Remember your childhood crush, and how you were willing to do anything to impress them? The stories, “Araby,” written by James Joyce, and, “A Dance with Alison,” written by Melissa Pritchard, depict the life of two kids that fall victim to young love. In “Araby,” a young boy’s obsession of a girl causes him to believe that he must do whatever it takes to win her love. In “A Dance with Alison,” a young girl 's crush ends in disaster. Towards the end of the story, both protagonist experiences a bildungsroman, which causes them to question themselves. Both James Joyce, and Melissa Pritchard use literary techniques, such as Imagery, symbolism, and foreshadowing to depict the cruel reality of falling in love at such a young age.
James Joyce and Melissa …show more content…
Foreshadowing, are words, gestures or other actions that suggest future events. The story, “A Dance with Alison,” Pritchard uses foreshadowing to predict a possible event in the future. In the opening paragraphs, the girls says, “I think it was my own reversal from light to dark from stroking along the shimmering surface of lakes to diving below, looking for mossed, gavelike objects” (Pritchard). Pritchard uses the word grave like to hint at a possible death in the near future. At the end of the story, Alison dies, and the girl is heartbroken. Joyce’s also uses foreshadowing to predict the disappointment the boy will eventually feel about love. The boy illustrate that, “North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street [...] An uninhabited house of two stories stood at the blind end…” (Joyce). In this quote, Joyce is hinting about blindness and the inability to see, which foreshadows the epiphany, the boy experiences at the end of the story. The epiphany the boy experiences, is the realization of self clarity. Both stories are representations of how young love can hurt you in different