Loss Of Innocence In Araby
The innocence of a child slowly deteriorates as they develop into an adult. The narrator in the short story Araby loses his innocence on his voyage to a bazaar (Araby) in hopes to impress a girl. In Araby, James Joyce develops the narrator through the trip to Araby where the young boy is exposed to the realities of adulthood.
The narrator in Araby is an older man reminiscing back to his childhood. He recollects playing in the streets with his friend Mangan and more specifically seeing Mangan’s sister after a long day of fun. The narrator becomes infatuated with the girl even though he had never spoken a word with her, he says, “ Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance”. While he was at church and school, his romantic …show more content…
The boy being eager to swoon the girl, happily obliges hoping that the voyage is what it will take to earn her love. In preparation for Araby, the boy tells his uncle his plans that next morning so he will able to attend the bizarre that afternoon when his uncle comes home from work. Although the boy had asked his uncle ahead of time to go, he had to impatiently wait for his uncle to arrive home late in a drunken stupor. The negligence of the uncle upset the narrator because he did not understand why he would arrive home late on an evening so important in the narrator’s eyes. After the uncle’s arrival, the boy hastily rode the next train to the bizarre that was beginning to close. He approaches one stand that is still open, a young woman and two men were having a conversation. The boy does not completely understand the dynamic between the three people but it is inferred that the women and men were involved in a scandalous affair beyond his young understanding. The woman, reflecting that she is annoyed by the young boy’s presence asks if he wants to buy anything. She reacts to the boy, “ her voice was not encouraging… Once or twice the young lady glanced at me over her shoulder.” These actions make him feel unwanted and unimportant. With no gift for Mangan’s sister, the narrator stands in the deserted bazaar as the lights go out. “ Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself
The narrator in Araby is an older man reminiscing back to his childhood. He recollects playing in the streets with his friend Mangan and more specifically seeing Mangan’s sister after a long day of fun. The narrator becomes infatuated with the girl even though he had never spoken a word with her, he says, “ Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance”. While he was at church and school, his romantic …show more content…
The boy being eager to swoon the girl, happily obliges hoping that the voyage is what it will take to earn her love. In preparation for Araby, the boy tells his uncle his plans that next morning so he will able to attend the bizarre that afternoon when his uncle comes home from work. Although the boy had asked his uncle ahead of time to go, he had to impatiently wait for his uncle to arrive home late in a drunken stupor. The negligence of the uncle upset the narrator because he did not understand why he would arrive home late on an evening so important in the narrator’s eyes. After the uncle’s arrival, the boy hastily rode the next train to the bizarre that was beginning to close. He approaches one stand that is still open, a young woman and two men were having a conversation. The boy does not completely understand the dynamic between the three people but it is inferred that the women and men were involved in a scandalous affair beyond his young understanding. The woman, reflecting that she is annoyed by the young boy’s presence asks if he wants to buy anything. She reacts to the boy, “ her voice was not encouraging… Once or twice the young lady glanced at me over her shoulder.” These actions make him feel unwanted and unimportant. With no gift for Mangan’s sister, the narrator stands in the deserted bazaar as the lights go out. “ Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself