Sophia Morales Discussion 5

I would describe the boy in the story as naive and vulnerable; lacking emotional intelligence. It is implied by his attempt to hide in the shadows to avoid going home, that he is of a very young age. Since he doesn’t have much control over or knowledge of his emotions, a crush on Mangan’s sister turns into more and instead turns into a sense of desperation, “I looked over at the dark house where she lived. I may have stood there for an hour, seeing nothing but the brown-clad figure cast by my imagination, touched discreetly by the lamplight at the curved neck, at the hand upon the railings and at the border below the dress” (Araby). Toward the ending of the story, the boy is angered by the lack of options he was left with at the bazaar, having arrived too late. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” If he had not been so susceptible to an obsession with Mangan’s sister, he would not have been so determined to buy her something, and therefore, he would not have been so angered by his inability to.