James Joyce stories “Araby” and “Eveline”

Stream of consciousness greatly affects the way an author can present his story to his readers. The way that they can shift from topic to topic is incredible because it makes the story flow a lot smoother. This style of writing is very hard to conquer but James Joyce holds the undisputed title. Due to the brilliance of James Joyce, the use of stream of consciousness in Dubliners has a great affect on his story.

From the two passages that were required to read, Joyce brings about similarities between his works. In “Araby” and “Eveline” his characters both had to overcome a struggle in their paths. In “Araby”, the boy was scared to talk with this one girl that he absolutely adored. He had overcome his fear and one day had spoken with her. She had asked him about going to the Bazaar and he became interested and told her if he had taken the trip, he would return with something for her. Once he had made the magical trip, he had seen the Bazaar and was dazzled. By the time he had gotten there to buy anything, they were closing. Before we knew it, the Bazaar had closed and he wasn’t able to purchase anything which made him sad. This comes to show that the things we desire the most we sometimes don’t get.

In “Eveline”, the young lady Eveline had been the daughter of a father who had favored his two sons over her. Her mother had died and she had promised her mother to keep the house together as long as possible. She had been struggling to survive and to keep the house together because of the hard work and dedication needed. She needed to keep food on the table and also make sure that the two little kids had regularly attended classes and ate. She decided that her life deserved to be better. She had met a man who was going to take her back to Buenos Aires with him where he had a house ready for her. Once the time had come for her to move, she had backed out of the situation. She had thought about the things that would go wrong instead of right and didn’t make the voyage. This comes to show that things that seem right in the beginning aren’t for you in the end.

Joyce’s use of stream of consciousness is greatly used in these two sections. In both sections of the story, each begins with a pleasant atmosphere that then turns into struggle. The story then goes into the hardships of the characters and how they strive to accomplish the obstacles in their way. Finally, when it seems that they are in the clear, something comes out of the blue and the stories end in sadness or sorrow. The things that they had worked so hard to get would now be diminished which made the character would feel worse.

His topics had intertwined with the use of struggle inside the character. With this struggle came chaos in their minds. They were left in the middle of a bridge trying to figure out what side that fitted their needs at the time. At one point in time, each was their choice but when it came to the end of time, their minds went back into frenzy. Each story to me had the same theme which shows the excellent work of stream of consciousness in his work. The theme that most appealed to me was that “There is no success without hardship” by Sophecles. Unless the character went through struggle and hardship, they wouldn’t have the opportunity to feel what success actually was. Each character could have been satisfied if the boy had gone to the Bazaar earlier or Eveline had went with Frank to Buenos Aires, but we don’t find out because the use of mystery and leaving the reader at the edge of their seat dying to know what comes next, so we read more.

In conclusion, James Joyce provides an excellent way of stream of consciousness. He has his stories flow from topic to topic but uses the same theme for his works. This gives the stories a greater appreciation because it shows all of the struggle in life can lead to success. “Life is not easy, it calls for Spartan endurance.” – Tennessee Williams