The main protagonist in the short story “Araby” by James Joyce can be best described as a very young boy that still plays in the streets of his hometown, Dublin Ireland. Many words can be used to describe the boy such as imaginative, curious, and confused in a sense. This story is not necessarily a love story but rather a story about the “coming of age” as portrayed by the characters development in feeling and emotions throughout the plot. Towards the middle of the story, the little boy begins admiring Mangan’s sister. However, the moment he laid eyes on her, that admiration soon became stronger and intense. The author then proceeds to empathize on how the little boy was thin king of this girl in the most unexpected and unique places and ways. At some point a reader can identify this as being desperate and obsessed to some extent. Mangan sister soon mentions the bazaar that the little boy is very eager to go to. This is because he wants to show her how he is way more mature than she thought and to impress her. This shows readers how the whole aspect of this story is not “love” but rather playing around with your head and environment to figure out who you are. That is what readers can see glimpse of regarding the little boy. Furthermore, the little boys character depicts what eventually happens at the end of the story because soon he realizes that he has wasted his efforts of going through all of this just not get what he went there for. Therefore, his character of being curious, unintelligent to some extent because he is young, and desperate resulted in this to happen.
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4 thoughts on “Week #5 Discussion Board”
Hi Adib, I agree that the young boy in the story seems curious, confused, and imaginative. He seems not to understand how to control his feelings due to not having experience. I think he will fall into the saying that says, “curiosity will kill the cat.” The young man wanted to impress the young girl by mentioning that he would attend the Bazaar but had to depend on his uncle for funds to purchase something for her. He tried, but lack of experience and his imagination running wild got the best of him. He needs to disconnect from everything and focus on the lesson learned.
You’ve done an excellent job of analyzing the protagonist in “Araby” and how his character develops over the novel. You’ve depicted the boy’s fascination with Mangan’s sister and how it drives his actions and intentions well. Your description of how the narrative is a coming-of-age tale rather than a love story is insightful and contributes to our comprehension of the story’s themes. You’ve also done an excellent job of showing how the boy’s personality eventually leads to his disappointment at the conclusion of the narrative. Overall, your analysis provides a thorough knowledge of the protagonist and the ideas of the story.
Adib, this is an excellent discussion of some of the psychological elements in “Araby”; however, I am looking for a character analysis of the boy. Your last sentence touches on some of these traits.
Agree with you that he is a sensitive and romantic boy, the bazaar is an exotic place, for a boy, it is a place full of beauty but the reality is cruel, one day the dream will be shattered, he He had to wake up and realize that it was an illusory beauty before he could face this dreary place again.