Araby

Many reasons could have a big impact on our actions as human beings. Some principles could affect our actions in a bad or a good way. Age and experience play a big role on how we think and how we can make our decisions. Sometimes we make decisions based on our emotions. In ''Araby'' by James Joyce, the main character was a boy that lives with his aunt and his uncle. The boy made a decision that taught him a big lesson. The young boy realized that he was a fool after going far away from home for a girl. First of all, the narrator is an unnamed boy that lives in North Dublin street . The boy explains how their street evoked images of a vacuous, joyless, and stagnant environment: '' An uninhabited house of two stories stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbors in a square ground'' ( Araby F-JO1-1 ). The boy feels very emotionless about where he lives, and how his neighborhood appears. He doesn’t find any excitement in it. The house in which the young boy lives seems equally cold and gray: "Air, musty from having long been enclosed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room behind the kitchen was littered with old and useless papers'' ( Araby F-JO1-1). The narrator seemed to dislike the environment that he lived in. Also, he was thinking about the priest who died in the house before his family moved in which made the situation worst for the boy: '' The former tenant of our house, a priest died in the back drawing-room'' ( Araby F-JO1-1 ). The narrator introduced us to his crush. She was the sister of his friend, she was always in the narrator's thoughts. He was thinking about her when he eats, drinks, and sits in the back room of his house alone. He says, “Her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side” ( Araby F-JO1-1). She was making him happy, and what makes his beat, yet none of it can possibly be more than a crush. The boy was stalking her every day. In the story we see the narrator admitting that he was waiting for the girl to come outside when he said: '' she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped. I ran to the hall, seized my books, and followed her'' (Araby F-JO1-1). The narrator’s infatuation is so intense that he fears he will never gather the courage to speak with the girl and express his feelings. When she finally speaks to him, he gets flustered and excited. She asked him if he was going to a Bazaar called '' Araby '', he told her that he would bring her a gift when he goes to Araby. Next, the narrator decides to go to Araby for the young girl. The narrator was so happy that he wanted to go to Araby and bring something for his crush. That meant she was special to his heart and he would do anything to make their relationship stronger: '' “What innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening! I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days'' ( Araby F-JO1-2 ). The narrator told his uncle that he wanted to go to the bizaar and asked him if he could take him there. At the night of Araby, his uncle was late. After it passes 8 at night. His uncle gets home and told him that he forgot about Araby: ''At nine O'clock I heard my uncle's latchkey in the halldoor'' ( Araby F-JO1-3 ). The boy felt that he could do anything for that girl, even though if it was late at night. The boy left to Araby and he finally arrives at the building which contains the '' magical name'' (Araby F-JO1-3 ). The boy walked in into the bazaar and everything was shutdown. he is quickly hit with the realization that maybe he shouldn’t have gone. He notes, “Nearly all the stalls were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness. I recognized a silence like that which pervades a church after a service” (Araby F-JO1-3 ). This is when we see the narrator's happiness crushed into sadness.. When the bazaar shut down, the narrator realized that his friend's sister will fail his expectations,

and that his desire for her is actually only a vain wish for change. The narrator’s change of heart concludes the story on a moment of epiphany. Instead of reaffirming his love or realizing that he does not need gifts to express his feelings for Mangan’s sister, the narrator simply gives up. He seems to interpret his arrival at the bazaar as it fades into darkness as a sign that his relationship with Mangan’s sister will also remain just a wishful idea and that his infatuation was as misguided as his fantasies about the bazaar.

In conclusion, the narrator is just a foolish boy who fell in love with a girl that he barely knew. The story begins with a description of the setting. The boy feels very emotionless about where he lives, and how his neighborhood appears. The young boy fell in love with the sister of his friend, Mangan. He stalked her and watched her house every day. The story contains many important moments in which the boy shows the reader the type of person he is. the boy notices the horrible view he has on his journey, and quickly remembers why he is going to this bazaar. He knew to experience something new, but does he want something new, or is he going because of the sister that told him about the bazaar. It is clear that the boy wanted to go to make a better relationship and please the girl. After arriving at the closed bazaar, the narrator realized that his personal vanity, or the personal pride he thought he would obtain by coming to the bazaar, was ultimately something he couldn’t obtain. He thought coming to Araby would help him find something for the girl, which would help him get her as a friend, and maybe something more.