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Araby Hero's Journey

Decent Essays

The hero’s journey takes the character through a life changing experience and results in a rebirth of himself. On occasion, the hero fails to complete his ambitious journey when he finds he is way over his head. The heroes of both “Araby” and the “Swimmer” have high expectations in their quest, but find themselves regretting their journey. The short story, “Araby”, by James Joyce, is one instance of this in literature. The protagonist is called to adventure after his feelings for the girl next door overwhelm him. In the introduction, Joyce establishes the protagonist’s admiration of her, “Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance.” (39). This strong attraction to the girl is the hero’s call to adventure and leads him to go on his quest in hopes of …show more content…

Joyce adds the quote “I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child’s play, ugly monotonous child’s play.” (40) to demonstrate this. From this quote, the excitement which the protagonist has towards going to the bazaar overflows his mind. He can think or focus on little more than going on his quest and fulfilling it for the love of his life. The reader can feel the protagonist’s expectations, even though they are not expressly stated by Joyce anywhere in the story. The hero is not just excited about going to the bazaar, the event he is actually excited for is giving the girl the gift and seeing her fall in love with him. He expects her to finally love him and he knows that this quest will bring her to him. Despite this, when he gets to the bazaar, he has an epiphany which changes his perception of his love and leaves him discouraged. At the bazaar, he notices some men and women flirting, which he sees as sinful. He realizes that he is just like them, his love for the girl is not

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