Friday, May 22, 2009
Araby - to answer for a quiz grade!
When you read these stories - there is no boom, no big bang that shows you the climax, no hunting men on an island like in The Most Dangerous Game, or no locking a man inside a wall like in The Cask of Amontillado - you know, all those stories from 9th grade. But there is a quiet explosion going on in the minds of the characters. In The Lagoon Arsat realized that darkness is always looming - ready to take over. In Araby, James Joyce is even more subtle in his depiction of the main character's realization about life. It is a negative realization, but one we all feel at some point in our lives. What does the boy realize at the end of the story? And don't tell me he is angry at his uncle, because he really isn't. How does this story make you feel about your own futures? Are we so different today that we cannot relate to this? Answer all of these questions and you will get an A quiz grade, to make up for all your bad ones!!!
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The boy realizes several things at the end of the story to begin with. First off, the boy realizes that his love for Mangan's sister was at best wishful thinking. Also, the boy realizes that his fantasy idea of the bazaar is simply that; a fantasy. Despite Dublin being a place that leaves much to be desired, the boy held the place in his heart and mind as a place of mystery and wonder at the beginning of the story. Joyce shows this aspect with the childlike description of the poor streets. By the end of the story however, the boy faces reality and realizes it's not magical as he once thought. This can be compared similarly to say finding out that Santa Claus isn't real or facing your first real failure in life with the realization that not everything will go the way you wish it to.
ReplyDeleteThis story only goes to further cement my idea that not everything will go the way I want in life. Reality is a harsh thing however we all must face it eventually so we can continue on and learn a valuable lesson in doing so. Finally, I do not believe that we are so different today that we cannot relate to this. As long as mankind continues and childlike innocence survives then so will the crushing feeling of reality when it settles in.
I believe that this story shows that people usually have higher expectations about things than they should. If things don't work out exactly the way that they had planned or hoped, then they will be let down and realize that they had set their sights much too high. This is reality for many people in this world, because people love to use their imagination. When their imagination runs wild, scenarios come up in their head and if what they imagine isn't exactly what happens, then they will realize that they have set their sights too high.
ReplyDeleteIn life, we have learned several times that things don't always work out the way we plan them to. As kids, we developed such high expectations for things, that the real thing could never amount to our hopes. This leads to a great, real life lesson, disappointment. While it is not so obvious in the story, the boy realizes that his idealized vision of love and of Mangan's sister is destroyed when he sees the flirtations of two men and worker woman, and he is grudgingly acknowledged. This is a lesson that everyone has or must learn. While disappointment is a let-down at the time, there are bigger, greater, and worse things in life, so we must move on. Everyone develops a hopeless crush at times, or lets their imagination build in hope of other things, but it's how we handle our disappointments that makes us grow. So while it can put a damper on the hopes of our future plans, it also teaches us that we must make our own happiness happen, and not always count on others. But we can still always dream and hope.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the story the boy realizes that his love of Mangan’s sister and the bazaar are misguided. He is very disappointed when he finally arrives at the bazaar as it is shutting down. He realizes that everything that he was imagining was not true; Mangan’s sister didn’t love him and the bazaar he desperately wanted to go to left a lot to be desired.
ReplyDeleteThese disappointments and let downs will occur all through our lives. We need to learn how to deal with them because there are usually more important things in life to move on to. It’s like finding pout Santa Claus isn’t real. It hurts in the beginning but later you realize that this discovery didn’t change the big picture of your life.
The boy realizes that his imagination and how he perceives everything to be, especially his love for Mangan's sister and the image of the bazaar, cover up and disguise reality. He finally sees that his love for what he thinks is the most wonderful girl is only wishes and thoughts inside his head. The bazaar that he longs to go to only turns out to be a place that is shutting down, with no excitment anywhere. These realizations, although negative, usually turn out to be positive in the long run because after the initial shock of reality and disappointment is over, there will be something else to move on to, and the whole realization will be forgotten about. The repeativeness of the cycle in unescapable; it is something that everyone just has to learn to deal with. It's like learning that the tooth fairy only consists of your parents putting money under your pillow and then throwing your tooth away. As long as people keep on setting standards that are too high to reach, this cycle will be everlasting.
