Illusion vs. Realty

Illusion vs. Realty

Illusion creates no doubts in anyone’s beliefs. “It wasn’t as easy as I thought”- a line that everyone is familiar with. It has its share of illusion affecting someone’s mind. When the mind overvalues its abilities it meets the father of truth, Reality. In the short stories “Eveline” and “Araby”, James Joyce introduced two very similar and different themes. Illusion and Reality have their play on characters dreams and outcomes; those are the common themes in two stories. First, picture something you really want and wonder of a way to get it. The outcome can’t always be truth. The story “Araby” teaches its reader a lesson, a battle where reality breaks through Illusion’s fog and harshly destroys all the sweet hopes. For example, that little boy couldn’t control his feelings to the girl of his dreams, but in reality the girl never liked him in the first place. Having no doubts in their future affair, the boy gets hurt at the end. High expectations usually are the cause of a huge failure. Therefore, the less you expect, the less you will be let down; that can be his lesson after all. Although it doesn’t describe the boy’s intentions since it is a short story, we can easily feel the boy’s pain after the rejection. The rejection also plays a big role in the story “Eveline,” where both parties had experienced an unfair treatment by the mother Illusion. The sailor was just like that little boy who had probably imagined himself with a girl Eveline, happily married, living in a great household. Those are the similarities in regards to the illusions of both stories. However, rejection is involved in both stories but only one main character carries a huge role in it, in this case Eveline. Eveline was a female, just like the girl from “Araby”, but somewhat older. The women are the reason why illusion came to the end for all. They both resisted to the men that possibly loved them. Eveline had her reasons to say no. In addition,