“Araby” by James Joyce is a story that details how obsession can warp one’s view of reality and mindset as a whole. We can first see an example of the narrator’s obsession in the line, “Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door” (Joyce 1). This explains how the narrator even watches over her while she cannot notice him. Due to this occurring on a daily basis, it can be assumed that the narrator has some sort of feeling for his friend’s sister. This leads him to try and buy her something from the bazaar in order to gain her favor. His mind takes her infatuation with the bazaar and manipulates it in order to help him fixate on that one specific goal. In the end, he is disappointed when he realizes the bazaar does not meet his expectations, which allows him to come to an understanding that he wasted his own time.
Powered by:
top
3 thoughts on “Tristan Bryan Discussion 5”
Hi Tristan. I agree that the theme of obsession was shown many times in this story. The boy is always watching looking at the girl when she is in view or looking for her when she is not. The narrator also mentions how annoyed and resentful he became of anything in his life other than going to Araby. When noticing his teacher’s expression of concern about the boy not participating in class, the narrator says, “I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child’s play, ugly monotonous child’s play”.
I can agree. Joyce wanted to depict this in his passage so the audience can know the rise of the fantasization from the young boy and how it is portrayed in Araby. The young boy’s obsession fixated his automatic thoughts, hearing the news of Mangan’s sister or whenever she appears.
“When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped. I ran to the hall, seized my books, and followed her. I kept her brown figure always in my eye and, when we came near the point at which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her.” (Joyce 13)
(1913)