ReplyDeleteThe story of Araby has no real point, just some boy who realizes he is doing something foolish for a girl he likes. But it’s a story we can all relate to, because we’ve all felt a desire for someone who doesn’t even know we exist. It’s that hopeful feeling that really isn’t there. Today, we may not have to go to the bazaar or follow crushes to school, but all of us do silly pointless things like take a slightly longer route to class in order to catch a glimpse of a cute boy, or spend a little extra time in front of the mirror to make him/her notice. When we are young, we want a lot of things, but we don’t always realize why we want those things. Part of growing up is learning what is real and what is momentary, just like how the boy realized that his love for the girl is all his head, and he really doesn’t want something that he made up himself.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the story Araby realizes that his love for Mangan's sister is ubsurd. He realizes this is just his imagination and what he is imaginating is not true. He is dissappointed when he gets to the bazaar and it is shutting down, the place is boring and is not filled with any exitement. This story makes the reader realize that as humans we use our imaginations a lot and sometimes when what we imagine isn't true we are let down. People set their standards too high at times and it comes out to be a let down. The lesson in this story is to move on from dissappointment. I will take this lesson with me in life because everyone is dissappointed at some point in time, and as humans we just have to move on and not let it get us down.
ReplyDeleteIn this short story the boy realizes that his love for Mangan's sister is not real. He realizes that what he is doing for this girl is pointless and stupid. His situation with this girl is not unlikely because its not like this is an uncommon thing. Some people have gone through the situation with someone who doesnt even know you exist. This story relates to real life and real life situations. In your life there is always that one person who you will look good for weither its a secret crush or just a friend but in someway we have all had these feelings.
ReplyDeleteI beleive that the boy and Mangan's sister had no real connection or love between them. I feel that he could have given her something to show his love for her, to show appreciation. Or maybe she was merely using him for something instead of love. This short story can be related to real life situations today because sometimes woman can still be users and make people buy them what they want without any sentimental value.
ReplyDeleteThe boy realizes that his imagination has let him down and he is dissapointed. It teaches us that in life we use our imaginations to make reality something wonderful. But when the situation is thrown in our faces it becomes known that not everything in life is wonderful and that many things, but not all things, are dissapointments because they do not play out the way that our imaginations have shown us.
ReplyDeleteI think that people try to use other people, I don't think the girl really liked him at all and i think wanted to use him so she could could get something from the bizzare. I feel like he could have gotten her a vase, yes it was a common vase but it was from him that there should have made it special if she did in fact have the same feelings for him. I think when he went there the idea of getting her something ordianary was in his mind showing her his self worth and therefore the vase would not have been suffcient. this shows his own self image. This applies to many situations in life since this about relationships showing how people try to do things with material value to in fact convice others of their self worth.
ReplyDeleteThis is a story about realization. The boy realized that the marketplace wasn't this amazing place, he realized that what he once thought was love was just a facade. In the end his hopes and fantasies were replaced with the unfortunate truth. I feel as though everyone can relate to this theme. Throughout life, especially during childhood, we have these beliefs and aspirations only to find out that they are nothing but dreams and make believes.
ReplyDeleteIn the story, it was a young boy coming to the realization that life isn't all about me. There's more going on in the world and that more often than not, things aren't going to go the way that you want them to but you have to learn to adapt to the situation that comes at you.
ReplyDeleteThis happens in life all the time and sometimes it takes people longer to figure it out. At some point in our lives, though, we learn this lesson for ourselves. That's how we know we've grown up, when we learn that life isn't all fun and games.
