Araby By James Joyce

James Joyce’s “Araby” is an emotional short story of a nameless boy in Dublin who is controlled by his love for Mangan’s sister. Joyce uses a first person narrative point of view in “Araby.” The narrator is a young, sensitive boy who learns that his romantic feelings for a girl are illusory. His affection for her compels him to journey to a bazaar called Araby. The story takes place during the early 1900s. James Joyce uses irony to describe the stupidity in the narrator’s affection for the girl. The author expresses religious symbolism to capture the theme of religion being an important part in the characters’ lives. For example, the girl’s religious faith keeps her from doing what she wants. Lastly, the story revolves around the loss of innocence. The boy does not know what his enormous feelings of attractions means towards Mangan’s sister. This results in his loss of innocence because his love
The girl saw the opportunity to manipulate the boy and make him do whatever she wanted. She deceived the boy by speaking to him to make him think that she returned the same feelings. However, in reality, Mangan’s sister only wanted a gift from the bazaar. Although, she gave the impression that she wanted to go but she was unable to because of her upcoming retreat. The narrator saw the girl’s desire as chance to make her infatuated with him. Therefore, the boy went to the bazaar only to realize that his vision of love was always a fantasy. He realizes this by comparing the banter of young people at the bazaar to his conversation with Mangan’s sister. His journey was a waste of time and it brought nothing but anguish and anger. The irony in this fictional story is the boy was fooled. His love for the girl controlled him and hid him from the truth. Love is supposed to bring joy and positivity. Ironically, in the short story, love only brought misery and