侯恩蕊

【摘要】喬伊斯的短篇小說《阿拉比》以精湛的語言與情節(jié)揭示主人公的追夢之旅，以及在幻想與現(xiàn)實差距下他夢想的破滅。本文將以主人公面臨的幻想與現(xiàn)實差距為基礎來分析它的敘事策略，從而更加深刻地揭示人物形象特點以及小說主題。

【關鍵詞】喬伊斯；《阿拉比》；敘事策略

1. Introduction

In 1914 James Joyce published his first book Dubliners which was composed of fifteen stories. The fifteen stories mainly talked about childhood experience， emotions of the teenagers and adults， social life， etc. James Joyce insisted that he was writing a moral history about Dublin， Ireland. In a sense， Joyce was a realist， but his works often adopted concise and vivid language to show the modernism color. Besides， his works were full of Dubliners dialect. The first person and the third person always cooperated well in his works， which added interest to analysis of the real meaning behind the language. Joyce stated that the style of Dubliners was humiliated， but in fact this kind of style reflected his high narrative skills. He did well in hiding the implied meaning behind the narrative skills， especially in the Araby. In the short novel Araby there were no complicated sentences， but the novel vividly depicted how the protagonist behaved for his unrequited love and was finally defeated by the dark reality. So it meant the deep meaning was hidden in the simple words and plot. The paper would discuss its， narrative perspectives， discourse expression and narrative structure to highlight its theme. This paper was basically divided into three parts as follows.

2. Part One Narrative Perspective

Narrative perspective was one of the important concepts in the narrative theory. It referred to the perspective of observing the story and the point of view and consciousness that the narrator borrowed to have a perceptual practice. （Shen Dan， 208） Based on Professor Shen Dans narrative strategy， the novel Araby adopted the first-person retrospective narrative. Through the memory of the protagonist， the short novel narrated his first experience of love to reveal the process of his growth. With the first-person retrospective narrative， in Araby there were two different narrative points of view. One of the narrative points of view was the narrator “I” remembering the memory， the other was that the remembered “I” was experiencing the events in the past. The two perspectives reflected that “I” presented different views in different periods.

Firstly， in the beginning of the novel， the narrative perspective was vague.

“An uninhabited house…in a square ground. The other houses of the street…， gazed at another with brown imperturbable faces.” （James， 23）

This paragraph was the background of the story and just an environmental description. “Blind”， “gazed”， “imperturbable” these words created a cold and bleak atmosphere. Besides， the protagonist had not appeared， so its narrative perspective could not be sure. But the narrator must be the protagonist “I”. If the narrative perspective focused on the eyes of the narrator， this description would be the scene that the narrator was remembering his childhood with a tone of comment. If it focused on the eyes of the remembered “I”， this description would be about the protagonists feelings for his familiar surroundings to express his loneliness.

Secondly， in other paragraphs some narrative perspectives were also vague. Sometimes the narrative self—— “I” was reminiscing about the past， while sometimes the experience self——“I” was experiencing events.

“Those noises converged in a single sensation of life for me：…” （James， 25）

Kennan once commented the sentence here might be the narrators voice， but its focalization could be the narrator or the remembered “I”——experience self. （Shen Dan， 253） Provided that the focalization was experience self， this sentence emphasized the protagonists imagination of being a hero in the religious rites.Narrative self and experience self respectively indicated that Catholic did harm to the growth of child from two different points of view. In addition， with the help of selection of certain words， the author skillfully transformed the two narrative perspectives.

“I had never spoken to her，…and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.”（James， 24） This evaluative adjectives “foolish” reflected the focalization here was the narrative self rather than experience self. It was known that the protagonists growth was the mainline of plot， so it was necessary to present his different perspectives in different periods. The narrative perspective here explained the narrator felt childish and stupid for his behaviors. It stood for a kind of contrast between mature and immature. It was also the function of the first-person retrospective narrative.

Lastly， at the end of the story， its narrative perspective was still uncertain. “Gazing up…by vanity， and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.”（James， 30） If the perspective here was experience self， the sentence aimed to highlight the protagonists epiphany at that time. And this epiphany produced at the moment when he realized his childish behaviors. If the perspective was narrative self， the sentence aimed to express the narrators epiphany for his own childhood performance. This kind of vague perspective hided profound meaning behind the simple sentence， and deepened the theme and stimulated readers to excavate.

Narrative self and experience self overlapped or separated now and then， which made the protagonists new recognition more profound. In other words， Joyce skillfully presented the protagonists feeling whether in childhood or adult. Readers could understand his frustration and hopeless when he was a child， as well as his ironic feeling for himself when he was an adult.

