Psychoanalytic Theory And Reading Of Cultural Products Film Studies Essay

Psychoanalytic Theory And Reading Of Cultural Products Film Studies Essay The main concept of this essay is to point out how psychoanalytic theory could be used as a method of understanding and analyzing cultural products. The most valid approach for this is to observe how the cinema integrates psychoanalytical theories into specific film concepts. For this reason a Hitchcock film is used as an example, for it a common fact that there are many Freudian aspects in his movies. Specifically, Psycho is regarded by many film theorists and historians as the first psychoanalytic thriller (Kaganski as cited in Boulton, 2010). As implied by the title of the film, it is a movie whose plot is based on the Freudian Oedipus complex theory. First of all, it is noteworthy how the cinema developed a strong connection to psychoanalytic theories over the years. What is also interesting is the way in which a movie could be interpreted as a desire or a dreaming process. Moreover, in the second part of the essay, the correlation which Psycho has with psychoanalytical procedure is explored, in an effort to discover its kind and if it is actually the first psychoanalytic movie. Following a short presentation of the main plot, it is necessary to examine the nature of the Oedipus complex and how it is applied to the movie. Despite the fact that it remains the central psychoanalytic idea in the film, is not the only Freudian reference; the movie could also be interpreted through ego, superego and id psychoanalytic aspect. Finally, it is imperative to dissect the two protagonist characters and the famous murder scenes under the psychoanalytic perspective. CINEMA AND PSYCHOANALYSIS Cinema is considered to be among the most important institutions of the post modern society, one which serves numerous sociological purposes, through the use of art. The sociological perspective of cinema is but one side of the coin; the other side represents a more personal, more intimate psychoanalytical procedure. It is true that Freudian psychoanalysis is not a process concerned only with psychological models and consciousness. In modern society, psychoanalysis also constitutes a means of understanding works of great artistic and cultural values, such as cinematic films (Mertz, 1976). A movie could be experienced through the psychoanalytical lens in variety of diverse ways, such as the Freudian dream interpretation or as an object of our fantasy-desire (Lacan) or even as our identification through voyeurism (ibid). Freud characterizes the dream as the expression of a wish fulfilled; a movie could, conceivably, be seen as a dream, because on the screen we witness some of our desires being visualized. Spellbound and Marnie are two of Hitchcocks films that could be approached through the method of dream interpretation (Sandis, 2009). The history of the relation between psychoanalysis and cinema is divided into three periods. During the 30s, psychoanalysis became a familiar point of interest for the movie industry, although it was still somewhat superficial and had little to do with actual human behavior. After the Second World War, the references to psychoanalysis became even more apparent, because of the appearance of psychological problems. The Wars cinematic demonstration followed this optimistic evolution (Gale Dictionary of Psychoanalysis). Hitchcocks movies had a great impact in this certain period, mainly due to their deep connection with psychoanalytic concepts. Psycho (1960), North by Northwest (1959) or The birds (1963) are cultural works with oedipal themes in them. More recently psychoanalysis has been integrated in certain cinematic aspects as an objective cognitive method or even ridiculed method (for example in Woody Allens movie characters) (Gale Dictionary of Psychoanalysis). PSYCHO AND PSYCHOANALYSIS The movie is directed by Alfred Hitchcock and scripted by Joseph Stefano, who adapted the screenplay from the homonymous novel written by Robert Bloch. Blochs 1959 novel was based on the true story of a notorious psychotic serial killer, named Edward Gein. His murderous character has inspired many other serial killers such as Jame Gumb (Buffalo Bill) in the Silence of the Lambs (1991) (Dirks). The movie had a great impact in the 60s and since then Hitchcock is considered as the original creator of suspense. Psycho is so multilayered and complex a movie, that it reveals more and more of its essence with each viewing. This explains why there is such a controversy about what genre of movie it is. The main theme is mystery and Hitchcock promotes it with his unique direction technique. When the film was aired in theaters, he insisted that no one would have a seat after the film had started. Thus, the audiences speculated that something terrible was happening in the first few minutes (Dirks). Psycho is considered a film noir because it shares some common characteristics with those films but, at the same time, remains very peculiar. Through the perspective that a film noir conjures a universe where human desire fails to be fulfilled, Psycho could be regarded as one of those films (Palmer, 1986). Lacans object petite a theory is referred to an unattainable desire, such as Normans desire for Marion (Laplanche, Pontalis, 1986). There is also another theory