Joyce’s “Araby” and “A Little Cloud”: Harsh Realities and Shattered Dreams - Haeden Wright (best young adult book series TXT) 📗

Joyce’s “Araby” and “A Little Cloud”: Harsh Realities and Shattered Dreams
In Joyce’s short stories, “Araby” and “A Little Cloud” the main characters must accept his or her place in society by meshing their “secondary worlds”(Auden) with “the primary world”(Auden) in which they live. In order for this acceptance to take place the protagonist must experience and event that enlightens them about the world in which they live. In these stories, the enlightenment the characters face is not joyous; instead, it is a harsh reality that shatters the ideals and truths the character once held. Joyce’s “Araby” and “A Little Cloud” explore the workings of the mind through allusions to religious oppression, political injustice, and the constrictions of society. In these stories, the narrator must realize these problems in order to see the reality of the world in which they live.
Joyce’s short story “Araby” the protagonist is an adolescent Irish boy who is beginning to discover his sexual identity, while still embracing a childlike domineer. This natural process is complicated by the narrator’s oppressive religious upbringing. This overlapping of the sexual and the religious is evident in the following description:
She held one of the spikes, bowing her head towards me. The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing. It fell over one side of her dress and caught the white border of a petticoat, just visible as she stood at ease (Joyce 32).
The narrator describes the girl in this passage through an allusion to the Virgin Mary. This imagery confirms that the Catholic Church influences the narrator’s unconscious mind even when the context is sexual. The narrator’s infatuation with this girl leads him to say, “'If I go,' I said, 'I will bring you something.'”(Joyce 32). This statement begins the narrator’s journey to “Araby” where he will have to face the realities of his “primary world” (Auden). The following lines explain the narrator’s attraction, “The syllables of the word Araby were called to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an Eastern enchantment over me” (Joyce 32). The narrator’s sense of wonderment shows that he still sees the world with untainted eyes.
The protagonist in “Araby” creates a “secondary world” in which he is a hero going on a quest. Coulthard states, “The vision had been his alternative to the real world, had indeed become at one point so realistic as to apparently fuse with reality for him” (Coulthard). This “secondary world” (Auden) is deconstructed upon his arrival to the carnival when he is shown his position in society:
I remarked their English accents and listened vaguely to their conversation…Observing me, the young lady came over and asked me did I wish to buy anything. The tone of her voice was not encouraging; she seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty” (Joyce 35).
The narrator is pulled back into “the primary world” (Auden) when his hopes of buying the gift are trampled.
The shopkeeper and the two English gentlemen show the narrator that he is of a lower class due in part to him being Irish, and also because he is Catholic. By this obvious snobbery by the upper class, the narrator is forced to accept the restrictions placed on him by society. This event shakes the foundation of the narrator’s belief system. The story ends with the lines, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (Joyce 35). This statement shows that the narrator has realized what is happening in the world around him. The “anguish and anger” (Joyce 35) the narrator feels is both for the loss of his innocence and childhood but also for the realization of his low standing in society. Coulthard states, “Anguish and anger are merely emotional reactions, but the admission of vanity, which reflects the oppressive Catholicism in the story, is a severe moral judgment” (Coulthard 97). The narrator’s harsh judgment of himself shows the growing maturity and sense of moral responsibility. In the ending of the story, the protagonist changes from a boy to a man, when he realizes the constraints society has placed on him. Coulthard believes:“A religiosity that assumes that life is painful and meant to be that way has seeped into his soul.”(Coulthard 99) This realization is what makes the protagonist a man. The protagonist now realizes that life is chaotic and cannot be neatly reordered once the realization of its injustices is made. The protagonist now sees his quest to the carnival as childish and unmeaning full. These understandings of society make it impossible for the protagonist to return to his “secondary world” (Auden) he had created as a child.
In Joyce’s, “A Little Cloud” the protagonist, Little Chandler, reunites with an old friend, Ignatius Gallaher, who had moved to London eight years ago. For years, Little Chandler has fantasized about his friend’s adventurous lifestyle, and compared it to his own existence. “A Little Cloud” contrasts Little Chandler's dissatisfaction with both his personal and professional life with Gallaher's bold and exciting writing career abroad. Little Chandler believes that to succeed in life and fulfill his ideal existence, he must leave Dublin like Gallaher. Little Chandler has become to see Gallher’s life as a “secondary world” (Auden) of his own during Gallaher’s eight year absence.
