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Araby

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In the short story, “Araby,” James Joyce, an Irish novelist and poet, establishes a key theme of frustration in the first-person narrative as he deals with the limits imposed on him by his situation. The protagonist is an unnamed boy, along with a classic crush on his friend’s sister. Because of this, he travels to a bazaar (also known as a world fair) called Araby, where he ultimately faces his juvenile actions. The ideas Joyce encourages with this story revolve on how the boy reacts to these emotions and this romance he has, while in the end facing tragedy. Joyce spends most of the time introducing the thoughts of the boy about the area he lives, as well as his lifestyle. He builds up the protagonist’s hatred while also showing us what exactly …show more content…

But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires” (Joyce 21). He is attracted to her physically, and doesn’t know to respond, so naturally; it is his heart that guides him to admiring her from afar. It isn’t long before she starts talking to him for the first time, and it is also at the same that the boy emotionally clings to every word she says. During one of the first conversations, Mangan’s sister asked him if he was going to Araby, but he forgets what his response was; due to the fact that he didn’t find it interesting. But then as soon as she invites him to go, he goes to say that he will bring her back something. Suddenly, Joyce quickly tells us that the boy not only wants to go, but cannot wait for it, “What innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening! I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days” (Joyce 22). He wants to skip every day to arrive at the time that he goes to the …show more content…

It is clear that he is emotionally vulnerable at this point. The story contains many important moments in which the boy displays what kind of person he is, but it isn’t until the end of the story when the reader can finally learn Joyce’s primary motive. “The sight of the streets thronged with buyers and glaring with gas recalled to me the purpose of my journey” (Joyce 23). He observes the terrible views he has on his journey, remembering why he is going to the bazaar; for the new experience. Then the question rises, does he want something new, or is he going because someone told him to? It is clear from the conversation earlier that he wants to please Mangan, but Joyce’s negative views on the city remind us that the bazaar represented something new to him. Both of the things excited the narrator, and encourage him to act on this emotion. The narrator’s change of heart concludes the story on a moment of epiphany, but it is not a positive

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