which makes Psycho the first psychoanalytical movie (Kaganski as cited in Boulton). Specifically, it starts as a whodunit, then it is transformed into a horror film and then into a suspense film with elements of very dark, black comedy. However, if one digs deeper, it inevitably becomes apparent that the film is undoubtedly psychological with specific Freudian interpretations. Francois Truffaut has said: If Psycho had been intended as a serious picture, it would have been shown as a clinical case with no mystery or suspense. The material would have been used as a documentation of a case history (Truffaut as cited in Sandis, 2009:69). In addition to this aspect, Hitchcock has mentioned Probably the real Psycho story wouldnt have been emotional at all; it wouldve been terribly clinical (Hitchcock as cited in Sandis, 2009:70). He was referring to the real incident of mother obsessed Ed Gein, who used to dress up like his dead mother and had murdered about a dozen women (Sandis, 2009). The psychoanalytical view of the movie is illustrated as a parallel between Lila Cranes exploration of the gothic mothers house and the exploration of Bates divided mind. The Freudian element, which explains the construction of Normans personality, defines the concept of the story. First of all, there is a traumatic incident (matricide) causing a transfer of guilt (translated on this occasion into the Oedipus complex). This, in turn, causes a partial loss of the self and a deep identification with the victim (ibid). The story unfolds from this Freudian perspective. Thus, it is evident that Psycho is structured according to the psychoanalytic procedure. THE STORY Marion Crane is a Phoenix office worker, whose life falls short of her expectations. She cant get married with her boyfriend, Sam because he has to provide most of his money in alimony. One Friday her employer confided to her to deposit $40,000. Thinking that this is a good opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town, headed towards Sams store in California. A heavy rainstorm forces her to spend the night at Bates motel. The motel is managed by Norman Bates, a young man who has a very domineering mother. During the night Marion decides to return the money the next morning. Unfortunately, while she is taking a shower, an anonymous figure enters and stabs her to death. After extensive research, it is revealed that Norman has kept his mother to life through his split personality. Dominated by his mothers personality, Norman kills anyone he feels attracted to. In the final scene, we find Norman in prison, haunted by his mothers persona, thinking of how to prove her/his innocence. OEDIPUS COMPLEX Oedipus was the son of Laius and Jocasta, who was exiled from his homeland by his father because of a prophecy. The prophecy foretold that Oedipus would murder his own father. After many years Oedipus decided to discover his origins and returned to Thebes, where he met his father and, unwittingly fulfilling the prophecy, killed him. Then he was made king of the Thebans and was rewarded with the hand of Jocasta, who was his mother. When Oedipus realized that he had fulfilled the prophecy by killing his own father and having children with his mother, he blinded himself (Willner, 1982). Oedipus Rex is a famous Sophocles ancient Greek tragedy, which has been interpreted by Freud as nothing more or less than a wish fulfillment- the fulfillment of the wish of our childhood (Freud as cited in Willner, 1982). Specifically, Freud believes that boys are all destined to direct their first sexual impulse toward their mothers and their violent impulses toward their father. Under the, so called, positive form the complex is appeared as Oedipus story: death wish for the opponent who is the person of the same sex, the father and sexual desire for the person of the opposite sex, the mother. The Oedipus complex is experienced from 3 to 5 years old and is revived during the adolescent period. The liberation from this complex has to do with the healthy structuring of the personality (Laplanche, Pontalis, 1986). If the boy does not repress his sexual desire toward the Mother and does not identify himself with the Father, he cannot develop a normal personality. It is considered that the Oedipus complex is the main psychoanalytic idea of the movie and Norman Bates is its modern atypical version (Boulton, 2010). According to the films ending psychiatric speech: Now he was already dangerously disturbed, had been ever since his father died. His mother was a clinging, demanding woman, and for years the two of them lived as if there was no one else in the world. Then she met a manà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦and it seemed to Norman that she threw him over. Now that pushed him over the line and he killed them both (Boulton, 2010). Norman Bates did not manage to overcome his unconscious sexual desire toward his mother and acted out his also unconscious drive of killing the Father. That explains why the mother half of Normans mind has won (Boulton, 2010: 2). Psychiatrist Dr. Richmond illustrates that Norman has sexual desires for an attractive woman as normal men have, but his split personality does not allow him to develop a normal sexual intercourse. He explains to Lila (Marions sister) that When he (Norman) met your sister, he was touched by