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The Theme Of Light And Vision In James Joyce's Araby

Decent Essays

James Joyce’s ‘’Araby’’ is a short story that revolves around a pre-teen boy who experiences a crush on his friend Mangan's sister and worships her from afar, until one day she mentions wishing to go to a bazaar but has a prior commitment. The boy decides to go and bring something for her, but most of the stalls have closed by the time he arrives to the bazaar and he realises he has been foolish to think the girl would be interested in him. Joyce carefully uses light and vision to represent a theme of hope for the boy’s quest to find love, illustrate idealism and illusion in contrast to reality’s darkness, and to portray a theme of religion, with Mangan’s sister as a religious figure.
Firstly, Light and vision are used to illustrate the narrator's coming of age story. In fact, the many light imageries whenever the narrator is in contact with his crush create the atmosphere of a fairy tale : ‘’The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing. ‘’ Here, light symbolises hope and joy for the narrator's love, as this temporary crush allows him to escape the monotonous dark reality of his neighborhood. He is experiencing his first love as a teenager, and his vision is blinded by it, since he doesn’t pay attention to school anymore and spends less time with his friends because all he thinks about is her : ‘’From the front window I saw my companions playing below in the

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