Rachel Palmisciano
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the story, the boy does not get anything he wanted. He does not get the girl, a gift for her,or a magical evening at the bizzar. He worked things up so much in his mind, that when they actually happened he was left utterly dissappointed.
I find that having high expectations leaves me dissappointed and aggravated. Sometimes we think that everything is acheivable, and that we can make anything happen, but all it takes is one incidence to make us realize that this is not always true.
I think that we as people expect things to be higher than they turn out to be. When everything seems to be going the way planned, it doesn't. Many times it turns a person high into the biggest low. People think that if you have a dream or hope for something its automatically going to come true which really doesn't always happen. For example, the boy didn't end up getting the girl and just ended up realizing that what he wanted was just a waste of his time. That happens a lot in real life, im pretty sure many if not all have gone through this at some point but life goes on.
ReplyDeletethe boy in the story is not mad at his uncle but he is mad that he missed his one and only oppertunity to say good bye to his love. he is also angree that he obsessed over her and he ended up missing probually his one and only oppertunity to tell her how he feels. i beleive that no matter what the time period or place, either it be eighteenth century england or modern day America, there will always be a time in one's life that he/she could have done something different to aid him/her self. the missed oppertunity could be either social or mental benificial.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of this story, the boy comes to the conclusion that everything that appeared to be good in his life was actually just an illusion. He realizes that his love was merely wishful thinking, and that his image of the bazaar had changed dramatically for the worse. This story basically is a representation of how fast your perspective can change as the reality of the situation sets in. I believe that we can all relate to this story in some way becasue it portrays the idea of how easily we form opinions on things without taking into consideration the reality of them. At first everything new seems positive and exciting, but once the initial high of that wears off, we realize that whatever it is, isn't nearly as great as we thought it was.
ReplyDeletehe finds that his love for mangan's sister isn't real. he realizes that he has no imagination and everything that he thought wasn't real. also he was disappointed that bazaar was closing down. and thats it because you made me stop. so
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the story I felt that the boy come to terms with reality, thus showing he matured. He realized that the love he felt was just what he wished it to be and not actually real. He is now beginning to see his feelings for what they really are. When you are young you dream big, his was the love of his next door neighbor; however, as you get older to start to see these dreams for what they really are, and that is what was shown ast the end of the story.
ReplyDeletei think that the boy is mad at himself because he let the "darkness" distract him form the bright positive things that came out of his life. In the end of the story he is so focused on the mysteries behind small things that he misses the fact that the girl that he thought he loved and the wonderful life that he thought he had was all a falicy. This story gets you thinking about our own futures because he legitamately thought his life was great but soon realized it wasn't. This could be anyone. It enlightens us to think in reality and make sure you have a clear image of what is really going on. I'm sure many people can relate to this. For example people that come home from work and find that a parent or spouse has picked up and life. They thought their life was great when realy it vanished or just wasn't what it seemed. We hear about scenarios like this all of the time.
ReplyDeleteThe boy at the end of the story realized that the love he felt for the girl he like was more in his mind then a reality he was living. He is noe staring to see that is feelings for what they really are. after reading this I feel sorry for the boy because he went through what most young people deal with realization that your dreams are just that dreams and they dont awlways come true.
ReplyDeleteI believe that people often times approach the future the wrong way in our society. Many times individuals with high expectations for the future are disappointed when things dont work out as they wish. If you lower your expectations and something really nice happens you will be even more elated because this was unexpected. And if something bad happens its alright because that is what you expected to happen. Attachtment is the root of all suffering. The boy at the end of the story found that he did not really love this girl but only liked the idea of who he thought she was.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletethats me gerrick (winston)
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the story, the boy didn't get anything that he wanted. Most notably, he does not get the girl. At the end of the story, i think he comes back to reality, because his expectations were very high. For my future, this is obviously a let down, because having high expectations does not often work out.