herà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦aroused by her. He wanted her. That set off the jealous mother and mother killed the girl! Now after the murder, Norman returned as if from a deep sleep. And like a dutiful son, covered up all traces of the crime he was convinced his mother had committed! (ibid: 2) Norman, driven by envy, killed his mother and her lover. In other words, he committed the crime of matricide, which is considered the most heinous and unpardonable crime and is especially unbearable for the son who commits it (Dirks). Trying to erase the crime in his own mind, he developed a split personality. As a result, he created an illusion that his mother was still alive. To make this illusion a physical reality, he stole her dead body and preserved it, using his taxidermist skills. In his delusional mind he played-acted and imagined that he was his mother and that she was as pathologically jealous of him as he was of her (ibid). In this way, he was acting as his mother and committed murders due to her jealousy. It is evident that he chose this horrific way to redeem himself from the matricide. EGO, SUPEREGO, ID Freud divided the human mind into three conflicting parts: the ego, the superego and the id. The ego rests between the id and the superego and provides us with a sense of self. It has to build a balanced relationship of dependency between the demands of the id and the imperatives of the superego (Laplanche, Pontalis, 1986). The id is comprised of innate biological drives, emotional impulses, instincts and dispositions. On the contrary, the ego is made up of those mental phenomena related to whatever environmental considerations constrain the id (Freud calls these the reality principle). For example, the basic id drive is hunger and it is constrained by ego beliefs about what food is available where (Sandis, 2009). Finally, the superego plays a role similar to that of a judge. Freud considers the moral consciousness, self-observation and the development of moral values and ideals as expressions of the superego. The superego is defined as the heir of the Oedipus complex in terms of par ental demands and prohibitions (Laplanche, Pontalis, 1986). Observing Norman Bates character through this theory, it is evident that he does not develop a strong enough ego in order to keep under control the powerful urges of both the id and the superego. Subsequently, the id and the superego manifest themselves as completely different personalities (Boulton, 2010). His sexual desire for Marion represents his id and her murder (murder of the sexual desire for Marion) represents an extreme expression of his superego. Norman Bates never detached himself from his mother and identified himself with the Father. Therefore he did not assimilate into what Lacan terms the symbolic order, the interconnected system of signs that every society constructs meaning and order around (Zizek as cited in Boulton 2010:2). Normans symbolic level is psychotic, so the superego acts in different ways. As Zizek (cited in Boulton, 2010:2) emphasized, it is the maternal superego that acts and dominates his mind. At times he can become both personalities. But most of the times the mother half put his mind under control. Freud compared the human mind to an iceberg. The tiny part of the iceberg, which appears above the water surface possibly, represents human perception. Below the surface lies a much darker, larger part of the iceberg representing the unconscious. There is no evidence if Hitchcock has ever come across the iceberg metaphor but he would have found it inspiring. Like Freud Hitchcock present us a certain familiar and ordinary picture that we are prepared to see (like the pick of the iceberg- conscious) but whose precise shape is always novel (the other part of the iceberg-unconscious). He also chose for his movies, ladies that appear cold as ice in order to reveal their oppressed thoughts and desires (Sandis, 2009). It is charming in terms of cinema suspense, for secret or repressed thoughts to rise to the surface. (Sandis, 2009) Furthermore, Slavoj Zizek (2005) compares the old, gothic house to the segmented personality of Norman Bates. The ground floor represents the ego and there he behaves as a normal son. The first flour represents the superego, where Norman is governed by the moral constrains of his mother. Finally the basement represents the id, the reservoir of the illicit drives of the psyche thats why his mothers skeleton is transferred there. The transfer of his mothers dead body from the first flour to the basement illustrates the deep connection of the id and the superego in Normans split personality. The exploration of the house is like a psychoanalytic process. Lila entered Normans bedroom and observed his personal items, which were a combination of childrens (boys and girls items) and adults things (signifying his disturbed personality) (Dirks). CHARACTERS Marion symbolizes the repressed woman of the modern America of the 60s, who tries to be emancipated. Judging from her sexual intercourses with her lover during lunch times in secret hotel rooms, one could say that she appears as an independent woman. On the other hand, she gets the money and leaves town, which means that she wants a different life, maybe more conventional, having a successful marriage. Normans character is the