{"id":3182,"date":"2016-01-04T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kibin.com\/blog\/?post_type=essay-writing-blog&p=3182"},"modified":"2019-04-22T08:19:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-22T15:19:17","slug":"araby-by-james-joyce-tips-for-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kibin.com\/essay-writing-blog\/araby-by-james-joyce-tips-for-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Araby by James Joyce: 8 Tips for a Literary Analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ah, the infamous James Joyce, bane of millions of high school and college students, and now it\u2019s your turn to face the coming-of-age trial: writing a literary analysis of Araby<\/em> by James Joyce.<\/p>\n

You might be thinking \u201cI didn\u2019t sign up for this.\u201d You might not be an English major or really interested in literature at all, but you still have to carry this burden on your shoulders (and the same week of your big math test, too!).<\/p>\n

If you want to knock this assignment out of the water and show James Joyce who\u2019s boss, this post gives you the tips to make that happen.<\/p>\n

Tip #1: Make Sure You Understand Araby<\/em> by James Joyce<\/h2>\n

Before you can start thinking about putting your essay to paper, you need to know what the story is actually about. First of all, you need to read the story for yourself; don\u2019t rely on summaries to help you understand. You can, however, use the summaries and websites such as SparkNotes<\/a> to get a deeper understanding of the story once you have read it.<\/p>\n

While you\u2019re reading, make notes of elements in Araby<\/em> that seem strange or interesting.<\/p>\n

For instance, you might realize that Mangan\u2019s sister always wears brown. Why does Joyce emphasize that? Asking questions like that will help you develop your essay topic later.<\/p>\n

Tip #2: Learn How to Write a Literary Analysis (An Overview)<\/h2>\n

Before you can dig into your essay on Araby<\/em> by James Joyce, you need to have a really good idea of what a literary analysis entails. After all, you don\u2019t want to jump blindly into the writing. You might end up in a jumbled heap that even the great James Joyce couldn\u2019t sort out.<\/p>\n

The first step to writing a great literary analysis is to pick a topic specific<\/i> enough for you to successfully cover in your essay. If your essay only needs to be two pages, you don\u2019t want to try to tackle the significance of all the religious symbolism within Araby<\/em>. Instead, you could talk about the role of the priest in the short story.<\/p>\n

Once you have your ultra-super-specific topic, you need to choose examples from the text to support your argument. Whenever we talked about including evidence in an essay, my favorite English professor always drilled the quote sandwich method into our heads.<\/p>\n

First, as the top slice of bread, start with the claim you want to make in paragraph (also called a topic sentence). Then, you need a piece of evidence (paraphrase or quote from the text) as your meaty meat and saucy sauce. To finish it off with a nice thick piece of bread, you need analysis, which is your description of why the quote proves your claim and connects back to your thesis statement.<\/p>\n

Repeat after me: topic sentence, quote, analysis. Topic sentence, quote, analysis. Topic sentence, quote, analysis. Voila! A delicious quote sandwich.<\/p>\n

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Repeat after me: topic sentence, quote, analysis. Voila! A delicious quote sandwich. <\/a><\/div>\n

Click To Tweet<\/a><\/p>\n

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If you are still a bit hazy on how to write a literary analysis, check out this article<\/a>!<\/p>\n

But, wait, we\u2019re getting ahead of ourselves. I need to walk you through coming up with a great topic for your analysis of Araby<\/em> by James Joyce.<\/p>\n

Tip #3: Choose a Good Theme for Your Literary Analysis of Araby by James Joyce<\/h2>\n

Now that you know how to write a literary analysis in a sandwich\u2014I mean a nutshell\u2014it\u2019s time to start narrowing down your topic. This hurdle is the biggest one to get over, but it\u2019s all downhill once you\u2019re there, I promise.<\/p>\n

There are several main themes in Araby<\/em> that you can choose from. Make sure you choose one that interests you so you can really dig deeply into what makes the theme so apparent in the short story.<\/p>\n

Here are some examples of the themes in Araby<\/em> by James Joyce to get your brain running:<\/p>\n