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Araby Epiphany Essay

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"Araby" by James Joyce is a short story in which a young naive boy, who is the narrator, leads a lifestyle in Dublin before falling in love with his friend's sister. He is always admiring her daily routine, every single day. However, disappointment is an important theme of the novel. The boy is faced with reality. In others words, Joyce deals with fantasy versus reality in this story.
Joyce describes his life all throughout the story. Dublin setting is based on how religion influenced and dominated the men society trying to seek their identity. “Air, musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room behind the kitchen was littered with old useless papers. Among these I found a few paper-covered books, the pages …show more content…

Disappointment and frustration seems to play in big time during this part of the novel. In other words, "Araby" presents a moment of epiphany. Epiphany is associated with enlightment and good growth whereas in this story epiphany is linked with negativity and slow growth. Instead of enlightment, the narrator's epiphany causes him to become bitter: "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger" (Joyce 990). Religious symbols are a constant presence in the story. It has been argued that the narrator's disappointment is in reality. “His quest, he now realizes, was misconceived in the first place, and he now recognizes the mistake of joining his religious fervor with his romantic passion for Mangan’s sister” (Barnhisel). The narrator soon begins to realize that he was foolish and naïve. It may have caused him to become angry, but that was his first step into …show more content…

The narrator devotes his life to her similar to how a religious individual looks up to a God. The connection between Mangan's sister and religious worship seems to be more obvious when Joyce stated: “I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through the throng of foes. Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom” (Joyce 987). He is describing the powerful effect that she has on him, like the power of a prayer to a religious person. “Mangan’s sister is the object of the boy’s “confused adoration.” By the time his lady speaks, his naive crush has lead to the heroic bearing of her image like a chalice through market streets, and worship in a chapel-like room” (Freimarck 366-368). The narrator, thus, is yet to discover reality. He is still stuck in a life of fantasy where the lines of pure love is in a shadow.
In conclusion, "Araby" is a story of a young boy coming to harsh reality. It presents moments of a young boys fantasy throughout most of the story. It is shattered by the narrator's reality check at the end of the story. The religious imagery shows the readers that the story is very much about criticism of the church role and the effect on a nation that was struggling

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