mirror-negative of Marion. She operates in the Name of the Father; Norman on the other hand, has not submitted to this paternal law and is entrapped in the desire of the mother' (Zizek as cited in Boulton, 2010). This theory is supported in terms of direction. As they stand together on the porch, the camera photographs the scene as if they were the two sides of the same coin, but Norman is also reflected in the glass window behind him (symbolizes his split personality) (Dirks). Norman Bates could be considered as a good looking, boyishly version of Sam (Marions boyfriend). As their encounter develops, however, this possibility is eradicated because it becomes obvious that he is not capable of adult sexuality, being held in sexual bondage with his mother (Palmer, 1986). As he mentions: -Norman: Do you know what I think? I think that were all in our private traps. Clamped in them. And none of us can ever get out. We scratch and claw, but only at the air, only at each other. And for all of it we never budge an inch. -Marion: Sometimes we deliberately step into those traps. (Psycho, 1960) Each of them gives different meaning to the word trap. Trap for Marion is the theft of the money or maybe her relationship with Sam. For a moment Norman seems that he speaks frankly, being conscious of his fragmented psyche. Unfortunately, after the discourse only Marion is capable of being subject to moral self-examination, deciding to return the money next morning. MURDER SCENES The shower murder scene is among the most famous in the history of cinema. The major film star-Marion- is stabbed to death after the first 47 minutes of the movies start. Even if someone has not seen the movie, he has undoubtedly seen this specific scene. It took a fully week to complete, using 70 cameras, fast cut editing of 78 film pieces and a naked stand in model (Marli Renfo) (Dirks). Despite the fact that it is one of the most jargonistic and violent scenes there is only implied violence because at no time does the knife penetrate into her body. In only instant one the knife touches her belly (ibid). However, it is the scene that made females, including Janet Leigh (Marion) not being able to take a shower for a very long time (Sullivan, 2006). Murdering Marion while she was taking a shower with a knife is not a coincidental choice. On the contrary it has a deeper meaning in terms of direction and psychoanalysis. Until that moment, Marion was the main protagonist of the film and the epicenter of the plot was her feeling guilty for thieving the money. Taking a shower, the water washes away her guilt and rejuvenates her (Dirks). There is an irony here, at the moment she was relieved someone entered and took her life violently. Moreover, the knife in Freudian terms is a phallic symbol. In this weird and abnormal way, Norman satisfied both his desires: the jealousy of his mother and his own desire, penetrating into the female body, using his knife. Marions dead body is standing on the cold floor, mixed with ejaculatory spurts of blood dripping down her legs from various gashes, which symbolizes a violent and deadly rape (ibid). Zizek with his documentary The Perverts Guide to Cinema (2005) underlines that after Marions murder the spectator identifies with Norman Bates persona. Suddenly the spectator is anxious of cleaning up Marions blood from the bathroom and of getting rid of her car in the swamp, relating to our satisfaction with a job well done. Suspense is generated when, whilst Norman Bates is disposing of Marions car (containing her body) in a nearby swamp, the car momentarily stops sinking, an anxiety arises in the viewer (Zizek as cited in Boulton, 2010). The suspense here deals with the spectators unconscious identification with Bates. This identification has to do with Hitchcocks use of gaze, the Hippolytuss gaze. This gaze is not a seen gaze, but a gaze visualized by the Self in the field of the Others idiosyncrasy. Everything is not observed just through the others eyes but through the others personal feelings. The gaze is not the Others glance as such, but the way this glance concerns me, the way the subject sees him/herself affected by it as to his/her desire (Zizek,1992:214). The second murder scene, the murder of detective Arbogast is more predictable. The fascination of the first murder diverts our attention from the second murder. Everything that happens before the murder act seems to announce it. When Arbogast enters the mothers house and stands at the staircase, the audience immediately feel that something terrible is going to happen. However, the suspense here has to do again with this weird immoral identification of the audience with Norman. The spectator desires Arbogast to be killed (Zizek as cited in Boulton, 2010). There is a noticeable aesthetic differentiation between the two murders, which is related to the symbolic split of the movies narrative (ibid). Marions murder still being in the Name-of-the father symbolic realm, it takes place in a motel room, which highlights the aesthetic of an anonymous modern America. On the other hand, Arbogasts death takes place in mothers house which represents American tradition, in the desire of the mother symbolic space (ibid). CONCLUSIONS It is evident that psychoanalytic theory is strongly related to the cinema. Specifically, in Hitchcocks films the Freudian theoretical