A deconstructionist has many duties, and among them is to derive multiple meanings from a source as well as the destruction of previous criticisms of said source. This essay on deconstruction will take another look at James Joyce's short story "Araby", one of the fifteen Dubliners short stories, as well as an earlier critique and analysis of the same and will show that no singular interpretation is set in stone. This comparison and this double reading will highlight the structural defects that permeate the entire New Criticism school of thought and, by shedding light on the background of the story and on James Joyce himself, there may be a greater understanding of the work as a whole. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Before looking at the story and criticism, it's important to know what the story is about. "Araby" is a short story by Irish author James Joyce and is part of his short story collection Dubliners. It follows the story of a boy who lives in a heavily Catholic area and who develops a crush on his neighbor. He becomes increasingly infatuated with her, losing himself in fantasies about her while being too nervous to approach her. That is, until she talks to him about wanting to visit a bazaar known as "Araby" to buy something but can't. The narrator tells her that he will go there and buy her something. He is obsessed with this trip, forcing him to refuse his studies. He is frustrated that his family doesn't seem to want to take him to Arabia. His uncle forgets that he was supposed to take him to Arabia and returns home drunk. The boy eventually gets to Araby, but everything is closed and he is harassed by a cashier. He leaves bitter and empty-handed. “Araby” is a story full of an opposition between ideals or beings, both through the nature of the settings and the characters that populate them. The protagonist lives a rather banal and simple life in his strict Irish town. The narrator becomes disinterested in his surroundings and, as he observes that the houses on his street appear gloomy, he reflects on how "the space of the sky above... was the ever-changing color of purple." He likes the sky above, knowing that it is far out of his reach and separate from the dark, stale reality he faces. Even the lamps, despite being rooted in the plain, "raised their feeble lanterns" towards the sky in a vain attempt to escape into the great unknown. The beauty of the scene is enough to metaphorically give life to these inanimate objects. This theme of division returns in the form of the narrator's obsession with love. He does not indulge in any pleasure or fantasy until he comes into contact with Mangan's sister. Her “brown figure” sets her apart from everything he has encountered, and it is this fascination with the unknown that drives him. His love for her follows him through contrasting situations that, according to him, take place "in the places most hostile to romance". By this he means his previous life. He begins to talk about a time spent at a market he visited with his aunt every Saturday. What he once considered banal, he now perceives as so beautiful that he is moved to tears, while everyday noises and conflicts converge for him into “a single sensation of life”. Because of his infatuation, his endless longing for this person who represented the spice of life in an otherwise bleak world, he is now able to see the life around him. As shown in the reading above, there are different lenses to view it. story underneath, creating potentially infinitely different interpretations with different connotations. Now it's time to look at the critical essay written on “Araby”. This essay assumes that the story is meant to be a parable about rejecting religion frompart of a rebellious youth. In support of this thesis, claims are made such as the fact that the narrator lives in aThe room where a priest died reflects the way in which religion died in his family. Another way to interpret this scene is that the narrator, although isolated, has some sort of spiritual connection with his surroundings, exactly the opposite interpretation. Although he does not visit a priest, there is the presence of one in his home, which perhaps gives the boy guidance and morality expressed throughout the story. This criticism also reads his obsession with Mangan's sister as an idol and thus the deviation from the monolithic doctrine of his house. Although he appears to idolize here, this essay presented above that his swooning over Mangan's sister may be due to the simple fact that she is different from his surroundings, and her very presence makes him appreciate his worldly surroundings in ways that he would never have imagined before. Critics attribute Mangan's sister's association with light to making her a Christ-like figure, while she could also be seen as her illuminating the narrator's otherwise colorless life. Such interpretations are by no means “wrong,” but they are by no means the only determining interpretation. These assumptions presented in New Criticism highlight the flaws of this form of criticism. New Critics make general assumptions about a text and present it as factual. They do this by ignoring sometimes crucial background information regarding the story or the author. In “Araby” both come into play, and having a basic knowledge of these two sources allows you to make interpretations beyond the text while shedding new light on it. “Araby” is one of many short stories in James Joyce's collection of short stories entitled Dubliners. Dubliners was created to help Ireland achieve a sense of Irish identity and nationalism. Each tale typically centers on a middle-class Irish citizen and follows their individual adventures through isolation. The story's subjects start young and progressively age, showing Irish identity across multiple generations. Knowing this, a critic might enjoy "Araby" and how it works in relation to other Dubliners' works to form a cohesive whole that reflects the Irish way of life and thought. It would also explain why the protagonist of “Araby” has such a strong personal drive and desire to understand and appreciate his world. A new critic would completely ignore all of this, and while he might be able to formulate a solid singular interpretation of the solo tale, he would have no way of comparing or connecting it to any other part of Dubliners and would probably fail to do so. see the significance of the story as a crossroads of Ireland's culture and history. Speaking of history, it also helps to look at the life of James Joyce as a way to reach a fuller understanding of "Araby." The literary criticism discussed above reinforces an interpretation that paints religion, particularly Catholicism, in a seemingly negative light. Even though he broke away from the Irish National Catholic Church, saying that Joyce simply hated religion may not be all that true. Numerous accounts regarding Joyce state that, although he did not believe he had to submit to a system of thought as vast as Catholicism, he still retained the philosophy associated with it, and it would always be a crucial part of his thoughts and writings. The world-renowned essayist TS Eliot stated that Joyce's canon was "penetrated with Christian feeling" and between the lines of his works there is "a residue of Catholic faith and attitude." Some of Joyce's friends even accused him of crying "secret tears" during 1993