"Araby" can be said to be a complex short story written by Joyce as a reflection of the life of a young boy growing up in Dublin city. The narrator, a boy, is not named, and Joyce, the author, uses him as the first person; though the narrator appears to be more mature than the boy referred in the short story. Araby, focuses on fantasy and escape; revolving around despair, darkness as well as enlightenment. The story is retrospective of Joyce's life and looks back of his past life as well as his constant struggles (Smith 10).
This story, Araby, involves a couple of themes; apparently, the main themes, according to my opinion, are escape as well as fantasy as per the last few paragraphs in the story. Again, there are some signs of religion as well as love as seen with the relationship between the boy and Mangan’s sister. Despair and dissolution in Araby can be seen to be an attempt by the narrator to escape the dark bleak of North Richmond Street in search of appealing gift for the blind affection. The author orchestrates some trials to evade “short days of winter", again, "where night falls early" as well as the “streetlights that can be seen as feeble lanterns" that fail to light the somberness of “dark muddy lanes". There are also some metaphors used to highlight the theme of darkness. For instance, Joyce refers to the North Richmond Street as blind, dead end; as a boy, in the mid 1890s, Joyce used to live on North Richmond Street in Dublin. Therefore, the repeated theme of darkness continues to be mentioned through the story; the young boy tries to hide within the shadows at the uncle’s or comply to glimpse of Mangan's sister who can be seen as his first love.
Another major theme emerging in this part of the story is frustration since it can be said to be the basis of despair. The boy deals with the limits provided on him over the situation going around his life. For instance, the protagonist poses a series of ideas that are romantic about the girl as well as wondrous event, the bazaar, which he would like to attend on account of the girl in mind. However, frustrations emerge from the night when he awaits the return of his uncle to provide some money to go to the bazaar. The boy's frustration increases as the uncle arrives late and seems to have forgotten that he (the boy) was to go to the bazaar. At that time, the boy is afraid he might not go to the bazaar as expected. Another frustration emerges as he arrives and finds that bazaar is almost closed. In addition, the fantasies he made about buying a gift for his dream girl from the bazaar appears to be ridiculous as even the woman selling does not take any interest in him but continues to flirt with the two men around the place. The situation at the bazaar breaks tawdry shadow of the dreams (of impressing the girl with a gift) had. Meanwhile, the boy overhears the dialogue among the vendors and realizes that they are ordinary English women, thus the nature of the conversation makes the boy realize that he could not escape; whether he gets bazaar or he misses, he would remain in Dublin. Moreover, the accents of women and the men vendors remind him as well as the reader that Dublin could be a colonized city.
He realizes that he arrived late and thus could not do shopping. However, it becomes evident, immediately, that the tardiness matters less. He despairs and realizes that any gift could be well beyond his expected price range. As seen from the description of the young boy's situation of housing, as well as the less amount of money provided by his uncle, it is clear that their financial capability was less and also tight. Therefore, his anticipation of the situation provides him with sarcastic daydreams since reality would be a harsh word to refer to the situation. Therefore, through this paragraph the boy faces despair and remains a prisoner of his city and modest means.
The last statement “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” has a lot of significance in the book. This statement can be associated to the situation of the boy finds in Araby. He finds Araby just like his home, North Richmond Street. It is empty as well as dark, but with less people than North Street. For instance, there is a young lady at the booth and, the worst thing, she ignores him while she continues to flirts with the English men. She later approaches him, and he stares relentlessly, surprised and transfixed by the awkwardness of ignoring him. The lady turns and goes away not minding the boy’s presence, making the boy realize the chance of winning Mangan’s sister through special gift slipped from him. Finally, the anguish burns through his eyes as the cold fixes of reality dawns on him as he clashes with the few coins he has in his pocket. Therefore, the statement shows the extent of despair, and how the boy later realizes life that life is unfair. He is extremely frustrated, and this brings out one of the important themes from the short story, Araby.
In conclusion, Araby can be said to be a well organized story that brings about various crucial themes to understand the stages of life. It also portrays the emotion that adolescents go through as they grow up. This is together with the theme of frustration as the boy faces the problem of getting a gift to his beloved girl. Again, frustration can be seen while the English women and men in Araby ignore the boy. In addition, he realizes that he has less money to buy the gift. This brings a lot of despair to the boy, and he walks away in anger and anguish registered on his face. Escape can be said to be another important theme in the story. The boy is trying to escape from the street filled with darkness. The use of darkness in almost all the paragraphs, as well, has a lot of significance. According to my opinion, darkness can be said to be a metaphor for the problems faced by the young boy in the story. Emergence of light, as well, has significance but not to the same degree as darkness. Finally, the last paragraph establishes the conclusion of the boy has realized his inability to purchase a gift for the girl. He realizes that as much as he wants to change things while young it will always be difficult.
Works Cited
Smith, Patrick A. Thematic Guide to Popular Short Stories. Portsmouth: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. Print.
