Tuesday, January 17, 2012

1. Tuesday, January 17, 2012 Agenda “Araby” Group Work a. Identify Setting, Point of View, and Theme

2. “Araby” Point of View Paragraph 1: • What does the narrator notice about the house? • What information does it convey to the reader? Paragraph 2: • Who is the "we" that the narrator speaks of? • Why do you think he chooses this word, instead of identifying the "we"? • When you think of the friends of your childhood, do you use a collective "we"?

3. Point of View Paragraph 3 • Notice how the narrator relates the sights, sounds, and smells of his childhood. How does what he notices as a child differ from what an adult might see? • What does the author notice about Mangan's sister? Is it typical of what a young boy would notice about a girl?

4. Point of View Paragraph 4 • Notice the way in which the narrator's observations of Mangan's sister reveal his youth. • Consider how the narrator explains the effect of the mere name of Mangan's sister on him. Do we ever find out her name? Is this important? Why or why not?

5. Point of View Page 1, Paragraph2 • Why does the narrator go into this particular room? • What does it mean to him? • How do we see it through his eyes?

6. Point of View Page 2 • Why does this non–committal statement become a solemn pledge for the narrator? • What contributions do his youth and inexperience make in propelling the statement into a quest for him? Last Paragraph • What does the word Araby come to represent to the narrator? How does it affect his life? How does his dwelling on the idea of going to Araby replace his earlier daydreams of Mangan's sister?

7. Point of View Page 3 • Why does the narrator choose to quote his uncle's words, when many other adult conversations are merely paraphrased? • What does the exchange between the narrator's uncle and aunt tell you about them? About their relationship to their nephew? Does the narrator reveal his feelings about his guardians?

8. Point of View Page 4 • What does the narrator's description of the bazaar tell you? Is this how you expect a bazaar to be? How does the atmosphere he describes contribute to his final revelation at the end of the story?

9. Point of View Page 5 • In Joycean terms, an epiphany is a moment of revelation, when the forces acting on the character converge, and the character realizes a life–defining truth. What does the boy realize at this moment?

10. Point of View Page 5 • How do the narrator's actions reveal a changed person? • Have you ever acted in a similar way? • How does the young woman at the stall make him feel?

11. Setting Paragraph 1 • In the first paragraph, the story's location is established. The fact that the story is set in Dublin in a particular neighborhood and at a particular historical moment is significant, especially in light of the other stories in Joyce's collection Dubliners where he captures the city and this era in careful detail. • It is important to note too that because of his age, the narrator does not travel very far within Dublin.

12. Setting Paragraph 2 • The first few paragraphs describe the house and neighborhood that the narrator lives in. What words do the narrator uses to describe the neighborhood and his house? • What do these descriptions contribute to the mood of the story?

13. Setting Paragraph 3 • Seasons are also part of this story's setting. What does the winter setting add to your understanding of this story? • Notice the recurrence of words like dark, silent, cold, shadow. Why are these words important?

14. Setting Paragraph 5 • Mangan's sister is a central part of this story. When the narrator says, "Her image accompanied me even in the places the most hostile to romance," what does he mean by this? • How does Joyce use setting to help convey the narrator's feelings for her?

15. Setting Page 2 • Araby is one of the few places outside of the narrator's everyday world. Initially, how does he envision this place? • Why does he imagine the fair to be so important?

16. Setting Page 4 • Once the narrator is finally able to get money from his uncle and leaves for the fair, how does Joyce use setting to foreshadow the narrator's experience at the fair?

17. Setting Page 4 • Examine Joyce's depiction of the "large building which displayed the magical name." How is it described? • How is setting functioning as a way of advancing the story's themes or ideas?

18. Setting Page 5 • In the final two paragraphs, Joyce describes the setting's darkness. How is setting used to create the story's most poignant moment?

19. “Araby” Theme • Conflicted relationships between an individual and his family, community, and culture

20. Theme • Numerous critics have argued that one of the dominant themes in "Araby" is a shift from innocence to experience. In the beginning of the story, Joyce focuses on the innocence element of this theme. In the first sentence, what words does he use to describe the noise of school boys? • In the third paragraph, how does Joyce describe the narrator's life and community of friends?

21. Theme Page 1,Paragraph 4 • Mangan's sister is related to much of the narrator's shift from innocence to experience. Examine Joyce's depiction of her and describe how she is a catalyst for the narrator's epiphany about himself and the world.

22. Theme Page 2 • In the middle section of the story, the narrator makes numerous references to not understanding certain things or being confused. What is he confused about? • Why is his confusion important to the development of the story's themes?

23. Theme Page 2 • The narrator's state of mind alters after he talks to Mangan's sister about Araby. Why have things changed for him after this point? • What role does Araby play in the narrator's shift from innocence to experience?

24. Theme Page 4 • When the narrator leaves for and arrives at the bazaar, Joyce returns to some of the earlier imagery. What do you notice about his use of light and dark imagery in the last paragraphs of the story? • How does this imagery contribute to the development of the story's theme?

25. Theme Page 5 • The final paragraph of this story is often described as an "epiphany"—a moment of insight, discovery, revelation or understanding that alters a character's life in a meaningful way. Analyze this paragraph as a moment of epiphany. • What does the narrator learn? • How is the epiphany related to the theme of innocence and experience?