the girl. But exactly on this moment his world view toward love changes. His eyes are opened toward reality, and the reader sees his awakening here. He stands by one of the shops that were opened and there a young lady was flirting with two English men just for the reason to sell them something. She is flirting with them only for materials. When that woman saw him and asked him if he wants help, her tone was just out of a sense of duty. And the arrogance that she has toward the boy, as she glanced at him over her shoulder is because of the reason that this boy was an intruder, and has nothing to do there. The sales woman acts as an agent here. She is the agent for awakening the boy. The boy rejects the womans help by saying No, thank you. By rejecting the sales womans help he is rejecting the love of that girl and negating all the reasons which have driven him to come to the Araby. He understand how cruel is the real life, and all his idealized vision of love shattered. In the last paragraphs of the story when he dropped the coins to his pocket the action revels that he let the material love goes. If we have a flash back to the beginning of the story the time which the girl asked the boy on their first meet to get something for her from Araby we will come to the fact that how materialistic is her view concerning love, and how childish he accept it. In the last line of the story the boy is creeping and its showing that how his idealized imagination is mocked by the real people of the real world. His eyes are burned by anguish and anger which thoroughly means he becomes conscious and gains the knowledge of oneself. In the last section of the paper I like to mention the name of a play by Ibsen. In Ibsens A Dolls House the female character of the story was gaining self knowledge by the end of the play. Nora, the character of the play is a woman with a childlike and as if she is a grown up woman to some extent its good to say, sometimes with a childish behaviour. She is getting awakened at last. In this play the agent for Noras self conscious is a woman, Noras friend linde. We have also seen this self knowledge by the end of this short story by Joyce which we have analyzed through this paper.

Mafia :: essays research papers

Mafia. What does this word mean? The actual members of the Mafia aren’t even sure where the word first originated or what it really means. One of the theories as to where the word came from is from Sicily, where people would yell â€Å" Morte alla Francia, Italia anela!† (Death to France, Italy groans!), therefore forming the acronym MAFIA. Others claim the word derived from the battle cry of rebels who slaughtered thousands of Frenchmen after a French soldier raped a Palermo woman on her wedding day. Their slogan echoed her mother’s cry, â€Å"Ma fia, Ma fia† (my daughter my daughter). There are other less â€Å"glamorous† stories as to where the word originally formed. The most likely reasoning says that it came from the Arabic word mahias, meaning bold man. The American Mafia has become infamous due to its leaders, its method of operation, and its impact on the economy through illegal means.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1903, Nicola Gentile, a native of Siculiana, Sicily, finding no occupation in his village, came to America as a stowaway on a ship to soon begin his life full of crime. Although barely able to read and write, he believed that he possessed an uncommon strength of will to be sinister. This trait would soon help him to rise to the high rank in the Mafia. After arriving in America, he was amazed at the grand vastness of the buildings and streets he was surrounded by, but moreover, by the attitude of the new people around him. They walked briskly, giving him the impression that all had an urgent mission to perform. â€Å"What a contrast with the inhabitants of my town, †he commented, â€Å"People who, when they walked, studied their manner of walking so that their slow strut made them appear solemn, with the thumb of the right hand hooked in the belt of the pants, with the cap tilted over the right eye, trying to create an arrogant air that should command respect.† (Hank Messick and Burt Goldblatt 7). This idea of attitudes shows why a secret society such as the Mafia should luxuriate in Sicily, and could easily be transplanted into the ghettos of the New World. The associates of the Mafia are called fratellos. They are to obey a capo, which they elect. The capo then picks the consigliari (counselors), whom help him to make justice and judgments. When one of the fratellos finds himself in any sort of difficulty, the association tries to help and assist him.

