Common Themes in Short Stories of James Joyce

A detailed Summary of Common Themes in Short Stories of James Joyce

James Joyce, a most prestigious author of many titles, has incorporated into his works many different thoughts, life experiences, as well as themes. Those three things that he used in his works I believe are what made him the awesome author he is today. The main focus of this paper is to inform you of the themes that reoccur in many of his short stories. Some themes that I noticed were: family, frustration, dreams of escape, love infatuations, and finally, sin.

Family is a strong theme in Joyce's writings for in Araby, the young teen finds himself obeying his uncle and asking his permission to go to the festival showing his sense of respect and need for family. In Eveline the family theme can be seen when Eveline stays and takes over the role of head of the household as a teen when her mother dies, because she feels it is her duty and she owed it to her mother. The family theme that I identified can be interpreted many different ways from the context that it was written, but these two short stories were appropriate for this theme.

Frustration another prevailing theme in some of Joyce's work has also been outlined in Araby. Everyday the boy would suffer with an infatuation with a girl he could never have. He even

By examining two of author James Joyce's works Eveline and Araby, we can draw that both of these stories incorporate love tales. The first case is in Eveline involves a woman named Eveline who struggles to separate herself her family in order to follow her love into the arms of her young beau named Frank. The latter work Araby tells the story of a young teen who finds himself falling in love a beautiful woman who lives in his neighborhood, and tries to impress her by getting her something from the festival bearing the name of the story's title. Each work has elements such as setting, symbols, and themes, which are repeated in his writing that provides Joyce with a writing style that is his.

had to deal with his frustration of his self-serving uncle, which he and his aunt were afraid of. The absolute epitome of frustration comes from his uncle when he arrived late at home delaying the one chance of going to Araby. When the boy arrives at Araby to find out that all of the shops are closed his true frustration was reveled on the inside.

These are just some parallels, which one could draw between the many stories that James Joyce has written. One thing that always bothered readers of Joyce's works is that he relied so heavily on using his own experiences as foundations for his stories. Joyce was notorious for using common themes in his stories and leaving them for the reader to find and interpret, sometimes slipping them in when the reader doesn't even notice

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 997
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English