46 pages • 1 hour read
James JoyceA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
The first three stories in the collection—“The Sisters,” “An Encounter,” and “Araby”—are voiced by a first-person, unnamed protagonist implied to be a middle-grade to preteen boy. While the stories are separate narratives, they can also be interpreted as episodes in a single boy’s life. Both the first and third narrators live with an uncle, and “Araby” references the death of the priest that took place in “The Sisters.” Joyce positions this narrator as an everyman character that many young boys living in this time and place would find relatable. He is impulsive and adventurous, as illustrated by his choice to skip school and to go on a quest to the Araby market; he is also eager to prove himself to others, shown by his need to impress the priest, Mangan’s sister, his school friends, and the older man in “An Encounter.” In the latter instance, the narrator initially feels eager to show off his intellectualism: “I pretended that I had read every book he mentioned […] because I was afraid the man would think I was as stupid as Mahony” (22-23). However, he also shows himself to be easily taken in and led astray, pointing to his youth and inexperience.
By James Joyce
An Encounter
James Joyce
A Painful Case
James Joyce
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
James Joyce
Araby
James Joyce
Clay
James Joyce
Counterparts
James Joyce
Eveline
James Joyce
Finnegans Wake
James Joyce
Ivy Day in the Committee Room
James Joyce
The Boarding House
James Joyce
The Dead
James Joyce
The Sisters
James Joyce
Two Gallants
James Joyce
Ulysses
James Joyce
Books that Feature the Theme of...
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Class
View Collection
Colonialism & Postcolonialism
View Collection
Coming-of-Age Journeys
View Collection
Fathers
View Collection
Irish Literature
View Collection
Memory
View Collection
Mortality & Death
View Collection
Nation & Nationalism
View Collection
Power
View Collection
Pride & Shame
View Collection
Required Reading Lists
View Collection
Valentine's Day Reads: The Theme of Love
View Collection