models are considered as a main pattern of his movies structure. Hitchcock himself has admitted when he was interviewed by Francois Truffaut: -F.T.: I saw Spellbound again recently and I must admit that I didnt care very much for the scenario. -A.H.: Well, its just another manhunt story wrapped up in pseudo-psychoanalysisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Sandis, 2009:65) He might not have taken the subconscious too seriously and in his personal life he avoided doctors of the mind, as he had admitted, however, it is known that the famous director was not unfamiliar with psychoanalytic Freudian theories (Sandis, 2009). Nowadays the use of psychoanalytic theoretical models in cinema is the norm. It is not just a specialized knowledge that concerns a particular audience anymore; it is also used as a method of creating artistic, cultural products. On the other hand, not only cinema uses psychoanalytical procedure as a tool of creativity, but also cinema could be used through psychoanalytical process as a method of manipulation and control (Tania, 1968). There is a strong interaction between cinema and psychoanalysis. Members of the Frankfurt School believe that cinema is used through psychoanalysis in order to create various forms of easy, false pleasure as a way to keep the audience unaware of the real major social existing problems (ibid). This argument has some truth to a limited extent but there are also many examples which underline that cinema, using the psychoanalytical process, emphasizes serious sociological problems. However, whatever the purpose of using the psychoanalysis, the point is tha t psychoanalytical theories have a strong connection with the creation of literary or cinematic products.

Argue for or Against the Electoral College Essay

The 2000 United States (U. S. ) presidential election concluded with Vice President Al Gore winning half a million more popular votes than George W. Bush (50,992,335 to 50,455,156) yet losing the White House in the Electoral College by only five votes (271 to 266). It once again raised questions about the validity of the Electoral College as the same scenario has occurred in the 1824, 1876, and 1888 presidential elections. This essay will discuss two problems of the Electoral College: the failure to accurately reflect national popular vote will and the problem of state bias. I argue that the U. S. should abolish the Electoral College and implementthe direct popular election of the president. The Electoral College fails to accurately reflect national popular vote will as it is possible to elect a minority president. As mentioned above, this â€Å"incident† has happened four times in history. The Electoral College is fundamentally unfair to voters where voting rights are grounded in the one person, one vote principle. By giving a chance for the Electoral College to elect a minority president, it shows that the Electoral College ignores the people’s choice. The Electoral College also faces the problem of state bias which favors the votes of some citizens over that of others. Firstly, it gives undue weight to the votes of citizens in the smaller states. As the constitution assigns a number of electors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives, each state will at least have three electors, including the smaller states. This system gives â€Å"bonus votes† to the smaller states since the three electors they have are more than what they deserve on the basis of their population share. Therefore, this bias gives added power to citizens of small states. For example, in the 2000 election, California cast one electoral vote for every 203,071 voters while Wyoming cast one electoral vote for every 71,242. Al Gore lost because his votes were not dispersed across the states in a such manner as to prevail in the Electoral College. The race was lost in the smaller states where Bush successfully won eleven out of eighteen small states. Secondly, the Electoral College and its winner takes all system gives greater voting power to the larger states since they have more electors. It is possible that a candidate could win the presidency with only 7% of the popular vote if he or she wins all of the eleven largest states without having to capture a single popular vote in the remaining 39 states and D. C. Therefore, candidates would spend more time in the larger states. To the extent that large states are not as competitive in larger states like California and Texas (solid blue and red states), candidates will target the more competitive larger states (swing states) such as Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. This system discourages voter turnout and disenfranchises people who vote for the losing candidates in the solid blue or red states. This is because in these noncompetitive states, one or the other major party is traditionally victorious. There is arguably less motivation for citizens in that state to vote, no matter which candidate they might support because they know their vote will not matter. To conclude, U. S. should switch to direct election as it is the best system that guarantees the president has the â€Å" direct popular mandate† from the people. It also ensure representativeness (â€Å"one person, one vote†) and encourages voters turnout by giving voters a direct and equal role in electing the president.

