Question

How does Joyce use scrupulous meanness and epiphany to show paralysis in “Araby”? Use what you know about eight hundred years of English rule, the culture of Dublin, and examples from “Araby” in support. Your answer should be at least 250 words.

Answer 1

Three different topics - religion, language and nationality are come across in James Joyce's works. He uses this topics or at least one of them, intertwined with symbolism to show the paralysis. Joyce chose Dublin as a location because this place was relevant to write the moral history behind the paralysis affected by the three topics.

Araby begins with the words “… when the Christian Brothers’  school set the boys free.” and confuses the careful reader with the intended meaning. In the next paragraph, the author explains it as a "death of a religion". The setting of the house - useless books, their yellow, curled and damp pages are all the indication of it. All of these symbolism is the approach of younger Irish people  to the religion as a past experience, as something old and not important. Another religious symbolism is "an apple tree" which foreshadows the boy's fate towards the end of story.  

The relationship between the narrator and his uncle is the representation of England's oppression towards Ireland where his uncle symbolizes England. The cold and gloomy rooms is the description of the lifestyle of Irish people.

The relationship of the boy and Mangan's sister shows how the latter actually doesn't care about him and it is developed in the story again with the symbolic relationship.

When the boy reaches the bazaar, he is not able to fulfill his duty which shows the failing role of a church. It is the moment of darkness when he was impatiently searching for the light.

The realization in the end is the climax of the epiphany which Joyce conceals in the story with his great use of symbolism and sub-textual meaning.