Analysis of James Joyce's Short Story 'Araby'

This article provides an analysis of James Joyce's short story 'Araby', highlighting the significance of individual perspective and the use of epiphany. It also discusses the boy's transformation from a young boy to a young man by accepting the reality of his state of mind.

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Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Published in the year of 1914, “Araby” is considered to be one of the best short stories
written by James Joyce. The story deals with the use of epiphany that is a sudden revelation of
truth and this is one of the key factor that highlight the significance of an individual perspective.
Furthermore, the revelation of truth has been termed as a trivial incident as the narrator
explains the disillusionment with his views that is shown towards a beautiful girl. There are
critical interests that are viewed as milestone for the two stories.
From and individual perspective, the main character of “Araby” is a young boy who stays
in Dublin with his uncle and aunt. From the perspective of the boy, he stays in a place that is
idyllically ignorant from the real world. It is dark and used to be the home of a resident priest
who has died. His home is dark and untidy that reflects his lifestyle that is not colorful. However
as the story progresses, he meets one of his friends older sister called Mangan. Gradually the
boy develops affection towards the girl and starts to follow her. This feeling of love is described
as confusing, bedeviling and strange. As time progresses, the boy’s feelings gradually develops
and when Mangan finally notices him she approaches from. From his perspective, he is like a
guiding light that showed him the path within the darkness. After their conversation he learn
that the girl wants to visit the local bazaar known as “Araby” however she could not go there
due to personal reason. Upon hearing his, the boy promises the girl that he would bring
something for her.
However by the time he receives money from his uncle to visit Araby, he notices that
most of the stalls have been closed down as it was late. Even after looking all over the place, he
does not find anything that he can get as a present (Khorsand). He is disappointed as he walks

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back to the darkness fro where he came. From his individual perspective, he gets back to his
older-self as he came with expectations however, reality seemed to change it for him. Even
after recognizing vanity along with the falsity of ideal, romantic love. From the interpretation of
a story, the boy gets alienated from everyone in the beginning that includes his aunt and uncle,
the state of religion and the world and its actions (Booryazadeh, Ali and Faghfori). The
individual perspective that shows in Araby is that from that distant place, he was able to gain a
slight glimpse of hope through Mangan. It can be said that the narrator’s childhood was
reflected through the boy. It is through his perfective of the narrator or the young who that
came to realization of his state (Darcy). In a matter of few hours, he turned into an anguished
young man from an innocent child who was in the last light of this childhood. This can be
termed as a Joycean epiphany that has many definitive moments that changes a complete
event upside down (Gerber). Towards the young boy, this particular event came in the form of
a young girl. In finding happiness and creating a state of opportunity through a promise, he
tried his best so that he would bring her a gift from Araby however due to the change of
circumstances just like the Joycean epiphany; he was unable to keep his promise (Morris).
When his uncle came home later he got the money but not being able to come sooner, he
found all the stalls in Araby had been closed. He even noticed a young salesgirl flirting with two
young men that created a distraction for him. This cheapens and breaks the boy’s sense of
enchantment. He actually realized that the love he had only existed in his mind The woman
also asked him whether she could help him in any way, to which he declines and heads back
home disappointed (Fargnoli, Nicholas, and Gillespie). The character’s perspective draws the
story between the reality and the ideal make-believe state of mind.

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Therefore from the above discussion, it can be concluded that from the perspective of
the young boy, he found happiness in the state of admiration and love from the girl Mangan.
However being disregarded from reality, he was able to transform from a young boy to a young
man by accepting the reality of his state of mind. His dreams and wishes are left empty and by
spiritually paralyzing the atmospheric embodiment of his perspective.

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REFERENCES
Beja, Morris. James Joyce: a literary life. Springer, 2016.
Booryazadeh, Seyed Ali, and Sohila Faghfori. "Barthes’ Irreversible Codes: An Intertextual
Reading of James Joyce’s “Araby”." International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English
Literature 3.1 (2014): 137-142.
Fargnoli, A. Nicholas, and Michael Patrick Gillespie. Critical Companion to James Joyce: A
Literary Reference to His Life and Work. Infobase Publishing, 2014.
Gerber, Richard J. "Clocks and Time in" Araby"." Joyce Studies Annual 2014.1 (2014): 274-277.
Khorsand, Golbarg. "Paths to Paralysis: Symbolism and Narratology in James Joyce’s “Araby”
and “Eveline”." Epiphany 7.2 (2014).
O'brien, Darcy. The Conscience of James Joyce. Vol. 2155. Princeton University Press, 2015.