ENGL 364 Dr. Helen Bittel "Araby" Study Guide Instructions: Complete any 4 of the following 8 question clusters. Please note that these questions were designed to accommodate a diverse group with different types and levels of prior experience. Use your best judgment to choose the clusters that seem most likely to enhance your understanding of the text and to best address your own interests. FYI, the "smaller" questions within each cluster are intended as prompts or suggestions and not as a definitive outline. You are not expected to answer each systematically (or to cover as much ground as the prompts themselves), but only to provide substantive and well-supported responses to the stories, responses that goes beyond "what" (i.e. plot, setting, characters) and into "why it matters." 1. Narrator. How would you describe the narrator of this story? What are the most important things that we learn about him, both directly (through actions, descriptions, and assertions) and indirectly (through language choices, style, assumptions, implied attitudes)? How reliable does the narrator appear to be, and why do you think this? Does the narrator reveal any blindnesses or biases? 2. Situation/Action. What is the story "about"? Is it "about" different things on different levels? Is there a level of meaning beyond the surface "plot"? 3. Epiphany. Like all of the stories in Joyce's Dubliners, "Araby" ends with a moment of epiphany, or profound realization, on the part of the narrator/protagonist. What is it? What "lesson" does the narrator learn? 4. Beginnings. Look closely at the first paragraph or two. What can we infer about the story based on the opening lines? What themes, questions, or thematic concerns are introduced? What kind of mood is established? What images or motifs are introduced? What can you expect or predict about the story before you read any further? 5. Titles. Why do you think the author chose the title "Araby" for this story? How might it be significant on more that one level? This story was published as part of a collection titled Dubliners, a controversial volume that offered a "moral history" of that community. What might Joyce be suggesting about Dubliners (in general) through this story of a single individual? 6. Setting. How do elements of setting complement the thematic concerns of the story? What elements appear to be symbolic and how so? 7. Implications for readers today. Is there anything in the story that you think might speak especially powerfully to people in our own time and culture? What and why? Do you think that it speaks to today's readers for similar reasons and in similar ways, or in different ones? How so? Is there anything in the story that---due to differences in cultural context---might be especially difficult for contemporary readers to appreciate or sympathize with? What and why? Potpourri 8. Is there any else that you think might be important in understanding how the story works that we have not covered above? What and why? Contact the English Department at: 570-348-6219. E-mail: English@marywood.edu.

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Last update August 19, 2004
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