Reference no: EM132197540

Question: Sharkey, R. (2007). "Araby": A Universal Story? Eureka Studies in Teaching Short Fiction, 7(2), 67-74.

In this article, written by Sharkey, he tells of the story of Araby as if he could imagine that the boy, James Joyce was still alive and at the school running late for class as usual. In his mind, as he was speaking about the story Araby, there was a student in the class room listening as the professor kept going on about what the story of James Joyce and why was not he present at school by now. The professor gave the student a book and by his surprise, Joyce was the author. What is so shocking for the student, he realized that James Joyce was a student at the college he was attending. The professor is letting his students know that this short story should be that of a Universal Story because it belongs to all of us and not limited to just his country but throughout the world because the story discuss the different types of feelings going on such as love, relationship, friendship, and betrayal.

Sharkey's article speaks of the protagonist in Ireland and how he fled the country and his beliefs. He was to young to understand what love was just like the boy in the story who was betrayed by his friend's sister. His love for the girl was so real that he knew he would do anything for her. He wanted to get her a present and before that, the young boy, whenever the girl came around him, he would get nervous and could not speak. Sharkey is also sharing his feeling of past experiences with a girl similar to the story Araby. This experience of going from childhood to adulthood was confusing but a good feeling because of love. No matter where you are whether in church, at a college or in your hometown, the writer says, 'Although we are in a bazaar at the end, Victorian slum Dublin is inescapable and romance and love can offer escape from a city controlled by priests and colonizers. Sex and religion clashes and it almost destroys both the writer and the boy in the story of Araby.