Death of a Salesman Idealism and Truth Essay

?Idealism describes the belief or pursuit of a perfect vision often based upon unrealistic principles. This pursuit is often contrasted and opposed by truth. The truth and reality in an individual’s life is what enables this person to remain grounded and down to earth. An individual must set themselves high expectations in order to be their best, but they must also acknowledge the fact that everything they desire is not achievable. The imbalance of idealism and truth in an individual’s life can have calamitous effects. It is significant in an individual’s life because it can lead to the deterioration of an individual’s sanity, destruction of family relationships and ultimately death. This is exemplified in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, by Willy Loman. Willy spends his whole life pursuing the American Dream. This pursuit leaves him in debt and lacking less than a sliver of sanity. This man lacks the capacity to face the truth; the reality of his situation. The negative effect that his dream has on his family and life is simply overlooked and ignored. As Willy’s life swerves out of control, he tumbles deeper into the abyss of his idealism, to a point of no return. The inability for an individual to achieve a single-minded dream can lead to the deterioration of their sanity. In Willy’s case, he has spent his whole life pursuing the American Dream; a dream that is impossible to achieve. His inability to cope with the failure of his life at first simply causes him to feel lost, but eventually causes him to go insane. Ironically enough this man, so set on having the perfect life, has an affair with a secretary of one of the buyer. This is simply a financial transaction of gifts for sex and access to the buyers. Willy does this to escape the truth of his life, and in the process completely contradicts his goals. In an attempt to protect himself from the reality of his life, he goes into self-protection mode. His own mind morphs his memories to achieve and establish his desires. Willy’s constant flashbacks lay the groundwork to support that he is becoming senile and that his idealistic tendencies caused him to lose the ability to recognize reality from illusion. Willy is a very insecure individual, and he tries to make himself look better by lying to himself and his family. In his world of delusion, Willy is a hugely successful man. He disguises his profound anxiety and self-doubt with extreme arrogance. Biff nails it on the head when he points out the fact that Willy â€Å"had all the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong. † The overpowering pursuit of idealism over truth can lead an individual to lack the ability to cope with reality. Willy has a lot of potential, but he also has a whopping case of self-deception paired with misguided life goals. He has based his whole life on supporting others and does not know how to live any other way. The effect of lacking a manly figure during his youthful development is substantial effect in how Willy raises his own sons. In Willy’s pursuit of the American Dream, he clearly instills in his sons that being well-liked is more important than character. By emphasizing likability as being the most desirable quality for success he places a higher premium on outward projection over inner strength of character. He simply passes on these unrealistic qualities to his sons. â€Å"I never in my life told him anything but decent things. † Willy’s memories reveal that the values with which he raised his sons has made Biff comes to consider himself exceptional and entitled to whatever he wants regardless of how hard he works or whether it harms others. Biff’s perfect illusion is shattered when he discovers that his father is having an affair and he feels hateful and confused about his father’s actions. His excessive pursuit of idealism shatters Willy’s relationship with his son; this is something that he does not have the ability to repair. Willy’s pursuit of idealism in his life was extremely unrealistic and eventually prevented him from having the ability to see the truth in life. He spent his whole life trying to provide for his family. He wanted the life of a salesman. To be well-liked and have a massive funeral when he dies. The reality is that he spent his whole life pursuing unrealistic dreams based on negative personal values. Willy himself points out that he’s â€Å"worth more dead than alive. † It’s quite tragic that Willy believes he has to kill himself to feel that he is worth something to his family. The reality of the situation is that his death is in vain. The Loman’s only had one more payment left on the house, and don’t actually need the money anymore. But in his blinded illusion, Willy cannot see through or cope with his failure. This causes him to believe that he is worth nothing more alive and kills himself to enable his family to collect his life insurance money. The unevenness of idealism and truth in an individual’s life can lead to the loss of sanity, deterioration of relationships and even death. By having a good balanced of idealism and truth, there is a greater potential that an individual will discover contentment in life. While pursuing an ideal, an individual may be confronted with truth that must be recognized, and if ignored will have cataclysmic effect. Idealism provides a good source of motivation to strive for excellence and truth reminds us that we are all flawed. Together, with an appropriate balance of both, you have the tools to live a life happy.

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