ReplyDeletero0tsr0ckreggae1 is Michael Canaan
ReplyDeleteAKA Genghis
The little boy realizes that everything is not what you picture it to be. People picture a situation to turn out a certain way and then are disappointed when it does not come true. Also the little boy was overcome for the love Mangan's sister that he would do anything for her, to win her love. I, myself, always have high expectations for things and then are disappointed when it does not happen.
ReplyDeleteWhen the boy reaches the bazaar he comes to a realization of what is truly going on. His oh-so-magnificent bazaar turns out to be nothing exceptional. He also comes to awareness that his feelings are only coming from one side.
ReplyDeleteDespite having a pessimistic ending, this story teaches a notable lesson. It teaches how life is not always the way you imagine it. That project you worked 8 hours on might only get you a B- instead of the revered A. I feel that this story shows the true side of life. You cannot always get what you want.
What was portrayed in the story is very similar to our lives today. Take for example, you want to be a rock star. To play at concerts, to get all the ladies, and to ride nice cars. The fact is that reaching such fame isn't as easy as you'd imagine. Hundreds to thousands of hours are needed to be put into practicing. Also you have the media and public. If they don't like your music, you'll never be the rock legend you've always wanted to be. All underlaying these events is the needed luck. In such a business where millions of musicians participate, you have to know the right people in order to get you places. Without any of these, most would only end up feeling the disappoint seen at the end of this story.
Danielle Mahoney
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the story, the boy realizes that both the bazaar and his love for Mangan's sister are ideas that he has made so much better in his head then in reality. He realizes when leaving the bazaar that both the bazaar and the girl were not as special as he thought them to be. For a long time, he has idolized Mangan's sister and imagined that she was perfect. He made her much more desirable in his mind then she was in real life. He also does this with the bazaar, and when he arrives there he realizes it does not reach all the hype he was expecting. It is just a normal bazaar, just like Mangan's sister is just a normal girl. I think this relates to people today because we constantly excite ourselves for our futures or anything happening in our lives, and when the actual event does not live up to this excitement, we are extremely disappointed. This story made me realize that by trying to idolize and make every event or person seem perfect, I will only set myself up for disappointment later on.
At the end of the story, the boy learns an important life lesson, which is the reality of disappointment. From childhood we are taught to be indestructable. We assume that we will never fail and when we do fail it comes as a great surprise to us. The boy faces dissappointment when he realizes that Mangan's sister was not as perfect as he had built her up to be. ALthough in my life I have faced disappointment, it is still something that I can relate to everyday. I can, however try to learn from my failure and that is what is important.
ReplyDeletehbgsxfb
ReplyDeleteThe boy realizes in the ed of the story that he let his imagination run wild and learned reality and fantasy are two totally different things. He had such high expectation for the bazaar and the girl and was let down. The boy tends to imagine things in his but when he sees them in real life he is so disappointed because he hypes them up so much just like the bazaar and Mangan's sister. Looking back on this story i can relate to a lot of things the boy does such as think so highly of everything and everyone, i often believe everything is going to be the best but then later on realize it could of been a lot better.
ReplyDeleteThe boy comes to realize that his dream of going to a bazaar was unrealistic. Also at the end he would not have the happy ending that he thought he would with the girl that he was in love with. Sometimes people have to realize that you can really want something but it is not always going to be in your reach. Even though sometimes reality hurts it is for the best.
ReplyDeleteEverybody can relate to the theme of this story, which is realizing that many things in life do not go the way you hope or expect. This is exactly what happens to the boy at the end of the story when he realizes the bazaar was not all that he hoped for. This is a life lesson everybody learns at some point in thier life. We all have big plans for our future but we now know they may not go perfectly and we are more prepared for disappointment.
ReplyDeleteErin Murtagh
ReplyDeleteThe boy realizes that the love he has for Mangans sister was only what he wished for in his own mind. She did not feel the same way about him. Today many people use their imaginations and sometimes expect too much. They then become disappointed when everything doesn't work out. Disappointment is not a happy experience, however, everyone goes through it in their lifetime and must just learn from it.