Araby by James Joyce is narrated from the point of view of a young boy. Numerous descriptions of the narrator’s home and neighborhood are provided. He says that North Richmond Street is very peaceful, with a “wild garden” behind his house and an “uninhabited house of two storeys” at the end of the street. When you read the story, you can feel the boy’s confusion and frustration as he navigates his newfound feelings for his neighbor’s sister.
The contrast between bright and dim is a major theme throughout the narrative. Aside from his obsession with the girl, who is always depicted with a bright, almost divine light, the narrator seems to have no sources of hope in his life. The narrator describes how the home life is monotonous and devoid of happiness. He sees the bazaar as a magical and exotic place that brings a lot of joy into his life. Unfortunately, the bazaar is already partially dark when he gets there, and the last lights go out.
When I read the story, the young boy strikes me as sensitive and romantic, but he also strikes me as naive and inexperienced.His thoughts are constantly diverted to daydreams about the girl he can’t help but be hopelessly in love with. I believe that he went to the bazaar to find a place where his dreams and thoughts about the girl could be fulfilled, but that was just a thought in his mind; he wanted to get her something from the bazaar without first making any preparations. To the point of complete disillusionment by the story’s end.
When the light goes out at the end of the story, he understands that his dreams and hopes have also vanished. What he will do next is unclear, but his unrequited feelings for the girl will surely follow him. Since the boy’s naivety and romanticism led him to make promises and set unrealistic expectations, his subsequent disillusionment with reality contributes to his feelings of hopelessness and aimlessness, What happened to this boy, I believe, happens to many teenagers because most of us at this age make decisions based on our thoughts and imagination rather than facts and reality.
5 thoughts on “Ihab Gomaa Discussion 5”
Ihab, your characterization of the protagonist as sensitive, romantic, naive, and inexperienced is excellent and is borne out by the text. In your post, you adeptly show specific moments in the narrative when these traits are seen. The first two paragraphs of your post are really focused on the setting and theme of the story; however, within these ideas you can find more clues to the boy’s personality. The setting, for example, helps show how isolated he is and how dreary his prospects seem to be. He is discounted and full of longing for more than his surroundings offer.
I love your statement, “Since the boy’s naivety and romanticism led him to make promises and set unrealistic expectations, his subsequent disillusionment with reality contributes to his feelings of hopelessness and aimlessness.” I definitely agree with your point of view on the character of the boy in this story, I see him as naive, vulnerable and lacking emotional intelligence and your inclusion of descriptions of setting make me think that he could also be inexperienced due to how isolated his community seems to be.
I agree with you and the fact that most of us make decisions based on our thoughts and not on reality, which we might regret after we realize something but shouldn’t do so because we always learn something from them that help us grow as a person, just like the young boy from this story gained some maturity from his experience with this girl. Everything was a fantasy, he had a whole world in his mind with this girl and could even talk to her, but was blinded and so determined to get her a gift without any preparation or thinking about any outcome
I agree with you and the fact that most of us make decisions based on our thoughts and not on reality, which we might regret after we realize something but shouldn’t do so because we always learn something from them that help us grow as a person, just like the young boy from this story gained some maturity from his experience with this girl. Everything was a fantasy, he had a whole world in his mind with this girl and could even talk to her, but was blinded and so determined to get her a gift without any preparation or thinking about any outcome
This response makes me think about how the play of light and dark was used not only to create a setting, but to give the reader a sense of the protagonist’s personality. The author chose to use this juxtaposition to display how hopeful he can be (the light radiating from Magnan’s sister) and how forlorn he can be (standing in the dimmed light in the bazaar at the end of the story). These qualities accentuate the characteristics the boy possesses through his growing feelings for Magnan’s sister, sensitive and naive.