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Jose Alvaro Alegria Miralles
English 100-006
Instructor: Sherry L. Klein
Assignment #3
Due March 30, 2015
Topic 1
The Speaker In Alfred Tennyson’s “Ulysses” Would Be A Good Role Model For The Boy In
James Joyce’s “Araby”
Araby’s short story from James Joyce’s “Dubliners” collection has a boy as its narrator and
main character. Throughout the text he narrates his unsuccessful and surreal love story with
his neighbor’s sister. He struggles to approach her due to indecision and fear. The boy in
“Araby” lacks the determination and ambition shown by the speaker in Alfred Lord
Tennyson’s poem “Ulysses”. Tennyson’s speaker Ulysses says he’s willing to overtake any
obstacle that gets in his way of achieving his desires to exploring the world. I believe the
speaker in Ulysses would be a good role model for the boy in “Araby”. The boy in “Araby”
could learn from Ulysses’ perseverance and determination. Tennyson’s speaker is willing
to die doing what he most enjoys in life, so long as he lives life to its fullest leaving no
regrets.
Ulysses demonstrates he would be a good role model for the boy in “Araby”
by his character, ambition and determination, which the boy in “Araby” lacks. The lack of
determination from the boy in the short story “Araby” is represented through his fear
and insecurity. We see this with his difficulty to confess his love for Mangan’s sister, who
is his greatest desire. After all, he said “I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual
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words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood” (Joyce 91). His lack
of courage is shown when the boy says “the blind was pulled down to within an inch of
the sash so that he could not be seen” (Joyce 90). This shows the boy’s inexperience and
fear of love. Such inexperience is also reflected in the passage when he boy says “I did
not know whether I would ever speak to her or not or, if I spoke to her, how I could tell
her of my confused adoration” (Joyce 91). Even though he was infatuated with Mangan’s
sister he was not sure he would be able to talk to her if he actually did so. We can see this
fear coming out by the way he says, “at last she spoke to me. When she addressed the
first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer “ (Joyce 91).
The boy in Araby’s counterpart, Ulysses says he is completely committed and
determined to pursuing his desire of navigating the world at all costs. Even though
Ulysses is well travelled it’s not enough for him. Ulysses is compelled to continue
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