James Joyces Araby - Auditory Imagery in Araby :: Joyce Dubliners Araby Essays

Auditory Imagery in Araby I noticed a lot of auditory tomography in Araby that helped to promote the meaning of the story. The first is the description of the sound in the streets when the young adult male is walking by thinking of the girl he loves. He hears the curses of laborers, the squall litanies of shop boys, and nasal chantings of street singers. All of these images, besides just fashioning the street seem busy, also make it seem like an unpalatable and intruding painting, nearly like you would want to cover your ears and hurry by means of as fast as possible. This compliments perfectly the boys imagination that he is carrying his chalice safely through a throng of foes. In the scene where the boy is in the priests house late at night, the auditory imagery helps contri only whene to the sense of drama. There was no sound in the house, but outside boy heard the rain impinge upon the earth with hunky-dory incessant needles of water. The choice of words here makes the rain seem almost as if it is hostile. You can hear the force and fury of the storm, and this makes the emotions the boy is whole tone seem even more intense. Later, when the boy is looking out the window of the top story of his house, he looks stamp out and sees his friends playing in the street, and their cries communicate him weakened and indistinct. This image brings about an impression that the boy now feels upstage from his friends and their games, because he is caught up in his fantasy. Normally, he would probably be down there playing with them, but now his head is filled with a lot more pressing thoughts, and they drown out the laughter and fun of his friends and their youthful games. Finally, when the boy enters the bazaar, he recognizes a silence like that which pervades a church building after a church service.