Essay, Research Paper

Two Short Narratives Of Awareness Beyond Oneself: & # 8221 ; Araby & # 8221 ; And & # 8220 ; A Sunrise On The Veld & # 8221 ; ” Araby & # 8221 ; by James Joyce and & # 8220 ; A Sunrise On The Veld & # 8221 ; by Doris Lessing are both short narratives in which theprotagonists gained a consciousness that was beyond themselves. The chief characters are both initiatedinto new worlds and truths of which they were non antecedently cognizant. Both short narratives will beexamined with contemplations harmonizing to the type of induction that was experienced, the nature of thenarrators, the similar and dissimilar facets of both characters and assorted constituents of the shortstories. In the two narratives, both characters were sing an induction or consciousness of newactualities that were outside of themselves. The chief characters both distressingly learned that thisinitiation was beyond their control. It was impossible for them to disregard the new worlds which theyboth came to understand. The new found consciousness was so powerful that it changed each male child s entireoutlook and they both began to see the universe through new eyes. The type of induction both charactershad was a straitening journey from artlessness to knowledge and see. The two storytellers had different attitudes and reactions to the induction experience. In Araby, the reader learns of the male child s induction in the concluding sentence: & # 8221 ; Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a animal driven and derided by amour propre ; andmy eyes burned with anguish and anger. & # 8221 ; 1The character had a negative reaction to his new consciousness. His realisation caused him to hold feelingsof shame, anguish and choler. He was possessed and controlled by his passion for Mangan s older sister. His ideals of the miss were non realistic but were ineffectual and vain. The miss drew out feelings in himand he discovered that feelings must be reciprocated and the downside that love can besides be painful. Hehad a hard clip accepting his ain failing. He was in hurt because he had stopped for a momentand gazed up into the darkness and realized that his old feelings were fantastic but the onlyreality existed in his feelings. It had no being beyond how he felt and the apprehension of thiswas painful for the character. The supporter of A Sunrise On The Veld was more accepting towards his experience ofinitiation than that of the character in Araby. The male child s attitude was stoical: & # 8221 ; & # 8230 ; this is how life goes one, by populating things deceasing in anguish. & # 8221 ; 2His feelings were of credence. In the beginning, the male child felt in control of himself in every manner, and came to experience incontrol of the universe in which he lived. This attitude changed wholly after his brush with thedying vaulting horse. He accepted the fact that there was nil he could make to assist and that some things werenot in his power and were beyond his ability to command. He came to an consciousness of his ain limitationsand accepted the inevitable. The character suffered nevertheless and felt choler, but besides he was satisfiedwith what he realized about the inhuman treatment of nature and life. There were several similarities and differences between the cardinal characters. The twoprotagonists were both male and were immature in age. Each was overcome and enthusiastic towards theirfeelings of delectation and became cognizant of the negative side to joy. The male childs were inventive and romanticabout their single passions. They were both prompted by something or person outside of themselves. The characters held an grasp for beauty. The type of beauty the male childs appreciated differed. Thecharacter in Araby felt emotional about a human being and the male child in A Sunrise On The Veld felt a lovefor nature. Both characters experienced an restlessness and avidity towards their compulsions. The male child inAraby could non wait to see the bazar as the male child in A Sunrise On The Veld was eager to wake up and gointo the huge Fieldss of nature. One character was overcome by the forenoon, the nature and wasexhilarated to be a portion of it all. Similarly, the male child in Araby had the! same feeling, nevertheless he was falling in love with a miss. One had a connexion with nature and the otherfelt a connexion with a individual. They felt a unity with the object of their love. They tried to breakdown the boundaries of their isolation. Both passions brought them out of their loneliness and solitariness. A difference in characters was that the male child in Araby was inactive, inactive and reflectiveabout his passion. The focal point was on himself and how he felt about his friend s sister. He was anintrovert while the character in the 2nd narrative was an extravert being active and involved in his lovefor nature ; he was more cognizant of what he was making. In add-on, the male child s pride in Araby took over his

& lt ;< p>feelings for the girl which were destructive and almost destroyed him. The girl had a ruinous influenceon him as she occupied his mind taking him away from his sleep and school work. She haunted his mindwhen he was not around her. In A Sunrise On The Veld, the character had a purposeful obsession. Onethat taught him valuable lessons about life, for example, that nature can be hostile and not to take itfor granted. There was a difference in what the boys learned from their experiences. The boy in Arabylearned something about himself. He learned that his love for the girl was one-sided, unreal and itsonly basis was in his feelings. It was not a mutual feeling and therefore may have destroyed what hefelt for her. However the boy s joy for nature in A Sunrise On The Veld probably did not go away evenafter witnessing the buck being devoured by ants. He learned about death and that existence is finite. There is a difference also, in the sources of the characters pain. One felt and empathized with abuck s suffering and the other boy felt his own pain from within himself. One exceptional similaritybetween both characters was that they both felt pain deeply and both suffered. Both authors incorporated techniques for developing the general idea of the short storiesthrough the settings and images. The setting in Araby was in Dublin, in a conventional, quietneighborhood. The boy lived in a prison-like house. The air was musty and nothing was taken care of. The gardens were growing wild, the books in his house were in a state of ruin and a priest, the formertenant of the house, had died in one of the rooms. The atmosphere was dark, dismal and depressing. Thecharacter lived in a run down district where street gangs existed. It was the winter season and streetlamps were weak which gave additional images of darkness. These examples suggested images of decay,death and imprisonment. There was an opposing image that existed in the form of the boy s friend s oldersister and the bazaar in Araby. This gave images of escape and hope as well as opposing images of Dublinand Araby, darkness opposing light. Araby, written in the third person, had tones in which were illusory and subjective. Thecharacter is dealing with his feelings and with the relationship that exists there and is mostlyimaginary. The setting and images of this story offered a mood that was bleak. The boy s mood and theexternal surroundings were in sympathy with each other. For example, at the end of the day when thestalls were closing down and there was not enough time, this provided an external mood that was inharmony with his inward mood. The setting of A Sunrise On The Veld took place in an open, grassy areas or as the titleindicates, in an actual veld. The season is winter in this story, early morning, approximately two hoursbefore sunrise. The air smelled new and fresh, it was the beginning of a new day. There weredescriptions of nature, for example: the wall of trees; the grass was described as tall; and therewas a river around him. The narrator described the beauty and variety of nature. The character had dogsrunning along with him, and so the atmosphere suggested life and energy. The story, written in the first person, had a tone of objectiveness. The objects werereal, in front of him, and existed outside of his mind. There were several notable images. In oneimage, the description of his home compared to the vastness of the veld, his home was described as lowand small under a brilliant sky. This projected man s insignificance compared to the vastness of nature. At one point after he leaped in the air over rocks and shouted as he ran, he stopped for a moment andreflected that he could have broken his ankle at any moment. His enjoyment could be disturbed assuddenly as had happened for the buck. He learned that his joy was precarious and fragile and could betaken away at any given time. He described bitter odors after encountering the dying animal, and theatmosphere became depressing. There was suffering, sickness and anger. There was a sense of theshortness of time and the character realized that he too was mortal. He got a fore ta!ste of his own death and the idea that he too will die one day.There was a contrast between the beauty of the surroundings and the newness of the earlymorning and the death of the buck; it stood out in contrast. In the short stories, through all components, confrontations and experiences bothcharacters were brought out of themselves for a brief period and then forever saw the world in adifferent and more realistic way. They became more aware of the collective nature of existence, and ofhow their own lives were affected by outside influences, beyond their control.