araby

“Araby”

Love, adolescence, foolishness, and maturity are the words that describe James Joyce’s short story “Araby”. The narrator is a young boy living with his aunt and uncle in a dark, untidy, poor home in Dublin. During this time, this young character is facing something that opened the passage from childhood to adolescence, the feeling of being in love for the first time. This child, whose life is split between school and play with friends, now is deeply in love with his best friend’s sister, who through the story, doesn’t seem to notice him or care about him. This at the end of the story gives the boy a lesson, which help him to understand that sometimes life wont give him everything he wants no matter how much he desire it, no matter how hard he try to get it, life is life and unexpected things will always happen. Here is where he experiences an epiphany, his awakening moment, from a world full of light and truth to broken dreams that led to the first step of his adulthood.
The main character who unknowing helps the boy among the path of maturity and adolescence is Megan’s sister. She is the boy’s crush and he idolizes her as an angel. This young boy narrates how he spends his hours watching her and the sensations and feelings she produces to himself. “I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood” (213). This shows how he sees her like a symbol of what he is living for and that she gives meaning to his life, which is very immature, due to the fact that he does not really know her, but at the same time very common for a boy this age.
The main conflict began when they had their first conversation and she asked him if he was going to attend to Araby, the bazaar held in Dublin. “She could not go, because there would be a retreat that week in her convent “ she said(214). Believing that it would impress her, the boy told her he would bring her a gift from the Araby. This act demonstrates how immature and extremely in love is this young boy who ensures that he will be able to go to this bazaar and have the money to bring her a present.
However, he spends his days and nights thinking and dreaming about the enchanted Eastern word, "Araby." He builds all his hopes and dreams on that moment when he goes to the "Araby" bazaar and brings something for the one he loves. By the time he arrives, the streets were empty and many of the stalls were closed. This seems to complicate things and he said no, when the young lady asked him if he wished to buy something. “Then I turned away slowly and walked down the middle of the bazaar” (216). The climax occurs at this point because he decides to walk away, without purchasing anything despite knowing that all others booths were closed. This is very contradictory because after all the effort he made to attend to the Araby and after the promise of bringing her a gift, he decides not to buy anything for the girl he loves. The detail of the bazaar closed, may seem insignificant, but it is crucial to the maturity of the boy. “Grazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and deride by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger”(216). At this point, he realized that he has placed all his love and hope in a world that doesn't exist, except in his imagination in which he expected more than everyday reality can provided him and that he should not have made a promise that he was not sure to meet.