Araby & The Chrysanthemums

In "The Mirror of a Consciousness," Henry James suggests that the level of engagement of the reader with a character in a story is determined by the depth and subtlety of the consciousness of that character. The more aware the character is, the more the reader will care about him or her and his or her fate. In John Steinbeck's short story "The Chrysanthemums" the woman appears to be "finely aware" (James 572) of her situation, but in fact, until she sees the flowers on the ground at the end of the story, she is not aware at all that she has been all along in the hands of a con-man. In the case of the boy in James Joyce's short story "Araby," the analysis is more complex and difficult, because instead of a detached and omniscient author (as in Steinbeck's story), we have in Joyce's story an older narrator recalling his own experiences as a boy. Had the boy himself written the story immediately after his disillusionment at the bazaar, a chaotic jumble of pain and shame would have likely resulted. As it is, the older narrator recalls with the eyes and mind and heart of a poet his experience in the suffering of young love.

Both the woman in Steinbeck and the boy in Joyce see the world through romantic eyes, although the woman is more cautious. The boy's unalloyed romanticism does sweep the reader along with him, bolstering James' argument. In both cases, the characters long for love, for an intimate, passionate relationship with another, and in both cases they are profoundly

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