Chapter 12: "Is That a Symbol?"

     Everyone has that first crush, that cute person they secretly gush to their friends about and blush when they walk by, and they are called crushes because they typically do not end well. This is the case in "Araby" as the young boy longs for an opportunity to woo his friend, Mangan's, sister, but she is unattainable, hence the "crushing" of the boys fragile heart. In the short story, the boy spots Mangan's sister as she stands on the opposite side of a fence. This obviously symbolizes the emotional barrier there is between the two characters; the boy can never have the girl. She is to join a convent which creates the road block in the relationship. The girl is unreachable to the boy.

     This fence could also represent how sheltered Mangan's sister is. She has very little freedom while attending the convent school, which becomes obvious when she tells the boy she is not allowed to go to the bazaar. Fences are sometimes built to protect, and she is overly protected by the convent. They can also be built to keep things in or out. It is assumed that Mangan's sister is held firmly in the convent, which further illustrates her lack of freedom. It also keeps things out of her life, for example, certain young boys that ceaselessly admire her.

Chapter 11: "...More Than It's Gonna Hurt You: Concerning Violence"

  No one can deny that they love drama. Stories would not be nearly as exciting without a lick of excitement. Typically in dramatic stories, violence occurs. According to Thomas C. Foster, there are two types of violence in literature: "...the specific injury that authors cause characters to visit on one another or on themselves, and the narrative violence that causes characters harm in general." (Foster, pg. 89) Basically, in stories, there is violence that occurs between the characters, that the characters control, mostly used for dramatic effect. Then there is violence that the author describes, which is used for plot advancement.

   An example of the first kind of violence is present in the new and popular novel, Divergent, by Veronica Roth. An uprising occurs between the "factions," the different communities in this novel, which includes a large battle with hundreds of people being killed in various violent ways. The main protagonist, Tris, has to shoot a dear friend of hers to prevent herself from being killed. This is character-on-character violence that is controlled by Tris and her friend, Will, mostly used for dramatic effect.

   The second kind of violence is found in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Lennie is one of the main characters that struggles with mental disability, which causes him to be unintentionally violent towards living things. He has a habit of snapping the necks of things he's trying to care for, such as a mouse, a puppy, and a beautiful woman. Lennie cannot control his actions and his violent activity is a very large part in the plot, thus making it necessary for plot advancement.

Chapter 9: "It's Greek to Me"

   As Thomas C. Foster states, "...myth is a body of story that matters." The story in the poem "XXI" by Michael Field uses Greek mythology to build that "body." The poem discusses his need for inspiration; his yearning for a muse. He professes that he is "unhappy...sorrowful and wild" (l. 5-6) because the daughters of Zeus have not been near him. The part of the story that matters in this poem is that the poet is lacking a sense of happiness and thus cannot create. Field is using the myth of the daughters of Zeus, the Muses, to dictate his lack of inspiration and give a physical sense to this feeling he is having. Readers of "XXI" know that the author is not actually desperately seeking the daughters of Zeus, but in fact some idea or thing to galvanize his imagination. In this case, myth is a metaphor for the activity occurring in the writer's mind.

XXI 
BY MICHAEL FIELD
Βροδοπαχεες αγναι Χαριτες, δεντε Λιος κοραι

Ye rosy-armed, pure Graces, come,
Daughters of Zeus, be near!
Oh, wherefore have my lips been dumb
So long in silence drear?
And why have I so cheerless been,
So sorrowful and wild?
It was because ye were not seen,
Because ye had not smiled.
Although his prayer the Muses bless,
The poet doth require
That ye, in frolic gentleness,
Should stand beside his lyre.
Ne’er will he mortal ear delight,
Nor care-vex’d spirit ease;
Except he sing with ye in sight,
Rose-flushed among the trees.

Chapter 7: "...Or the Bible"

     As Foster states several times, all stories are derived from other stories. No story is completely original. The Bible is most likely the most alluded to book out there. Foster comments on several biblical allusions in the short story, "Araby," by James Joyce. However, there are several other examples he did not mention in this chapter. He touches briefly on the relation between "Araby" and the Bible story of Adam and Eve but does not venture into the details of that tale that relate specifically to the short story. In "Araby," the boy strongly desires his friend, Mangan's, sister, but she has decided to join a convent. This makes her unavailable, but the boy still longs for her although he knows he can never have her; much like the forbidden fruit that tempts Eve. He fails to avoid her due to his unavoidable admiration for her and gives into the temptation of continuing to want her to love him.

