Literary analysis focusing one analysis discussed in class in relation Essay

Literary analysis focusing one analysis discussed in class in relation to a selected short story - Essay Example Because of his dashed dreams of chivalry, he realizes what reality mean everyday for working-class and poor families. â€Å"Araby† depicts that the innocence of childhood is a short-lived illusion because adults know that reality is full of falsehood and broken dreams. The images and irony in the story convey the difference between reality and delusions that children eventually learn to differentiate as they mature. The boy conjures images and feelings to exhibit his love for Mangan’s sister, but these emotive representations expose his inexperience with love: â€Å"†¦her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood† (Joyce). Summons pertains to a call made by the authority. The boy thinks that his beloved has become the authority of his being, when he knows that this love is an unrequited one, thereby most likely resulting to a disaster. As a child, however, he does not think of these consequences. Nevertheless, dramatic irony occurs when the boy feels t hat he has matured because of this love, when in reality, the effects of his love prove his immaturity: â€Å"I had 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† (Joyce). ... y†: James Joyce and Irish Orientalism,† Bongiovanni argues that the fascination for the Orient in the story signifies the need of the Irish to be distracted from â€Å"oppression by the English, but also from the rigid control of the Catholic Church† (26). The boy and his family are Irish but they are interested in Oriental literature. For instance, his uncle knows The Arab's Farewell to his Steed. This is an example of the need of the Irish to escape the social and religious controls of their lives. While boys are dealing with puppy love, adults struggle with something more deeply immobilizing- their loss of freedoms and autonomy. Aside from these images and irony, the unoccupied house stands for the seer, the moral code of Christianity that looks over and judges its believers. Snart, in â€Å"Detached and Empty: Subtexts of the Unoccupied House in James Joyce's â€Å"Araby,†Ã¢â‚¬  asserts that the detached house is not the boy and his emptiness. Instead, the house represents the â€Å"self-scrutinizing gaze of his Catholic surroundings† (91). The boy feels the same gaze, but not in the adult sense. As a child, he looks inward in a different way, where he internalizes his admiration for an older girl. But as soon as reality hits him, he discovers a painful truth about life: it is not always what people would want it to be, and most of the time, it turns out for the worst. When the salesgirl talks about a â€Å"fib† and looks at the boy, Papi underlines that the child’s fantasy does not conform to the truth (4). In other words, the boy’s chivalrous feeling of bringing something nice for his love foreshadows a mournful disappointment. He sets his expectations too high, and in the end, he fails not only his crush, but most of all, himself: â€Å"I saw myself as a creature