Araby: Instances of Religious Symbolism, Book Review Example

This assignment is based on the fiction story “Araby” which was written by James Joyce. The story has many themes and its rich areas of study hence it has been used widely in literature and for the purpose of this paper I will evaluate instances of religion symbolism and how the symbols points to Joyce’s own supposed disillusionment with the church in Ireland. The name Araby is derived from Arabia and its being associated with Phoenix as a symbol of renewal of life. Joyce choice of the name of the play is symbolic as it indirectly emphasize on what Christianity does to its believers as it renews their lives.

James has based the story on a young man who has lustful crush on his friend’s sister. Therefore, on analyzing the story in contest of examining its religious symbolism unveils deeper meaning of the story on the life of young man who is torn in between his feelings and the religious beliefs.

At the beginning of the story Joyce wrote that the street of North Richmond being blind and quite except when Christian Brothers School sets the boys free. This symbolizes on how the street is calm and quiet until when the boys are free but despite of its quietness ends it remains to be blind but the boys were not blind hence they are able to realize of the uninhabited house. Joyce furthers states that although the street was blind the houses were conscious of decent lives which make people ignore blind side of the street. This shows that they boys are more interested on the conscious of decent lives living in the house.

Secondly, Joyce symbolism is also reflected on the death of the priest, the priest in the story is a symbol but when he described the room where he was found dead reveals more. The room is described as being full of dust behind the kitchen there was a lot of litter and the room smelled like a jail to stress on it. He stressed the state of the room by concluding with the statement “The air was a prisoner of the room”. This reveals the dark side of the priest which he had covered all along meaning that although he was expected and perceived as a clean man spiritually he didn’t live up to the Christian teachings which he proclaimed.

In relation to the dead priest room Joyce who is the narrator of the story mentioned of the boy who was impassionate with his friend’s sister. He saw himself in a crusade of winning her love and later imagined him self being the instrument of her love. He specified that his body was like a harp while the gestures and the words of the lady were like fingers which were running upon wires. This symbolizes the lust which the boy heard and the temptation which he was in. He was in a situation which he was not able to control his feelings to conform to the religion beliefs which he holds very dear to him.

In the state of guilt for not able to uphold to the faith which he proclaim. Joyce uses religious symbolism which makes the boy realize his wrong doings. He narrated that the boy went to the room which a priest had died earlier. While in the room he was confused of his feelings of guilt which had been caused by the feeling towards the girl and his religion.

The symbolism is the state in which the room was when the priest died and he was known to be clean / righteous. Hence, he was able to come to his senses and realized that he had drifted away from the teachings of his religion by relating the situation in which he was and the state in which the room which the priest died was. It is this extent that the story shows on Joyce disillusionment with love and religion and focused on the tribulations of childhood and epiphanies and challenges of adulthood which he was going through when he was of age of having love feelings. The religious imagery of both the priest and the Christian Brothers’ School criticized Christianity and mainly the church of Ireland on how neither the priests nor the followers who were strictly following the religious teachings / faith which they proclaim.

References

Joyce, James. Araby. Retrieved on February 04, 2010 from http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/954/