This essay examines the parallel theme of internal conflict in James Joyce's "Araby" and William Faulkner's "Barn Burning." Both stories center on young male protagonists whose idealized inner worlds clash with the harsh realities of their external circumstances. In "Araby," the unnamed narrator conflates romantic fantasy with reality, only to experience a sharp epiphany of disillusionment at the bazaar. In "Barn Burning," Sarty Snopes struggles between his deeply held sense of justice and his blood loyalty to a morally compromised father. The essay argues that both characters undergo an analogous initiation into adulthood, losing their childhood illusions through direct confrontation with a world that refuses to conform to their inner visions.
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The key theme running throughout both James Joyce's "Araby" and William Faulkner's "Barn Burning" is the conflict between the protagonists' inner conceptions of what the external world should be like and the actual reality of their respective circumstances. For the narrator in "Araby," the conflict lies between the seemingly vivid and intense world of his daydreaming and the drab, mundane aspects of his everyday life. Mangan's sister and the bazaar both represent the romantic visions he entertains within the context of his otherwise unromantic existence. For Sarty, his conflict stems from his notions of justice and morality, and the way these ideals contrast with the physical events surrounding his life — most prominently his familial ties to his father. In both stories, the main characters progress toward manhood by coming into close contact with the very real consequences of their somewhat naive understandings of how the world operates. Both short stories thus follow a similar pattern, though they do so through different characters, ideals, and settings.
In "Araby," the narrator becomes increasingly consumed by idealistic and romantic thoughts of Mangan's sister as the story progresses. There is a tumultuous mingling of the realities in the narrator's life and the imaginary, exotic dreams that come to dominate his thoughts. This dangerous combination centers upon Mangan's sister; she represents both the exciting and the mundane. This is fundamentally because, although she is part of the ordinary atmosphere of northern Dublin, she remains something strange and somehow unattainable for the main character.
He finds himself daily waiting by his window to catch a glimpse of Mangan's sister so that his daydreaming can become more vivid and intense. However, when he actually comes into contact with her and tells her he will attend the bazaar on her behalf, the narrator initially interprets this as the near realization of his internal fantasies. Joyce writes: "I could not call my wandering thoughts together. I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child's play, ugly monotonous child's play" (Joyce 188). This is a significant passage because it represents the point in the story at which the narrator is most severely confusing his idealistic dreams with reality. Joyce characterizes the essential daily obligations of the boy as seeming like children's games; through his obsession with the romantic life that Mangan's sister represents, the necessary actions of everyday life in northern Dublin seem like things of the past. His prior concerns for school have vanished, replaced entirely by visions of what "real" life would be like with Mangan's sister. This vision of the future, and what the bazaar might offer toward it, seem real and adult to the boy.
Yet, just as fantasy seems about to win out over reality, the narrator's desire to attend the bazaar — which he believes will somehow provide him with a gift that will express his feelings for Mangan's sister — is gradually impinged upon by the events of his everyday life. His uncle is late to arrive with his train fare, giving the narrator time to contemplate just how realistic his hopes may be. Joyce writes: "I had to endure the gossip of the tea-table. The meal was prolonged beyond an hour and still my uncle did not come.... I began to walk up and down the room, clenching my fists" (Joyce 189). At this point the narrator is confronted with the possibility that his daydreams may be unrealistic based solely upon his environment and surrounding circumstances.
Once he actually attends the bazaar, this feeling becomes more acute, and the narrator reaches an epiphany of realization. When he discovers that the bazaar holds nothing that remotely resembles his inner fantasies, he recognizes the foolishness of his romanticized feelings and conception of the world: "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity: and my eyes burned with anguish and anger" (Joyce 191). In short, he found that his daydreams were childish and that the humdrum monotony of life in northern Dublin was real and adult.
Sarty Snopes, on the other hand, is conflicted between what he believes to be right internally and the pressures his external reality exerts upon that belief. He steps into manhood in a manner similar to the narrator in "Araby," but instead of being consumed by romantic visions of love, Sarty is convinced of the existence of justice and of right and wrong. In many other settings, this belief would create no conflict; however, Sarty's father is a nefarious character who resents those who possess more than him, takes affront easily, and retaliates in petty as well as criminal ways. Yet Sarty is bound by blood to his father — something Abner reminds him of on a number of occasions. Abner calls this "the old fierce pull of the blood" (Faulkner). This pull leaves Sarty conflicted throughout the majority of the story, causing him at times to sympathize with his father and at other times to act to stymie his actions.
"Sarty's choices lead to his father's death"
Each of these stories tells the tale of a young boy being introduced to adulthood by having his innermost conceptions of truth come into conflict with the very real circumstances of his life. Sarty comes to realize that although truth and justice may be valuable ideals, they are not the only principles that matter in the real world. Similarly, the narrator of "Araby" comes to realize that a life of dull and ceaseless responsibility is more of a reality than a life of exotic love and excitement. Although the specific lessons each boy learns are undeniably different, both have their childhood illusions stripped from them in analogous ways — by coming into contact with an external world that refuses to conform to the world they had imagined as children.
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