Blog Post 5 Araby

Previously, In room 547 Mr Allen's class proceeded to engage in a close reading of Araby by James Joyce. The students flipped to page 15 and were asked to highlight words that reminded them of light and words that reminded them of dark. In my personal book by "light words" were gazed, free, lamps, garden, glowed, ect. My "dark words" were blind, detached, brown, dusk, sombre, cold, muddy, etc. All these words fell in paragraph one and three of Araby. There wasn't necessarily a pattern within them just that both light and dark words were intertwined within. I feel as if James Joyce did this with a purpose. And his purpose was somewhat a foreshadow of the overall short story. Throughout the story we find the narrator being positive or happy, and other times we find him disappointed or angry all with Mangan's sister in mind. He appears happy when she talks to him about the bizzare, but before the boy had many fears that he could never gain the courage to express his feelings to Mangan's sister. So even here we see a dark to light contrast within the boy. So overall the imagery of light illuminates (hah get it) the theme of "life has ups and downs." Light in the story represents positive things in his life, so I guess "life" is represent in this story as Mangan's sister. The dark things refer to fear and anger in his life. The boy in the end at the bizzare is so so angry, and James Joyce ends the story with the boy standing in darkness. This darkness is a low point in the boy's life.