Araby (James Joyce)

-

Title: <Araby>

Author: James Joyce 

Rating: 7.5 / 10


By implying that the Catholic religion made the boy confuse about his feeling, the author criticized Catholic in the story. However, even if the boy didn't get influence from Catholic, he would probably still had confusion about his feeling of love towards Mangan's sister. Kid's definition of love and adult's definition of love is different, and adolescent is in the middle of kid and adult. Thus, it is not a strange thing to have confusion about oneself's feeling when someone is in first love, especially in puberty. So, it can be true that paralysis of strict Catholic added the boy's confusion, but we cannot blame that it's Catholic's 'fault'. 

Also, before epiphany, it is written that "we played till our bodies glowed", and after epiphany, it is written that "gazing up into the darkness". When we compare these two sentences, we can see that the author portrayed the innocence of childhood as a positive thing like 'glow', and becoming grownup as negative thing like 'darkness'. However, by growing up, we might loose the innocence of childhood, but we can get wisdom, which will be the great power throughout our life. We cannot only depict growing up as a negative thing. (200 words)

댓글

댓글 쓰기

이 블로그의 인기 게시물

Gooseberries (Anton Chekhov)

-
 Title: <Gooseberries> Author: Anton Chekhov Rating: 8.5 / 10 I think Ivan had his own strong belief about happiness. He criticizes Nikolay for only thinking about his own happiness. We can know this when Ivan says, "A higher standard of living, overeating and idleness develop the most insolent self-conceit" while thinking about Nikolay, who became rich. He also says that there should be someone who continually reminds a happy man that there are unhappy people. It shows that Ivan thinks someone should work for the world, not for himself. He thinks being happy alone is a sin. I partially agree with Ivan. Nikolay spent his whole life only for one goal, and he was too stingy. He even treated his wife very badly because of the money. Moreover, he became very arrogant after becoming a landowner. His selfish happiness can be blamed. However, I mostly disagree with Ivan because his opinion about happiness is too critical. Working for themselves' happiness is not a bad thin...
Read more »

The Student (Anton Chekhov)

-
  Title: The Student Author: Anton Chekhov Rating: 6 / 10  Since <The Student> is a realist novel, it contains a story that would actually happen. This made me follow the storyline easily.  However, it was too difficult to understand what the author wanted to say in the book. I read this book 10 times, and also read lots of book reveiws and analyses to understand it. I understood that it means human's feelings, mistakes, and lots of other events repeat through history, but I really couldn't understand why Ivan became optimistic in the end, and what does it mean.  It was interesting to read considering "hero's journey" though. The depiction of miserable reality in the beginning is 'ordinary world', and when Ivan sees widows is 'call to adventure'. His mentor is probably Jesus, and talking with widows is 'special world'. Vasilisa's tear is 'reward', and when Ivan thinks by alone in the end is back to the 'ordinary world...
Read more »

Eveline (James Joyce)

-
Title: <Eveline> Author: James Joyce  Rating: 7 / 10 The story shows the miserable life of Irish woman. Even though the author was a man, he well depicted the difficulty of living in Ireland as a woman, and the woman's view on Irish society at the time. I think Eveline's choice was a good decision. Even though she is having hard time in Ireland, it will be hard to settle in a totally new place, too. She has no acquaintance in Buenos Ayres except Frank. Also, Frank is a kind guy to her now, but Frank may turn mean after arriving at Buenos Ayres, just like her father have changed after her mother's death. However, I didn't feel that Eveline's choice was really self-directed. She was paralyzed like a helpless animal at the crossroad even though it was her hope to escape from home. The reason of her choice is not clearly shown in the story, but if her choice was entirely self-directed, she would not be paralyzed. She would have been confident instead. Her choice ...
Read more »