Victoria Chen Discussion 5

“Araby” by James Joyce did not feel like a love story at all. The narrator describes his day to day life and his surroundings seem like a very gloomy, sombre and a piercingly lonely environment. We get a very overwhelming contrast between “the dark” reality the narrator lives in and “the light” that the girl he is infatuated with represents for him. We don’t know much of the story of his childhood but we learn that he lives with his uncle and aunt. I believe there might be an implied connection that the lack of parents in his life and his very joyless, dull outlook on the surrounding world grows in what seems like “an obsession” with the only source of a positive sensation which his friend’s sister represents. His emotions are overpowering: “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom.” His emotions seems to be very powerful but we don’t see much of a romantic connotation in his mind. It’s almost like this obsession gives him some sort of purpose or a distraction from a hostile reality.