       A large biblical reference is the way the boy views the girl. Mangan's sister, to him, is God. He admires her unconditionally, even though she is rarely physically present in the story. When she is and finally speaks to him it seems as though he is imagining the whole thing; he barely remembers the encounter and it appears unreal. She is more of a referenced spirit in the story instead of a physical being. The boy even prays to her, as stated in the story, "All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: 'O love! O love!' many times." (Joyce) He is not certain about why he loves her or how it happened, but he does not question it and continues to admire and devote himself to her.

       The boy also describes Mangan's sister as his chalice, which relates to the Holy Grail in the Bible. He says, "I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes," as she is the guide for him on his quest to get her a gift and earn her love. He struggles to get the gift at the bazaar as it is about to close and is unsure of what to get her, and he is also disgusted by some flirtatious behavior he witnesses. But he is willing to do anything to please his "chalice" and goes on this supposed great journey by following her, like, once again, she is God. Many other biblical references that Foster also did not mention fill the story of "Araby," but these few are important and clear.

Chapter 8: "Hanseldee and Greteldum"

A very popular work of literature, a novel most students have read at some point in their high school lif, is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. While reading the book, one's mind does not instantly think it is similar to a fairy tale. However, there is an inkling of a connection to the renowned story of Beauty and the Beast.  The most definite parallel between the two stories is the lesson to not a judge a book by its cover. In Mockingbird, Scout Finch, the main protagonist, grows up living in fear of her neighbor, Boo Radley, an old man that is unseen and is rumored to have done terrible things that makes him avoided by all. Scout and the other young people of her small town cower in fear away from the Radley household, though most know none of the mysterious man living within. It is not until later that Scout meets him and builds a fondness and a good relationship with him. He becomes a friendlier person and is more open to the people of the town who no longer are afraid of him. In Beauty and the Beast, Belle is not the friendly neighbor to the Beast, but is taken captive by him in exchange for the release of her father. The similarity is the ability to look past the unseemly exterior and find the good inside, which occurs later in the tale when Belle falls in love with the Beast. The Beast sheds his mangy appearance and becomes a handsome prince, not much unlike Boo Radley. The story of an unlikely relationship formed between very different individuals is a common tale and is a lesson taught to most young children. This story of real people deepens the appreciation of a girl falling in love with a massive, furry man by utilizing this aspect and relating to situations that could happen. They both illustrate that what one sees is not always what one gets.

Chapter 5: "Now, Where Have I Seen Her Before?"

Intertextuality is the idea that there is only one story; all stories derive from other stories. No text is completely original and all texts are related in one or more ways. For example, hundreds of stories are closely related to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The newer Twilight series written by Stephanie Meyer have the same tale of two star-crossed lovers, young people falling madly in love in an unrealistically short amount of time, and at some point each risk their life for the other. There is a similar plot is the famous musical, West Side Story. This iconic story of love and risk has arisen in so many works for centuries; romance is a key aspect of most stories. This shows that all stories are connected by aspects such as love.

Chapter 2: "Nice to Eat with You: Acts of Communion"

An exemplary example of a communion is a first date. Thomas C. Foster states that people "break bread" with typically with those they like, except in certain circumstances. Individuals have meals with people they want to be with, and people they want to become more familiar with. In the novel, "Every Day," by David Levithan, A is a sort of spirit; he/she is not a person, but spends each day in the body of a different person, living their lives for those 24 hours without the real persons knowledge. Each day A changes, but he remains in love with the same girl, Rhiannon, no matter what kind of human he/she is with each passing day. When A decides he wants to explain to her the way of his/her life, and asks her to go on their first official, real date, they meet over a cup coffee and a small meal at a cafe. Rhiannon is a bit put off, but her acceptance grows slowly but surely as she warms up to A. They discuss everything and their bond strengthens, despite Rhiannon's reluctance. They both realize they have now formed a deeper alliance, and agree with Foster's statement, "Generally, eating with another is a way of saying, 'I'm with you, I like you, we form a community together.'"