Valentina Buzuk

Prof. Zrinka Frleta

Historical overview of English literature
Department for English language and literature
University of Zadar
07 January 2015
Araby by James Joyce

'Araby' is a short story that belongs to collection 'Dubliners' written by James Joyce in
1914. The narrator is describing where his house is located in the North Dublin street. He is
explaining the interesting parts of his childhood that he recalls. The person that he remembers
the most was Mangan's sister whom he spend time observing very often. He developed certain
feelings for her and plans to go with her to a fair organized to raise money for charity. When
the girl realizes that she won't be able to come, she asks him to buy her something when he
goes. Unfortunately, his uncle comes home late at night and the boy was inabled to visit
bazaar. He feels very dissapointed.
'Araby' is about a somewhat introverted boy fumbling toward adulthood with little in the way
of guidance from family or community. It takes the form of a quest -a journey in search of
something precious or even sacred. Once again, the quest is ultimately in vain. Some critics
have suggested that Mangan's sister represents Ireland itself, and that therefore the boy's quest
is made on behalf of his native country. Certainly, the bazaar seems to combine elements of

the Catholic Church and England (the two entities that Joyce blamed most for his country's
paralysis).
Though all are written from the first-person point-of-view, or perspective, in none of the
first three stories in Dubliners is the young protagonist himself telling the story. 'Araby'
employs a close first-person narrator describing the world as it appeals to his senses, and
leaves the reader with only a suggested moral resolution. Joyce's point-of-view strategy
thereby allows the reader to examine the feelings of his young protagonists while
experiencing those feelings in all their immediate, overwhelming pain.
Stylistic analysis
Told from the first-person point of view, the story is a convincing representation of the
voice of an observant, impressionable, nave young boy. At the same time, through the deft
use of language, symbol, and allusion, a world of feeling beyond the boys experience is
conveyed to the attentive reader.
First, the story is firmly rooted in time and place: The Joyce family lived on North Richmond
Street in 1894, and the young James (then twelve years old) attended the actual Araby bazaar
held between May 14 and 18 of that year. All the historical, geographical, and cultural
references in the story are true to life.
Second, the language is carefully designed so as to convey a complex, yet highly controlled
range of meanings. Consider, for example, the use of the words blind, and set . . . free in
the first sentence, the various uses of stall in the body of the story, and driven and eyes
in the last sentence. These motifs support the chivalric and religious themes in the story and
subtly link them to its emotional core.

Third, the story is rich with the symbolism of romance, Roman Catholicism, and the
Orientalism popular at the end of the last century. The various allusionsto Sir Walter Scott,
James Clarence Mangan, Caroline Nortons poem The Arabs Farewell to His Steed, the
Freemasons, Mrs. Mercercan enlarge the relevance and appeal of the boys private
adventure for the attentive reader.
Finally, the story reaches its climax with what Joyce calls an epiphany: a term borrowed
from theology and applied to a moment of unexpected revelation or psychological insight.
Such moments are not conventionally dramatic, nor are they explained to the reader. Here the
epiphany occurs in the boys consciousness when he overhears the petty and incomplete
conversation at the bazaar. He believes himself to have been self-deluded: He has placed too
much faith in Mangans sister and the values she represents.
Structural analysis
The structure of James Joyce's "Araby" is tri-partite, beginning with the evocation of a
childish experience of a dingy environment, followed by his romantic attachment to a girl,
and ending with the visit to the Araby bazaar. In this story, the boy achieves a revelation that
marks the end of childhood, and the shift to adolescence. The narrator is a boy from this
school who seems to be remembering these days from some distance in time. He has reached
the time of life when he is changing from child to adolescent and this is represented by his
attraction to Mangan's sister, whose image stays with him.
Used sources:
-Fiction, The Esserver Collection; Araby by James Joyce, 2015, Web, 07 January 2015.
-CliffsNotes, Hougton Mifflin Court, Dubliners, Araby by James Joyce, 2015, Web, 07
January 2015.