Araby by James Joyce is a story about a boy who lives in Dublin at the beginning of the 20th century.
The boy appears in a very depressed setting. The city of those years is as dry as dust, every meter of the streets breathes with hopeless and “preserved” immutability.
The boy, as a young explorer, is having fun in the dull neighbourhood. He is a cheerful kid. The character is inspired by the image of a girl who lives in the house opposite his. The boy is full of hope and expectations, even being loaded like a cargo ship making his way through the dirty and smelly quarter full of dirty winos “I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes” (2). It characterizes him as a great dreamer. Sometimes in an excessive way, he prefers to live in his dream world, and doesn’t know how to act in the real one. He can see the “light” in this place, it is enough to be happy.
After a much-desired conversation with his “muse”, a new aim appears in his life. It is a magical and mysterious Araby bazaar. The boy is inspirited by that wonderful image.
He desperately follows his ideals, treats the images and ideals as a shrine his thoughts and words leave his lips like a prayer. It defines him as a idealistic and romantic boy.
Sometimes he feels something great and sad, that “fills” all his heart. Such a wide range of feelings shows that the character is a highly sensitive person.
Finally reaching the bazar, which is not the bazar he dreamed, all his hopes, dreams and ideals are broken. He meets the dry Dublin reality. The beautiful veil that covered the magnificent images had been torn off. He’s matured, in the bad sense of these words, he “has seen the light” and “no longer sees the light”. That’s the place where the nowadays narrator was born. What kind of person is it can be traced through the narrator’s vision of the world in the story. He is not a dreamer any more, he is not an idealist. He sees the dark of the place he grew up.
3 thoughts on “Amalia Tabet Discussion 5”
I agree that the story’s setting is crucial in shaping the boy’s experiences and emotions. The boy’s lack of joy and hope in his daily life appears to be mirrored in the bleakness and dullness of Dublin’s streets, until he falls in love with the girl across the street. The bazaar represents an escape from monotony as well as an opportunity for the boy to impress the girl he has been eyeing. However, his disappointment and disillusionment upon discovering that the bazaar does not live up to his expectations reflect the harsh reality of the world around him.
Amalia, please be sure to directly respond to the prompt for this week. I am asking students to supply words they would use to describe the narrator, not the setting although the setting does give clues into the character of the protagonist. Your comments about the boy’s being inspired by the image of the girl does suggest that he is highly romantic and idealistic. I’d like to hear more!
I believe all his hopes and dreams are broken also. I like how you said about reality setting in, and it sucks because people go through what the boy did these and never learn from it. They end up making the same decision over and over hoping for a different outcome.