3. Part Two Discourse Expression

Different forms of discourse expression could cause different effects. According to British stylist， the discourse expression could be divided into indirect speech， free indirect speech and direct speech， free direct speech， etc. Here it mainly talked about the use of indirect speech and direct speech in the novel Araby. Direct speech directly and vitality produced a sound effect. While the indirect speech paraphrased discourse by quoting verbs with clauses to specify content. Indirect speech had the narrators intervention and widened the narrative distance. Combining direct speech and indirect speech could form a kind of contrast between light and shade. In Araby Joyce made a good use of the contrast to emphasize sound effects of direct speech.

“She asked me was I going to Araby. I forgot whether I answer yes or no…she said she would love to go…”（James， 29） In these sections， the author presented the girls words with indirect speech and the boys words with direct speech. Direct and indirect speech shaped a contrast between light and shade.“She” was the object of the protagonists hided love， so this conversation here mainly aimed to depict the boys psychological. The girls thoughts and words need be put in the shade to highlight the reaction of the boy. Although her last word，“Its well for you” was a direct speech， its function was to bring the boy to the reality.

“At the door…talking and laughing with two young gentlemen. I remarked their English accent …their conversation…” （James， 29）This conversation was presented by directed speech， which made readers guess the true speaker. Both of the two conversations had a speaker “she”， but the two “she” did not refer to the same character. In truth， the second conversation could be regarded as another conversation between “I” and “sister”， which implied the boys psychological conflicts. “Remembering with difficulty why I had come here…” showed that the protagonist began to hesitate about his decision. In the first conversation “sisters” words were used in indirect speech that caused a question whether “she” asked some gifts. “Didnt she never say that？” just matched the boy asked himself in his heart. “I never said such a thing.” “there is a…fib.” the two sentences strengthened the ironic meaning of the protagonists behaviors.

In this way the author carefully and skillfully arranged the two conversations to hide their potential coherence and logic. It was the combination between direct speech and indirect speech that contrasted sharply the protagonists good imagination with cold reality. The first conversation presented how the protagonist， who was driven by love and vanity， behaved and thought carefully； the second one presented how the protagonist was embarrassed and angry about his childish and dark reality. So they both were aimed at contrasting the imagination and reality.

4. Part Three Narrative Structure

“One of the most important characters of narrative was to rule out some concepts of ‘literature which were related to social history and the authors intention. Instead narrative research mainly tried to narrow down its research range to text.” （Li Naigang， 91） That meant the main content of narrative research concerned more on the structure of text than what the text had said. Under the guidance of this principle， narrative attempted to carry on objective description of structure to reveal its internal general regularity. The object of its research was not specific narrative works but their abstract narrative structure.

According to Gallup， if the events were put together in chronological order or causal relationship， the structure belonged to linear mode. In Araby the events were arranged in accordance with the protagonists growth， so its narrative structure was in a chained form that was a kind of linear structure. The characters of chained structure were to use a thread to put all events together so that the plot developed gradually till its climax. On the surface， the combination of the events was usually according to its time or causality. But some complex logic relationship used to be hidden under this combination. That needed deep analysis rather than simply addressing.

At first the protagonist was bored for the cold environment but he often observed and admired Mangans sister. Then one day “sister” hoped him to go to Araby， which became the focus of his life. That could also be treated as the cause of events. Araby symbolized a good imagination for the little boy so that he seemed to be more and more annoyed about his surroundings. Unfortunately， after he arrived in Araby， he found a much colder and darker reality. When the plot developed here， it ended and came to a climax. There was no doubt that the short novel had simple plot， but it had clear chronological order and causal logic. The narrative structure of Araby could be regarded as a chained mode. This structure made its theme more profound and distinct.

5. Conclusion

Although James Joyce was famous for his Ulysses and steam of consciousness， indeed Dubliners was his best stories. In Dubliners Joyce showed the logic continuity and profound theme and symbolism， which impressed readers deeply. Therefore， to understand Jamess thoughts and writing skills better， it was necessary to analyze his Dubliners first. As what we have showed above the third story of Dubliners， Araby interpreted the darkness of Dublin with simple plot.

The protagonist eventually bought nothing in Araby， which was the symbol of his broken imagination. His end was the symbol of the whole Dubliners who lost passionate and hope. Joyce meant to inspire Dubliners by writing his works and he did well with the perfect narrative skills. After analyzing Araby what we learned not only its writing skills but also appreciated the deeper and symbolic meaning hidden in the simple words and plot. As we have analyzed， all those narrative skills were used to explain the theme——contrast between imagination and reality. In a word， these skills highlighted how the dark reality destroyed the protagonists imagination and dream.

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