Two Selves in Araby The Analysis of the Point of View in Araby by James Joyce

2002

Abstract: This paper, based on the stylistic analysis of the point of view in Araby, tries to explore the narrative strategy of James Joyce in Araby and the theme this strategy serves to reveal. Key words: James Joyce , Araby, Point of View , Narrative Strategy Dubliners is James Joyces first successful book and his sole volume of short stories. When writing his first successful book, Joyce once said in one of his letters that I have written it for the most part in a style of scrupulous meanness (Richard Ellmann 1996:II) Here, the word meanness, according to Li Weiping , has two layers of meanings. One of the meanings is about the storys economy of dictions, ie, none of the words in these fifteen stories is unnecessary and every word is exploited fully to serve to reveal the theme of the stories. Therefore, it is quite worthwhile for us to do some analysis of the style of this wonderful book. Among this book Araby is the third story which together with the previous two, The Sister and An Encounter, represents childhood life in the whole arrangement of the book. It is about a growing boy who loves his playmates (Mangans) sister, and wants to go to Araby, the bazaar, for some gift for his beloved one. Being late, the boy found most of the stalls in the bazaar were closed and when hearing the banal conversation between a woman and two men, he suddenly realized himself as a creature driven and derived by vanity. The story is a retrospective narration told in the first-person point of view ( a young boy I). Taking a boys point of view, we readers can penetrate the boys feeling and mind, and the story is presented all by this limited viewpoint. However, things are not so simple. According to Shen Dan, there are two kinds of selves in retrospective narration told in the first-person point of view, namely the narrating self and the experiencing self. In this story the narrating self stands as a more mature adult in the present time , looking back the happenings of the past event and commending on this event from an adult s viewpiont, while the experiencing self is the nave boy falling love with Mangans sister and undergoing a series of events on the way to the bazaar. These two selves can reflect two different attitudes and understandings towards the same event during two different periods. Usually they form a contrast between the state of maturity and naveness, understanding the truth of the event and being ignorance of the event. Next I will try to analyze these two kinds of selves in the story of Araby, the different narrating strategies and some relevant style. When the narration is told by the experiencing self of I, the narrator merges with the character. Therefore, readers are flung directly into the experience of the character, seeing what the character saw and feeling what the character felt. In this story I is a boy on the verge of juvenile stage, a combination of a boys naveness and the one full

of delicate feelings and romantic complex. This complex and somewhat vague character can be well reflected in the syntax and the dictions by Joyce. When presenting to the readers the nave and childish I, simple syntax of the sentence and narratives usually without any modifiers are employed , such as: I found a few paper-covered books(90) I liked the last because. (90) the cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed. (90) If my uncle was seen turning the corner we hid in the shadow (90) Here the boys naughty and simplicity can vividly be illustrated in this simple syntax. However, when Mangans sister came into my view, I became sensitive and amorous. Accordingly, the syntax of the narration told by the experiencing self tends to be more complicated and delicate, and the tempo of narration tends to be more slow, such as: All my senses seems to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring : O love! O love! many times. (92) Sometimes the metaphorical use of hyperbole, together with the complex syntax embodies the state of amorousness but somewhat obscurity of the experiencing self: At night in my bedroom and by day in the classroom her image came between me and the pages I strove to read .(92) I asked for leave to the bazaar. My aunt was surprised and hope it was not some Freemason affair. (92) We can see more clearly the boys growth from the romantic I to a more daring one on the night when I went to the bazaar. At first, waiting for my uncle to give me some money to go to the bazaar, I was singing and running from one room to anther, and seeing nothing but the brown-clad figure cast by my imagination , touched directly the lamplight at the curve neck, at the hand upon the railing and at the border below the dress. (93) After getting some money from my uncle, I became more realistic and more initiative. The employment of a series of active voice depicts the daring I vividly, such as : I took my seat in a third-class carriage of deserted of train. I passed out on to the road and etc. Except for the experiencing self, we can also get the impression of a man narrator well beyond the experience of the experiencing self from first to last. That is to say, the mature man reminiscences about his youthful hope, desire and frustrations. The tone of the grown narrator can be vaguely sensed at the beginning of the story. In the first paragraph, there is a description of the Dublin neighborhood where the early young self lives : North Richmond Street is "blind", it is a dead end; the houses stare at one another with "brown imperturbable faces." At first sight, the word blind is just a word to modify the street, while relating the disillusionment of the young boys first love, we might well consider it as a word foreshaddowing the failure of his romantic love. In the same vein, from the word imperturbable we can easily feel that the person narrating this is not the immature young boy. On the contrary, we can perceive a well detached and calm tone of a well grown-up man looking back rather placidly, or even ironically, at the young boy s bound- to- -doom youthful love.

This kind of narrative self can also be detected in the midst of the experience mainly involved by the experiencing self. For example, when the experiencing self encountered his beloved one in his well arranged and seemingly accidental meetings, I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood. I was so fascinated by Mangans sister that her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance.(90) After I promised to bring a gift for Mangan s sister from the bazaar, innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts. (92) Here the blood that was foolish , the thoughts that were follies , and the places which were the most hostile to romance certainly cannot be understood by the emotionally involved young boy. Therefore , we may presume that these three words are just the comments made by the narrative self from his wider and adult vision. There are some more such instances in the story, such as Her name sprang to my lips at the moment in a strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears ( I could not tell why. ) (90) Here the parenthetical remark I could not tell why. seems to tell us that if I were a wiser man, then the reason why my eye were often full of tears can be presented. In addition, When Mangans sister first talked with me, asking whether I was going to the bazaar, I forgot whether I answered yes or no.(92) From this sentence we can also get the suggestion that it is the narrative self, the adult , now ,when narrating, forgot whether the experiencing self answered yes or no. There is one important point worthy of our greater attention. That is these commendatory remarks by the narrative self, such as foolish, hostile, usually take on an ironical overtone. This kind of ironical overtone is deepened when I came to the bazaar too late, and only found that nearly all the stalls were closed and the grater part of the hall was in darkness. (94) After hearing the banal conversation between a woman and two young men, I saw myself "as a creature driven and derided by vanity," and my eyes burn "with anguish and anger." Here the word Vanity, with its connotations of conceit, seems an odd word but it has other meanings of emptiness and futility. Therefore, this description may be contributed by the older self of the narrator, and the ironical tone reaches its climax. The application of the first person narrator with two selves endows the story with much tension. The most important thing is that the domination of the much more mature, or even a little inexorable, narrative self throughout the story can help to employ the sophisticated use of irony and symbolic imagery necessary to reveal the story's themethe defeat of the boys imaginative love by the stern reality, therefore, even an innocent child couldnt escape from the overwhelmingly lifelessness in the city of Dublin.

Reference Books: Attridge, Derek. 2000. The Cambridge Companion to James Joyce. Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press.

Ellmann, Richard. 1996. Letters of James Joyce, The Viking Press. Studies in Fiction, Department of Foreign Languages and Literature of South China Normal university,1995. 1998 ,2000