I believe “Araby” is a coming-of-age story centered around the narrator’s infatuation induced naivety. In the third chapter the narrator finds themselves inexplicably smitten with the older sister of their friend Mangan. The narrator spends the remainder of the story consumed with this girl.
This is shown when the narrator explains that they spend every morning watching her door waiting to follow behind her enroute to school. It is further illustrated when the narrator states, “Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance” all the while not truly understanding the source of these emotions “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand”
When the narrator is presented with an opportunity to impress the holder of his infatuation, they eagerly seize it. Their immaturity is displayed by the narrator’s expressed delusion of going to this “magical place” and finding the perfect gift that will cause the girl to fall for them of We see the main character become frustrated when their uncle doesn’t arrive in time to take them to the bazaar and fear when they arrive to see the place closing. upon arriving late to the bazaar, the narrator finds most shops have closed and the one shop open does not contain anything they feel is worthy. In his failure the character comes to realize that he did not love the girl and in realizing that he realizes what he has become something of a mockery of himself
His attraction represents his maturing, his disillusioned fantasy of going to Araby and getting the perfect gift that will make her fall in love with him represents his childlike innocence that lingers.
