Literary Essay Sample on the Theme in the Story "Araby" by James Joyce

In the story "Araby" by James Joyce develops the main theme of the concerns for experience and innocence. The narrator is an unnamed boy brought up with very strong Catholic doctrine. Joyce developed the theme of experience and innocence by showing the things that the narrator carried on in his life. The author also used imagery and symbolism literary devices in his development of the main theme of the story "Araby". The story depicts the narrator's disappointment in life emanating from his religious and faith understanding of the stern dogma and his love obsession with Mangan's sister. This paper will illustrate how the author developed the theme of the story Araby by using metaphoric representation, historical and social contexts, as well as tone and mood in the things they carried out.

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In developing the theme of experience and innocence, Joyce showed how the narrator lives in believe of his catechism teaching of religion and faith. He visualized his love for Mangan's sister with purity and innocence and perceived her to reciprocate her to replicate his opinion of life. The experience he later gained by witnessing hypocrisy of the church-sponsored bazaar, women's gossips, and exposure to a secular way of life made him realize how wrong his opinion about life was, rodding him the innocence to the dramatic experiences. In the pretext of the social and historical context, Joyce showed how the narrator came from a humble background to show how the painful experiences he got through from alienating from his family and friends brought him suffering that compromised his innocence.

The author uses symbolism and imagery to reinforce the theme of experience and innocence. The metaphoric use of light and darkness illustrated how the boy's experience portrayed the disillusion expectation steal their innocence from the disappointment they get. The symbolic representation of light signifies the innocence and hope in the boy's mind while the darkness is imagery representation of the horrifying experience he suffered after all things he believed and had faith in was total disappointment and betrayal. The author also created a sympathetic mood with the tone he used to explore the multiple challenges the narrator suffered in the society he was living in due to his innocent approach to life.

In conclusion, the story "Araby" by James Joyce develops many literary devices in the plot employed by the author to develop the main theme, experience, and innocence. The suffering, disappointment, betrayal of the boy who narrates the story shows how the author uses the situations revolving around his life to develop the main theme of the plot. Joyce uses symbolism and imagery, tone and mood as well as historical and social contexts to show how life experiences make the narrator loss his innocence.

Works cited

Joyce, James. Dubliners. London: Grant Richards, 1914.