What would be a good thesis for "Araby," "Eveline," and "The Sisters"?

In addition to the possible theses outlined in the other answer to this question, it's worth considering building a thesis around the absence of father figures in these three stories. Indeed, though each story gives us a snapshot into three distinct families, none of them produce stable or reliable father figures. In "The Sisters," the narrator lives with his aunt and uncle, and seems to have looked up to Father Flynn as a kind of father figure, as it's suggested that Father Flynn gave him an education of some kind. However, the deceased Father Flynn also seems to be have been complicated himself, with the final image of him laughing in the confession box suggesting sinister undertones to the old man's kindliness and unsettling our image of him as a stable masculine presence. Likewise, in "Araby," the narrator lives with his aunt and uncle, and the latter seems not only not to care about his nephew's expressed wish to visit the bazaar, but also seems to have an implied drinking problem (a potential explanation for his late arrival is that he was drinking at the pub). In contrast to these earlier stories, "Eveline" does include a father, but he's hardly a stable or caring presence in the story. An alcoholic, Eveline's father regularly uses his daughter's wages as drinking money, further impoverishing a family that already seems to be struggling financially. Indeed, if anything, Eveline's father hinders Eveline's efforts to take care of her siblings and build a stable life of her own. Thus, in all three stories we see a theme of "absent" fathers or father figures, and the consistency of this masculine void is surely worth studying in more detail.


When James Joyce put Dubliners, he arranged the book into four sections: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life. While "The Sisters" and "Araby" belong in the childhood section of the book, "Eveline" is an example of the adolescence portion. Perhaps this is where you'd want to begin developing your thesis.
How is "Eveline" different from "The Sisters" and "Araby"? One of the most immediate ways "Eveline" is different from the childhood stories is in the narration. All of the childhood stories are told in first-person with unnamed boy narrators, while "Eveline" is in third-person, although full of free-indirect discourse (the narrator delving into the thoughts of the characters).
Perhaps your thesis would involve similarities as well—each of these stories deals with the book's overarching theme of paralysis. The boy in "The Sisters" unable to move away from Father Flynn, the narrator in "Araby" unable to buy anything for Mangan's sister, and Eveline's inability to flee Dublin in "Eveline."
You could also explore smaller themes like coming-of-age and sexual perversions (there is some thought that Eveline would be sold off to become a sex slave in Buenos Aires).
Each of these ideas would make for an excellent thesis and an excellent essay.

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