Wo Short Stories Of Awareness Beyond Oneself

Essay, Research Paper

Two Short Stories Of Awareness Beyond Oneself:”Araby” And “A Sunrise On The Veld”"Araby” by James Joyce and “A Sunrise On The Veld” by Doris Lessing are both short stories in which theprotagonists gained a consciousness that was beyond themselves. The main characters are both initiatedinto new realities and truths of which they were not previously aware. Both short stories will beexamined with reflections according to the type of initiation that was experienced, the nature of thenarrators, the similar and dissimilar aspects of both characters and various components of the shortstories. In the two stories, both characters were experiencing an initiation or awareness of newactualities that were outside of themselves. The main characters both painfully learned that thisinitiation was beyond their control. It was impossible for them to ignore the new realities which theyboth came to understand. The new found awareness was so powerful that it changed each boy s entireoutlook and they both began to see the world through new eyes. The type of initiation both charactershad was a distressing journey from innocence to knowledge and experience. The two narrators had different attitudes and reactions to the initiation experience. In Araby, the reader learns of the boy s initiation in the final sentence:”Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; andmy eyes burned with anguish and anger.”1The character had a negative reaction to his new awareness. His realization caused him to have feelingsof shame, anguish and anger. He was possessed and controlled by his passion for Mangan s older sister. His ideals of the girl were not realistic but were futile and vain. The girl drew out feelings in himand he discovered that feelings must be reciprocated and the downside that love can also be painful. Hehad a difficult time accepting his own weakness. He was in distress because he had stopped for a momentand gazed up into the darkness and realized that his previous feelings were wonderful but the onlyreality existed in his feelings. It had no existence beyond how he felt and the understanding of thiswas painful for the character. The protagonist of A Sunrise On The Veld was more accepting towards his experience ofinitiation than that of the character in Araby. The boy s attitude was stoical:”…this is how life goes one, by living things dying in anguish.”2His feelings were of acceptance. In the beginning, the boy felt in control of himself in every way, and came to feel incontrol of the world in which he lived. This attitude changed completely after his encounter with thedying buck. He accepted the fact that there was nothing he could do to help and that some things werenot in his power and were beyond his ability to control. He came to an awareness of his own limitationsand accepted the inevitable. The character suffered however and felt anger, but also he was satisfiedwith what he realized about the cruelty of nature and life. There were several similarities and differences between the central characters. The twoprotagonists were both male and were young in age. Each was overcome and enthusiastic towards theirfeelings of delight and became aware of the negative side to joy. The boys were imaginative and romanticabout their individual passions. They were both prompted by something or someone outside of themselves. The characters held an appreciation for beauty. The type of beauty the boys appreciated differed. Thecharacter in Araby felt emotional about a human being and the boy in A Sunrise On The Veld felt a lovefor nature. Both characters experienced an impatience and eagerness towards their obsessions. The boy inAraby could not wait to visit the bazaar as the boy in A Sunrise On The Veld was eager to wake up and gointo the vast fields of nature. One character was overcome by the morning, the nature and wasexhilarated to be a part of it all. Similarly, the boy in Araby had the !same feeling, however he was falling in love with a girl. One had a connection with nature and the otherfelt a connection with a person. They felt a oneness with the object of their love. They tried to breakdown the boundaries of their isolation. Both passions brought them out of their aloneness and loneliness. A difference in characters was that the boy in Araby was passive, inactive and reflectiveabout his passion. The focus was on himself and how he felt about his friend s sister. He was anintrovert while the character in the second story was an extrovert being active and involved in his lovefor nature; he was more aware of what he was doing. In addition, the boy s pride in Araby took over his

feelings for the girl which were destructive and almost destroyed him. The girl had a ruinous influenceon him as she occupied his mind taking him away from his sleep and school work. She haunted his mindwhen he was not around her. In A Sunrise On The Veld, the character had a purposeful obsession. Onethat taught him valuable lessons about life, for example, that nature can be hostile and not to take itfor granted. There was a difference in what the boys learned from their experiences. The boy in Arabylearned something about himself. He learned that his love for the girl was one-sided, unreal and itsonly basis was in his feelings. It was not a mutual feeling and therefore may have destroyed what hefelt for her. However the boy s joy for nature in A Sunrise On The V