Essay on the Sisters, Araby, and an Encounter

A cohesive essay is an essay that primarily talks about a single subject using the author’s ideas and evidence from scholarly articles. Besides, cohesive themes follow a logical structure of reflection and analysis of the topic. These short stories, The Sisters, Araby, and an Encounter, are extracted from James Joyce’s “Dubliners,” first published in 1914. These stories gave a natural description of the lives of middle-class Dublin in 1900. All these stories are written in the first-person language as they entail people sharing stories on their experiences (Robinson, 377). This paper seeks to analyze these stories differently to find out what makes these stories cohesive.

“The Sisters” talks of a boy whose name is not mentioned and his relationship with Father Flynn, who is dead at the moment. The priest was the boy’s mentor, and therefore, the little boy was always concerned about his illness, but he later learns that the priest is dead. That night he had a nightmare in which he visited an unknown land after seeing images of the late priest (Robinson, 383). The following morning he accompanied his aunt to the mourning house where he got the chance to talk to the priest’s sisters, which made him discover that Father Flynn had a mental breakdown before his death.

“An Encounter” narrates the story of a boy and his friend skipping school to go to the shore for adventure because they feel that they are living dull lives. Towards the end of this short story, the two boys run into an older man who tells them it is wrong to skip school for adventure. He encourages them by telling them stories about young lovers and writers (Robinson, 383). He tries to charm these boys into going back to school, but when his tactic fails, he excuses himself and starts to talk to himself about punishing bad boys (Robinson, 385). The boy becomes scared, and he seeks comfort in his friend despite despising him a little.

“Araby” involves the story of a small boy that is eager to adventure adult life and have relationships with the opposite sex. The boy is attracted to his best friend, Mangan’s sister (Robinson, 387). However, his immaturity gives him a false sense and unrealistic expectations about adult life, girls, and love (Robinson, 389). The small boy wants to go to the bazaar Araby because the girl he is attracted to cannot go there because she will be away on a retreat. He arrives at the bazaar only to find out that almost all the stalls are closed except one. He looks at the open stall, and a girl comes, but then she leaves in a hurry to go and hang out with her friends. The boy leaves the bazaar without purchasing anything.

These stories are cohesive because several unifying factors characterize them. They are all written in a systematic flow revolving around one subject. Besides, they are all written based on the author Joyce’s sentiments and memories. The three stories use the portrait of a young boy as the main character to reflect on the author’s experiences and memories. The stories also have a thesis; for instance, “The Sisters” seeks to bring out more understanding of the reality of life and death because it focuses on the priest’s life and death. “An Encounter” aims to bring out the reality of the choices people make in this life. It focuses on a small boy and his friend who has chosen to skip school to adventure because they feel their lives are boring. Finally, “Araby” entirely sees to explain the reality about life when it comes to girls, love, and adulthood. It focuses on a small boy who is so eager to become an adult so that he can adventure girls and love.

The theses of the three stories are based on the realities of life. They have given room for growth and transition of life from one stage to another. They have used portraits of small boys who still have a long way to go in life, but they are so determined to find out more about different realities of life. For instance, the boy in “The Sisters” is interested in understanding the life and death of Father Flynn (Robinson, 381). The boy in “The Encounter” is determined to adventure to avoid living his everyday monotonous life. The boy in “Araby” is determined to find out the reality about adulthood and having love affairs with girls.

Based on the analysis above, it is evident that these three stories are not so different from each other because they all give reflections and sentiments from personal experiences. Besides, they also allow the readers to reflect on the reality of life alongside their theses (Robinson, 385). Therefore, these stories are cohesive through several factors, but the most unifying factor is that they all have theses, and their storylines are based on a single subject.

Works Cited

Robinson, David W. “The Narration of Reading in Joyce’s” The Sisters” An Encounter,” and” Araby.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 29.4 (1987): 377-396.