Industrial growth Essay

Industrial growth was mainly concentrated in the North and East of the United States. According to our text in the year 1890 more than 85 percent of manufactured goods originated from here. The West was not as settled as the Eastern and Midwestern portions of our country, but still played a major role supplying raw materials to the industries to the East. Between 1870 and 1900 settlers took a total of 430 million acres in the West and with this began the economic growth of the western portion of the U. S. The only advance that was technologically available to individuals of the West that connected them to the East was the railway system. This was the single most important innovation that changed America’s economic and social life forever. The railway system linked cities and villages that were in isolated or remote areas. â€Å"It tied people together, brought in outside products, fostered greater interdependence, and encouraged economic specialization† (520). Some of the resources that the West had were gold mining, cattle ranching and land bonanzas. It was these resources that would help in getting settlers from the east and around the world to come out to the western part of the U. S. But with growth due to the bonanza’s there were â€Å"uneven growth, boom and bust economic cycles, and wasted resources† (501). Individuals became migrant because of these cycles and began to followed river bottoms in search of gold, railway tracks and other opportunities. The book discussed â€Å"Instant Cities† that would sprout up because of this migration. The West portrayed a get rich quickly type of lifestyle. Mining was a very influential factor as to why most came to the West and why there was a get rich ideology. But still many came because of opportunities that mining produced such as providing food clothing and services to the miners. Cattle ranching in the west proved to be very profitable. The plains provided grasses and terrain that suited cattle. Mexican helped to create the essentials for cattle ranching with introducing the long horn cattle and such things as â€Å"branding, roundups, and roping† (505). In 1870 millions of farmers followed the miners and ranchers to move out west for the crop bonanzas. Farming was very hard in these early times taking its toll on many families. But as farming techniques got better and new technology was introduced farming became a thriving business in the West. The differences economically for the East and West sections of the United States varied because of industrialization. This happened over three decades after the Civil War. At the beginning of the war the United States was behind industrialized countries in Europe, but by 1900 the U. S. was to exceed many of those countries. Population was a major factor for this industrialization. It was the population of the East that helped to move the East up the economic ladder faster than the West, which of course was a contributor of raw materials for these factories. Labor was gained through immigration that happened to grow by at least eight million between 1870’s and 1880’s and then between 1890 and 1914 another fifteen million arrived (519). The growing population expanded economic growth for the East during the latter part of the 19th century. The growing population helped to expand markets of the East, but when the telegraph and telephone was introduced along with the railways this only helped to exploit and expand these markets into the West.

