Building on your answer to the first prompt at the end of the story, please offer a brief response to the following. Does the language ring true for a young boy or is it more the language of an adult reflecting on a childhood experience?
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I beleive that the language is the language of a young boy. The way that he words things makes it sound very formal. However his sentence structure can be informal at times. There are times where the diction seems both formal and informal. I think that this is the language of a young boy because it shows that the author is trying to speak elequently. However, since he is still young there are times where it does not come off as that.
I agree with savannah,In "Araby" I believe the language used is that of a young boy. The informality of the language is apparent during the story at many times. The young boy describes the things around him in such an informal way that it makes me think of him being that young boy and not reflecting on the past, but actually being there
Joyce's word choice does not seem like that of a child's to me. Children are rarely observant of things such as, "The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown, imperturbable faces." Also, I do not think a child would recognize his own silliness, as the narrator does when he says, "...her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood." The narrator seems very observant and mature, which are qualities that I do not often associate with youth. Overall I feel that the narrator of Araby is a man reflecting on his childhood love interest.
I also think that the narrator is a man, or at least teenager, reflecting on his childhood. The language Joyce uses is too advance for a child to use properly. The narrator also recalls the facts of his childhood with acurecy, as though he had lived these events recently. This is what leads me to believe that the narrator is a teen.
I believe that it is the language of a young boy. For example; they way he describes the "bazaar" is both formal and informal as Savannah quoted. However, within the literal texts, in sequences of the story the language was be or seem as a cross between a young adult and a boy. Through description & conversation amongst the characters.
I dont think that its the language of a child. I feel like some of the things in the story that the narrator discribes and they way that they are discribed is way beyond that of a child. What child would discribe playing as "the career of our play"? Not any child I know.
I think that the language is from an adult. Young boys simply do not have that kind of vocabulary. This story is full of figures of speech in almost every other sentence so there must have been a great amount of thought put into creating each sentence. The young boy would have to have been extremely intelligent for his age in order to come up with such language. But from his foolish infatuation and impulsive actions, he obviously does not have that kind of intelligence.
Joyce's language is that of an adult reflecting their childhood. I don't know the last time I heard a kid go into isolation and murmur "O love, O love!" When is the last time that a kid realized how naive and young they were? "her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood."
In my opinion i think that this story is a boy that is about 13 or 14 trying to sound grown up while telling a story about what happened to him just a few years before. It is informally formal if that makes any sense. He wants to eloquence and the wisdom of an adult but still has the innocence of a child. The way this story was written reminds me of my little brother, 12 years old, and how he tries to talk about remembering things from when he was just a baby or before he was born; things I don't remember. He wants so badly to fit in and participate intelligently in the conversation so he does his best to do so. That is what this boy seems to be doing.
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I would have to say that the word choice of this character is a bit complex for a teenage boy. I would agree that this would be a older man, reminiscing about his childhood and the disappointment throughout that event.
Overall it was an interesting story but If you gave this assignment to a bunch of 13 year old boys, they may feel disinteresed?
I would definitely agree with many of the responses that the narrator is definitely older, reexamining the past. Almost like an outsider. You would think that with the great detail the narrator goes with makes it seem as if they were there standing watching. "...looking down at the grandmother who half sat and half lay in a puddle of blood with her legs crossed under her like a child's..."(p.364). I believe that the narrator is also very graphic in their description of things, making it seem as if they were one of the kids, and the scenes of what was happening around them were disturbing.
To me, the language used in the story is more of an adult reflecting on his childhood experience. The language seems to be too formal for a child, but at the same time, the story was written in 1914 and in those times people spoke a little bit differently then we do today. An example of the formal diction used in the story is when the boy says, "What innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening!" I have never known a child with a vocabulary like that.
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