The description of Gallaher and Chandler in the opening paragraphs describes them as complete opposites, both in appearance and life experiences. Gallaher is described in the passage:
You could tell that at once by his traveled air, his well-cut tweed suit, and fearless accent. Few fellows had talents like his, and fewer still could remain unspoiled by such success. Gallaher's heart was in the right place and he had deserved to win. It was something to have a friend like that. (Joyce 70)
This description is one of great admiration and praise. Chandler places Gallaher on a pedestal of perfection. Little Chandler escapes reality through imagining himself in Gallaher’s life. Little Chandler is described in a completely different way. Instead of being described as traveled and fearless, Chandler is said to be fragile and refined. Even Little Chandlers name mirrors his personality, “He was called Little Chandler because, though he was but slightly under the average stature, he gave one the idea of being a little man” (Joyce 70). Little Chandler uses Gallaher’s life as a way to escape from “his primary world” (Auden), in which the demands of his work and family overwhelm him.
Little Chandler receives an invitation from Gallaher to meet him at a bar. Little Chandler is shown to be very excited about the meeting. Once at the bar Little Chandler and Gallaher discuss marriage, family, foreign cities, and Dublin. Little Chandler blames all of these things for his lack of success. Throughout the story, Little Chandler states how he wants to write poetry and be more like Gallaher. Little Chandler discusses this dream but never does he take action upon it. Little Chandler wants to imagine a “secondary world” (Auden) where he is a writer; he accomplishes this through living simultaneously through Gallaher. This is shown in the passage:
Melancholy was the dominant note of his temperament, he thought, but it was a melancholy tempered by recurrences of faith and resignation and simple joy. If he could give expression to it in a book of poems perhaps men would listen…The English critics, perhaps, would recognize him as one of the Celtic school by reason of the melancholy tone of his poems; besides that, he would put in allusions. (Joyce 73-74)
This paragraph shows that Little Chandler had put a lot of thought into what type of poetry he would write and who his audience would be. Only he does not actively pursue it, he blames his country and family for inability to become a writer. Little Chandler uses his friendship with Gallaher sustain his “secondary world” (Auden) through his fantasies of becoming a writer, and having such an important friend.
Little Chandler is willing to overlook all of Gallaher’s shortcomings in order to keep his “secondary world” in place. When Little Chandler views a fault in his friend he quickly comes up for an excuse. This is revealed in the passage:
He was beginning to feel somewhat disillusioned. Gallaher's accent and way of expressing himself did not please him. There was something vulgar in his friend which lie had not observed before. But perhaps it was only the result of living in London amid the bustle and competition of the Press. The old personal charm was still there under this new gaudy manner. And, after all, Gallaher had lived, he had seen the world. Little Chandler looked at his friend enviously. (Joyce 77)
Little Chandler states that he sees something “vulgar” in his friend then convinces himself that it is due to his travel in work. Little Chandler cannot accept that he may have placed his memories of he friend may not have been accurate. Little Chandlers shared “secondary world” would be shattered if he were forced to take Gallaher off the pedestal on which he had been placed.
Near the end of the men’s discussion, the topic returns to marriage. Little Chandler insist that his friend will eventually marry. Gallaher again shows Chandler a fault in his character by saying, “`if ever it occurs, you may bet your bottom dollar there'll be no mooning and spooning about it. I mean to marry money. She'll have a good fat account at the bank or she won't do for me'” (Joyce 81). Gallaher then patronizes his friend by claiming he could marry a wealthy woman the next day if he wanted, but he chooses to remain single. Even after this obvious jab at Little Chandlers wife and marriage, Little Chandler invites his friend to come to his home and meet his wife. Gallaher refuses the offer claiming he has to leave soon. Little Chandler knows that Gallaher has refused simply out of disinterest, but keeps this realization to himself in order not to disturb his imagined world.
Little Chandler does not grasp the reality of what this meeting with Gallaher has done to dissolve his “secondary world” until he is at home. The reader knows from the beginning of the story that Little Chandler has a book of poetry, but that he has always been afraid to share it with anyone, including his wife. When Chandler returns home his wife must leave to go to the store, and Chandler is left with his sleeping son in his arms. Little Chandler is told not to wake the child, but as he is sitting he begins to read his book of poetry. This awakens the child and the mother returns furious. It is not until he and his wife begin to argue and he is left alone with his book that he realizes his own shortcomings. The realization that he will never be Gallaher, and that he has a family to provide for crushes his “secondary world” (Auden) and leaves him to come to terms with his “primary world” (Auden).
In Joyce’s, “Araby” and “A Little Cloud” the characters faced harsh realizations that shattered the imagined world they were living in. “The Two Gallants” and “Clay” would be other examples of a shared “secondary world”. However, in these stories