The Role of Narration and Symbols in James Joyce's Araby

This essay delves into James Joyce's short story 'Araby,' focusing on the significance of narration and symbolism over character development. The narrative, told from the perspective of an unnamed teenage boy, reveals the contrast between reality and fantasy. The boy's quest to the Araby bazaar symbolizes his desire to escape his ordinary life and win the affection of Mangan's sister. However, the story's true essence lies in the symbolic use of language, such as the 'blind' street and the 'brown' neighborhood, which highlights the boy's disillusionment and the ultimate failure of his quest. The absence of character names further emphasizes the story's focus on the narrator's journey and the pervasive sense of defeat.

Running head: Narration And Symbols- Main Protagonists In James Joyce’s Araby
NARRATION AND SYMBOLS- MAIN PROTAGONISTS IN
JAMES JOYCE’S ARABY

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Narration And Symbols- Main Protagonists In James Joyce’s Araby
James Joyce has been famous for gifting the readers with vivid descriptions, vibrant
imageries and an excellent play of symbols through his novels and short stories. Araby is one
such short story that unfolds its plot primarily through the writer’s use of symbols and shifting
narratology and secondarily through its characters. This study has focused on how the characters
became less significant than the language, symbols and the narration in this short story through
excellent play of words by Joyce.
Araby is a story of an unnamed teenage boy who is the narrator of the whole story. The
first person narrative of the story makes the readers see the world through the ‘boy’s eyes. The
childlike perspective of the narrator is not capable of describing the inner conflict going on
inside him while unfurling the difference between reality and fantasy. As per the story, the boy
falls in love with ‘Mangan’s sister’ who also remained to be unnamed in this story (plato-
philosophy.org, 2016). The less-than-ordinary boy, belonging from a less-than-ordinary
surrounding, has been seen to be eager to live in a world of knights and princesses. Thus, the boy
went on a quest to the unknown with a mission (to the bazaar named Araby to buy a gift for the
love of his life) in order to escape from his real ordinary life.
In this context, this is important to note that almost each and every word of the story
takes the responsibility of telling the real story that the immature narrator failed to do. For
example, the story starts with an energetic narration while it ends with a slow one which
foregrounds the fact that the narrator slowly became mature in the course of his journey from the
beginning to the end (Khorsand, 2014). The street has been described as ‘blind’ twice in the story
that may have been used to let the readers know that the boy is symbolically blind because of
belonging to a tender age. According to Khorsand (2014), no character has been given any name
in this story may be because the writer wanted to focus more on the disillusionment of the
narrator and not on its characters. Moreover, the vivid use of adjectives has fore grounded the
fact that this story has different layers of perspectives and narratives.
As mentioned above, Joyce used his words brilliantly in order to unfold the main plot of
the story. In order to be more specific, this story is not about a boy who had a wish to visit Araby
to get the token of love for Megan’s sister. On the contrary, the story is more about the ‘brown’
decayed neighborhood, the unaccomplished task, the ‘blind’ street and Araby that unfold the

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Narration And Symbols- Main Protagonists In James Joyce’s Araby
main plot to be about a defeated quest (plato-philosophy.org, 2016). This can be added that the
absence of names of the characters focuses on the fact that they are not given the most
significance in this story. Moreover, it is ironical to note that inanimate elements like streets, the
neighborhood, and the bazaar have been introduced with a lot of adjectives but the characters
have become a prey to vague and superficial descriptions.

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Narration And Symbols- Main Protagonists In James Joyce’s Araby
Reference list
Khorsand, G. (2014). Paths to Paralysis: Symbolism and Narratology in James Joyce’s “Araby”
and “Eveline”. Epiphany, 7(2), 1-11. Retrieved on: 12th Dec, 2018, From:
http://epiphany.ius.edu.ba/index.php/epiphany/article/download/109/106
plato-philosophy.org, (2016), Araby by James Joyce, Retrieved on: 12th Dec, 2018, From:
https://www.plato-philosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Araby