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Similarities between 'Araby' & 'Eveline' by James Joyce

The two short stories by James Joyce, Araby and Eveline have many similarities.  In both stories there is a strong feeling of unattainable love, the boy in Araby is madly in love with a girl in his neighbourhood, but never gets the courage to tell her his feelings.  In Eveline, she does not love the man who she was going to elope with, so she changes her mind at the last minute.

The main characters in both stories are alone. The boy in Araby, has friends but doesn’t seem to have them around.  He has family, but they ignore him for the most part.  Eveline has kind memories of her brothers, and only one or two good memories of her father.  She is alone too, her mother is dead so she is the only woman in the house.  She has co-workers but there is no mention of friends.

There is a strong sense or religion in both stories.  The Priest is mention as a character but does not exist as an actual person in either story.  In Araby the priest is dead where in Eveline the photo of the priest is mentioned as a friend of her father who is gone to Melbourne. The notation of the religion shows the families are working class Catholics living in Dublin.

Both father figures are not depicted as supportive. It was a common occurrence for the Uncle in Araby to come home drunk.  Eveline has an abusive father, whom she is trying to escape from.

The characters in Araby and Eveline end up just as unhappy as they start out to be.  The boy learns that his love is one sided, it is a dead end like the street he lives on. At the very end of the evening the boy realizes his love for this girl is one-sided, and changes his mind about buying the gift for her.  Eveline knows she does not love Frank , but she wants to escape her abusive father and the ‘dead end’ life she has.  At the last minute she has a change of heart out of fear or sense of responsibility and runs back to her home, alone.  

Each of the main characters in the stories experiance an epiphany.

 

Heavens above

1.  Looking up from the fog covered city the clouds look very different than they do from high above.  From high above, the clouds look light, fluffy, rippling white and grey. Deep valleys shadowed only by the gleaming sunlight hitting the feathery peaks of the hills.  The heavens even further above, exult glorious hues of pink and silver that caress the edge of the world like the sea as it embraces the ragged coast line below.

 

2.  The city is foggy.  Looking down from above the clouds are white and fluffy. The sky is blue.  The sun is shining above the clouds. It is a good day to fly.

 

3.  The small silver airplane burst through the cloud bank into the bright blue heaven above leaving the fog to the city below.  The beautiful pillowy white clouds inviting, waiting for the next angel to step out and snuggle into them.  Golden rays are cast onto the scene tinting the cloud tops crimson and gold.    

Theme

1.      Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” is a story about a girl and her desire to be free from the conventional role of women.

a.       The lack of freedom is suggested in the description of the farm and the God like control her father has over it.

                                                              i.      “Alive, the foxes inhabited a world my father made for them” (150)

                                                            ii.      Compare the role of the horse’s life to hers- the type of life they have while alive - until their end, (existence of male vs. female horse).

b.      The Girl does not feel her mother’s contribution to the farm is of value.

                                                              i.      The Girl spends her time working on the farm is referred to as useful, everything about the farm even the killing of animals is shed in a positive light.  Everything to do with the house is depicted as dark and dreary.

                                                            ii.      She sees her mother as the person who want to hold her back from what she loves to do “although she knew I hated it (because she knew I hated it) and keep me from working for my father” (152)

c.       The overall view of women the idea that women are valued differently than men is evident throughout the story.

                                                              i.      The girl in the story is not named, not even when her parents are having a conversation about her, but the animals are.

                                                            ii.      She puts value in the men’s work. “work done out of doors, and in my father’s services, was ritualistically important.” (151)

 

2.      Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is a story about a family who goes on road trip and ends up getting murdered.

a.       The Misfit is mentioned throughout the story; the grandmother is the misfit in the family. The two reveal a strong connection at the end of the story.

                                                              i.      The grandmother is the main character in the story, but a tolerance to the family, her son ignores her and the children disrespect her.

                                                            ii.      The connection between the misfit and the grandmother is when her son speaks harshly to her. The Misfit has a pang of pity for her because she is being treated by her son as he has been treated by society.

b.      The Grandmother thought of herself as a lady, the way she dressed and talked with people who she thought worthy.

                                                              i.      She discussed issues with Red Sam, but not his wife.

                                                            ii.      She had a long dialogue with the Misfit, even after he killed her son and grandchildren.

c.       The scenery changes along the way during their trip play into the life and death theme.

                                                              i.      “she thought it was going to be a good day for driving, neither too hot nor too cold,” (259).  As they get closer to their doom, “they drove off again into the hot afternoon”(261)

                                                            ii.      The forest is described as beautiful as seen from above then when the grandmother realizes who the Misfit is “Behind them the line of woods gaped like a dark open mouth”(264) very fitting place to murder the family.

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