James Joyce - Araby Essay - 1136 Words

Essay Introduction to Literature An initiation in James Joyce’s story â€Å"Araby† Many times in life, people set unrealistic expectations for themselves or for other people. This is not a very wise thing to do because people often feel disappointed and embarrassed for getting their hopes up so high. One good example of this is the narrator in the short story â€Å"Araby† by James Joyce. In his brief but complex story James Joyce concentrates on character rather than on plot to reveal the ironies within self-deception. On its simplest level, Araby is a story about a boys first love. On a deeper level, it is a story about the world he lives in that is full of ideals and dreams. Araby is a story of initiation, of a boys quest for†¦show more content†¦The second thing that has an impact on protagonist’s life view is the culture and life in Dublin. But on the rest of the people from this city. Children have to go to Christian school, where the discipline is strict. That can be infer red from the very first sentence of the story:† North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers School set the boys free.† Another thing that can be noticed about the boy’s religious belonging is in the way he acts: â€Å"All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: O love! O love! many times.†(p. 434) This sentence can be interpreted as though he does the thing he is used to do every time he happens to be in difficult situation. These facts play a huge role in the forming of this boys character and his life. Overvalue of boy’s attitude towards life in Araby is supported by the circumstances the boy had to face up with that are used as imagery of light and darkness. Darkness is used throughout the story as the prevailing theme. The boy is young and naive and he leads a du ll and boring life. Joyce uses dark and obscure references to make the boys reality of living in the gloomy town more vivid. Darkness, in addition to despair, represents the reality and truth in the narrators circumstances. The author uses dark references to create the mood or atmosphereShow MoreRelatedThe Power of Araby by James Joyce Essay1907 Words   |  8 Pagesabout is â€Å"Araby† by James Joyce. James Joyce does a great job creating vivid images in the readers mind and creates a theme that most of us can relate. In this paper I will be discussing five scholarly peer reviewed journals that also discusses the use of image and theme that James Joyce created in his short story â€Å"Araby†. Before I start diving into discussing these five scholarly peer review journals, I would like to just write a little bit about â€Å"Araby† by James Joyce. 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There is a lifelessness that surrounds the boy: â€Å"musty†¦. waste littered†¦ somber houses†¦ cold†¦. †¦ silent street†¦ dark muddy lanes.† Adults are ghosts: â€Å"the boys are surrounded by â€Å"shades of people† whose houses â€Å"gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.† Joyce evokes an image of the Irish soul as cold and the street as uninhabited and detached, with the housesRead More Being Covered from the Truth in Araby by James Joyce Essay1097 Words   |  5 PagesBeing Covered from the Truth in Araby by James Joyce â€Å"Araby† by James Joyce, is a short story about a young boy trying to find and his search for inner happiness. The main setting takes place in the boy’s neighborhood where he lives with his aunt and uncle. The sub setting takes place in an Araby or English bazaar, a carnival if you will. In the neighborhood we find that there is; an uninhabited house that has not been occupied for some time, a girl, who’s referred to as ‘Mangan’s sister’Read MoreEssay on Comparison of A P by John Updike and Araby by James Joyce681 Words   |  3 Pages John Updikes â€Å"A P† and James Joyces â€Å"Araby† are very similar. The theme of the two stories is about a young man who is interested in figuring out the difference between reality and the fantasies of romance that play in his head and of the mistaken thoughts each has about their world, the girls, and themselves. One of the main similarities between the two stories is the fact that the main character has built up unrealistic expectations of women. Both characters have focused upon one girl inRead MoreAP by John Updike and Araby by James Joyce Essay examples856 Words   |  4 PagesThe two stories I chose are AP by John Updike and Araby by James Joyce. Both stories tell a tale of social and philosophical differences of middle class adolescent boys, when compared to the adults in the stories. In the short story AP by John Updike, the story is told in a first person narrative of a teenage boy working as a cashier in an AP grocery store on a hot summer day. The story begins with the teenage boy named Sammy becoming preoccupied by a group of three teenage girls that walkRead MoreParalysis In James Joyces Dubliners1086 Words   |  5 PagesHopefully this Essay is Slightly More Intelligible than Finnegan’s Wake: Dubliners Essay â€Å"To be or not to be, that is the question.† Hamlet’s famous quotation implies only two solutions: to be, or to not be. However, there is another option that Shakespeare never explored: to remain paralyzed between the two states, unable to commit to either. James Joyce’s Dubliners is a collection of short stories first published in 1914, that follows the inhabitants of Ireland. Published nearly a half a century