6. Araby, by James Joyce (1914)

6. Araby, by James Joyce (1914)

Rating: 8.5/10

This is the second time for me to read this story. The reason why I gave high rating to this story is because the hero's journey is well depicted in it. It talks about the boy's obstacles on the way to Araby, like uncle coming home late or train moving very slowly. At the end, the boy reaches Araby, but experiences failure and meets ephiphany. Like the other stories in Dubliners, Araby also has a theme of Ireland's paralysis and failure. Instead of that point, I want to focus on the boy's procedure of love. He had a very pure and naive feeling of love towards Mangan's sister, even having hardness to start conversation with her. So going to Araby and buying her a present would be a great pretext for him to be close with her. Unfortunately, he couldn't buy anything there. The story says that "Gazing up into the darkness I say myself as a creature driven and dereded by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger". I wondered why he would be so furious about failing to buy just a single present. I think it meant more for him than being sad about it. By this event, he had realized his position that he is just a feeble young boy not even being able to buy a present for his lover. (226)