Some words I would use to describe the boy in “Araby” by James Joyce are timid, innocent, and compulsive. The story states “When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped…This happened morning after morning. I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.” This quote actively demonstrates the boy’s timidness. He was so shy when it came to Mangan’s sister (the girl he is describing his feelings about in the quote) that he couldn’t even speak to her.
In the beginning of the story, the narrator starts out by describing the setting around him while him and his friends played in the street. Then, at the end of the story, the boy cries out of “anger”, because he couldn’t get Mangan’s sister a gift, like he told her he would, due to the fact that he was too late to the bazaar. These two events both prove the boy’s innocence. Also, the reader can tell he is definitely at a young age since he plays in the street.
Throughout the whole story, we see the way that the boy describes Mangan’s sister and his feelings for her. He follows her, watches her every day/morning, and at the end, he proves that he’ll try hard to make her happy. This makes him seem very compulsive, or consumed by the girl and how he feels about her.
