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Araby

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James Joyce’s “Araby” is quite an emotional short story of a nameless boy in Dublin Ireland, who had a crush on his friend’s sister and because of it, he journeys to a market called Araby. Where he finally comes to term with his actions. This is the basis for the entire story, but the ideas Joyce encourages with this story is very confusing as it circles around how the boy reacts to his feelings, and at the end he realizes how to react to his emotions along with managing them. Joyce spends a lot of the story trying to introducing the boy’s thoughts on the where he lives. Joyce explains how the boy feels bored and unamused with his home and searches for something more. Then Joyce aims to show us how the boy seemed to be happy especially around …show more content…

The boy seems to feel empty surrounded by the familiar place where he lives. Joyce writes, “The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces”. Quickly, we are connected with Mangan’s sister, something or should I say someone that puts a smile on the boy’s face. The boy is attracted to her, and does not know how to deal with these feelings, naturally, being as this is new to him he keeps his space and watch from a distance. Suddenly, she talks to the boy for the first time and he hangs on her every word. During their very first conversation, the girl asked him if he was going to Araby, but he forgets what his response was probably because at the time it wasn’t important to him. Joyce quickly tells us that the boy not only wants to go, but that he excited for it. The boy goes from not caring about the market to instantly wanting to go to it, all because of the girl he has a crush on. He is clearly emotionally weak and vulnerable when it comes to the girl. We go through the story feeling the boys lows and highs. The first thing we read about the boy’s journey to Araby is that he still hates all the things about the community in which he lives. He notices the negative view he has on his journey, and quickly reminds himself why he is going there in the first place; to experience something

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