Araby-Postcolonial Interpretation Essay examples - 1504 Words

ARABY-POSTCOLONIAL INTERPRETATION In the short story of Araby, James Joyce attemps to expose many ideas and themes that places the setting of Araby in a postcolonial era. The narator describes the setting of NORTH RICHMOND STREET AS A BLIND, QUIET STREET, HAVING HOUSES WITH INPERTURBABLE FACES, This dull and dark description of the enviroment goes on throughout the story connecting this sombre setting Dublin with the mondane activities of the people. eg. (people doing their jobs, going to churches on holidays). This reflected no signs of change for this vicious circle even after the end of the colonial era. When a colonizer imposes its belief system on the colonized, they destroy the colonized current system and the colonized†¦show more content†¦James Joyce did much of the same in the naration of Araby: repeating the literary history with a difference, restaging the past into the present and raising the question of power in the postcolonial story. The boy in Araby displays signs of alienation. Magans sister symbolically alienates the boy from his people and his culture. Hence revealing a stagnation and the internal denial of the acceptance of a postcolonial era. As life unfolds in the story of Araby, the characters continues to live in a denial state of mind holding on to the life they knew in the colonial era. They continues to address each other as if they were slaves living in the kept mansion of a slave master like the boys reference to taking leave to go to the Bazaar as if he was a working slave. After his thoughts were consumed with his adoration for Magans sister he was unable to function in school and made reference to the fact that he watched his masters face pass from amiability to sterness as he he hoped that he was not begining to idle. This quote also reflects back to a colonial setting placing the teacher as a possible slave master in the colonial time and the boy as his servant. Throughout the entire story of Araby Joyce remained c onsistent in theShow MoreRelatedDublin as City of Paralysis VS Paris as City of Darkness in Modernist Literature2049 Words   |  9 Pagesemployed the detailed depiction of urban landscape to make Dublin as a character of the stories in order to help convey to what extent the city itself is paralyzed. The most obvious technique used is the personification of houses. In the beginning of â€Å"Araby†, the houses are described as â€Å"conscious of decent lives within them† with â€Å"brown imperturbable faces†. They are highly personified and this emphasizes their inert awareness and consciousness to the surroundings as if they have feelings like a character