This week in literature class, we read the short story 'Araby' by James Joyce. When I first read the story, I did not understand the complexity behind it- I did not understand why it was so great. However, after I read it again (and after we discussed it in class), I began to realize how true and beautiful the story was.
'Araby', being a 'coming of age' story, has at first glance a very basic and predictable story line. There's initial innocence, innocent love, desire, disappointment and a realization of the triviality of ones actions, which concludes with a jump to maturity. Typical. However, 'Araby' is not just your average coming of age story, such as 'Hercules' or the 'The Lion King', which possesse happy endings despite all of the trials the protagonist encountered in order to achieve maturity in the end. 'Araby' looks at a young boy, so mentally captivated by his infatuation with a girl, that every waking moment he spends thinking of her or trying to catch a glimpse of her. When she states that she will not be attending the local fair, Araby, but asks the boy if he will be going, he declares that if he does, he will buy her something. The idea of being able to give the low of his life a gift from an exotic event weighs so heavy on his mind that he is unable to focus on anything else. The night of the fair, however, his Uncle comes home late (drunk) which means the boy will arrive at the festival late. The train he must catch to go to Araby is then late also, and by the time he arrives, most places are closing. He stops at one stand, but the lady running it is in the middle of a conversation with two men. The three others at the booth are British- killing for the boy the sense of 'exoticness' that Araby was supposed to have. The boy walks away, utterly defeted, realising that he had been solely a creature of vanity.
The significance of this story lies in the way the main character reaches maturity. Instead of overcoming many difficult task and the rewarded and instantly matured (like we see in many coming of age Disney movies), this boy had no happy ending. He realized that not only had all his efforts to please this girl been absolutely idle, but he also realized that he had been a person living only out of their vanity. He does not get rewarded for this realization, and he will never get to go back to being an 'innocent kid in love' ever again. Rather, a fog has been lifted from his eyes, and for better or worse, he will never be the same.
'Araby', being a 'coming of age' story, has at first glance a very basic and predictable story line. There's initial innocence, innocent love, desire, disappointment and a realization of the triviality of ones actions, which concludes with a jump to maturity. Typical. However, 'Araby' is not just your average coming of age story, such as 'Hercules' or the 'The Lion King', which possesse happy endings despite all of the trials the protagonist encountered in order to achieve maturity in the end. 'Araby' looks at a young boy, so mentally captivated by his infatuation with a girl, that every waking moment he spends thinking of her or trying to catch a glimpse of her. When she states that she will not be attending the local fair, Araby, but asks the boy if he will be going, he declares that if he does, he will buy her something. The idea of being able to give the low of his life a gift from an exotic event weighs so heavy on his mind that he is unable to focus on anything else. The night of the fair, however, his Uncle comes home late (drunk) which means the boy will arrive at the festival late. The train he must catch to go to Araby is then late also, and by the time he arrives, most places are closing. He stops at one stand, but the lady running it is in the middle of a conversation with two men. The three others at the booth are British- killing for the boy the sense of 'exoticness' that Araby was supposed to have. The boy walks away, utterly defeted, realising that he had been solely a creature of vanity.
The significance of this story lies in the way the main character reaches maturity. Instead of overcoming many difficult task and the rewarded and instantly matured (like we see in many coming of age Disney movies), this boy had no happy ending. He realized that not only had all his efforts to please this girl been absolutely idle, but he also realized that he had been a person living only out of their vanity. He does not get rewarded for this realization, and he will never get to go back to being an 'innocent kid in love' ever again. Rather, a fog has been lifted from his eyes, and for better or worse, he will never be the same.
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