Araby

James Joyce

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1914

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Literary Devices

Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is a literary device in which two ideas, concepts, themes, or characters are compared and contrasted by placing them in close proximity to one another. By doing so, a writer can demonstrate to the audience the profound difference which exists between two competing or similar subjects. The stark or subtle contrast between these ideas, concepts, themes, characters, or anything else can help the audience better understand the depth and meaning of the text.

In “Araby,” juxtaposition is used to highlight the difference in character between the narrator and others. The narrator and the priest are juxtaposed by their presence in the same house. Though the priest is now dead, his possessions show that he was a religious man with secular interests. His romance novels and rusty bicycle pump hint at a life which existed beyond his church. The priest’s character was not defined by religious expression. These hints at the priest’s character are juxtaposed with the narrator’s reaction to his love for Mangan’s sister. Whereas the priest held secular interests, the narrator cannot think of any way to express his love that is not religious. The narrator has been raised at a Catholic school in a Catholic community, so he tends to view new and strange emotions through a religious framework. His love for Mangan’s sister involves him praying to her as though she were a deity. The juxtaposition with the priest shows that the narrator does not have the maturity or the experience to think of life in anything other than the religious framework he has been taught from an early age.

Negative Space

Negative space is a technique most commonly used in the art world. The concept of negative space suggests that—in a painting, for example—the empty space around the subject or between the subjects can hold profound meaning. The negative space can form an interesting or aesthetically appealing shape, it can balance the construction of an image, or it can highlight a thematic meaning by drawing the audience’s eye to a certain amount of emptiness or hollowness. Negative space in literary terms can be thought of in a similar fashion, namely the things which are left unsaid in a text.

In the context of “Araby,” the narrator uses negative space to hint at biographical details. He mentions his aunt and his uncle, as well as the priest who once lived in his home. However, he never mentions his parents. His parents exist in the negative space of the story as they are not directly mentioned. Their lack of a mention compels the audience to wonder whether they are absent or dead, thus suggesting that a great tragedy has occurred in the young narrator’s life. Potentially, he may find discussion of this tragedy painful, so he refrains from mentioning his parents. The pointed lack of any mention of parents is a deliberate ploy by the narrator to hint at the absence of an important family influence in his life and to help explain why he might be emotionally immature, repressed, or naïve.

Synecdoche

Synecdoche is a literary technique in which a small part of something is used to represent something in its totality. For example, a sail of a ship can be a synecdoche for the ship itself if a text were to describe the number of sails seen in a bay, thereby telling the audience the number of ships which are visible.

In the context of the short story, the narrator uses his home and his street as a synecdoche for the community and the city as a whole. The narrator’s young, naïve, and immature view of the world is limited by his circumstances. He has not travelled far, so the narrator views North Richmond Street as essentially being the city of Dublin. To him, the city and the street are the same thing. Only when he goes beyond the street to Araby’s Bazaar does he begin to understand that his use of the street as a synecdoche for the city is not apt. The revelation that Dublin is infinitely larger, more complex, and more mature than life on a single street is a lesson for the narrator, who sees the errors of his ways and begins to feel ashamed.