I noticed a lot of auditory imagery in “Araby” that helped to enhance the meaning of the story. The first is the description of the sound in the streets when the young man is walking by thinking of the girl he loves. He hears the “curses of laborers,” the “shrill litanies of shop boys,” and “nasal chantings of street singers.” All of these images, besides just making the street seem busy, also make it seem like an unpleasant and intruding scene, almost like you would want to cover your ears and hurry through as fast as possible. This compliments perfectly the boy’s imagination that he is “carrying his chalice safely through a throng of foes.” In the scene where the boy is in the priest’s house late at night, the auditory imagery helps contribute to the sense of drama. “There was no sound in the house,” but outside boy heard the rain “impinge upon the earth” with “fine incessant needles of water.” The choice of words here makes the rain seem almost as if it is hostile. You can hear the force and fury of the storm, and this makes the emotions the boy is feeling seem even more intense.
Later, when the boy is looking out the window of the top story of his house, he looks down and sees his friends playing in the street, and their cries reach him “weakened and indistinct.” This image brings about an impression that the boy now feels “removed” from his friends and their games, because he is caught up in his fantasy. Normally, he would probably be down there playing with them, but now his head is filled with much more pressing thoughts, and they drown out the laughter and fun of his friends and their “childish” games.
Finally, when the boy enters the bazaar, he recognizes “a silence like that which pervades a church after a church service.
Feminism and Gibson’s Neuromancer
Today many women are stereotyped in their jobs and social roles as defined by society as a whole. William Gibson’s Neuromancer where one woman is used for specific reasons. The female character, Molly, is used for sex and her body is used for other sexual performances. In this book we find numerous examples of how she is being used sexually and how she must act in her job to survive. The author uses horrific examples that are related to how some women are treated today. The feminist approach is used throughout this book because of how the character Molly is being treated.
In the second chapter of the book Molly is known as a “Working Girl”, which means prostitute. Here in this chapter we find the first example of how Molly is being used for sex. “His head throbbed, but the brittleness in his neck seemed to retreat. He raised himself on one elbow, rolled sank back against the foam, pulling her down, licking her breasts, small hard nipples sliding wet across his cheek. He found the zip on the leather jeans and tugged it down”(Gibson32-33). This scene occurs right after Case’s surgery. You might ask, the question, Is being used for sex really part of her job? Or was she attracted to work with Case? That could be a major confusion when reading this book. Something very similar to the scene just described also occurs in Chapter 11. The character Riveria performs a piece that he calls “The Doll.” He imagines Molly’s body as he wants it to be. A line from the book states “Then the torso formed as Riviera caressed it into being, white, headless, and perfect, sheened with the faintest gloss of sweat”(140). This ungodly performance can make any woman sick to her stomach. It is hard to believe one man’s behavior could be that stereotypical as he regards a woman. Unfortunately, in today’s society that is something that is not unusual.
Women are represented as developing different qualities to be successful in their jobs. In this book Molly is known as highly dominant and very knowledgeable in what she does. Not only in just this book, but in real life situations women have to demonstrate these strong characteristics to be recognized for their hard work. Other women have to have these qualities just to be noticed. In this book Molly has to be this way so she can protect herself from men, and she also has to have these qualities so she will be recognized for her hard work.