Discuss the idea of disappointment in ‘Araby’ and ‘An Encounter’.

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Discuss the idea of disappointment in 'Araby' and 'An Encounter'.

Dubliners covers the lives of many different characters over four different themes in their lives. These themes are childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life. The theme in 'Araby' and 'An Encounter' is that of childhood. Joyce wanted to describe Dublin life so that the reader could be seen to be looking into a 'Nicely polished looking glass.' At the time that Joyce was writing he felt that society as a whole was in a state of paralysis and was stagnant. He describes characters that try to escape from society and break free, however, it seems that freedom is never achieved and the characters are left disappointed and frustrated. This can be seen clearly in both the stories, though there are some small differences in the bid for escape and the attitudes of the characters.

'An Encounter' is the story of two boys who make an attempt to play truant from school. They are influenced by tales of adventure of the Wild West,
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'The adventures related in the literature of the Wild West were remote from my nature but, at least, they opened doors of escape.'

and so try to create their own adventure. There escape is well planned and so they have very high expectations of what their day will be like. Their planned trip is also against their parents wishes and so there is an element of risk evolved, which would make the trip much more exciting and adventurous. In 'Araby' a boy thinks he has fallen in love with a girl from across the street and takes ...

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