Araby is a short story by James Joyce published in his 1914 collection Dubliners. James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (Irish Seamus Seoighe; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish writer and poet, widely considered to be one of the most influential writers of the 20th century. ... Year 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... For the Irish folk band, see The Dubliners. ...

The story

The narrator, a young boy, tells the story of a childhood infatuation in urban Dublin. The boy lives in a world apart from adults, although he fantasizes about a neighbour's sister. Her first conversation with him is rather one-sided; she asks if he is going to Araby, a local bazaar, which she cannot attend. He promises to bring her a gift from the bazaar if he goes. Despite the boy's best efforts to go to Araby, however, his uncle works late, comes home drunk and has forgotten that he promised the boy he would be allowed to go. He agrees late in the evening to give his nephew a coin to spend there. The boy takes a deserted train to the bazaar late at night, which is almost completely closed. He looks for things to buy, but finds nothing in the remains of the bazaar that entices him. The story ends as the bazaar closes, while the boy burns in shame at his own vanity. WGS-84 (GPS) Coordinates: 53. ...

Romantic elements

Araby follows the typical monomyth structure. However, the story is an anti-romance; the young boy is infatuated with romance stories, and is confronted on all sides by reality, and sexual oppression. [1] The boy's naïve journey to buy a wonderful gift for his neighbor's sister ends with the young boy coming to terms with the "unbridgeable chasm between desire and reality"[2]. He returns frustrated and without his gift, his dream world shattered: It has been suggested that The Hero s journey (phrase) be merged into this article or section. ... An anti-romance, sometimes referred to as a satire, is a type of story characterized by having an apathetic or self-doubting anti-hero cast as the protagonist, who fails in the object of his journey or struggle. ... As a literary genre, romance or chivalric romance refers to a style of heroic prose and verse narrative current in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. ...

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Araby

The boy is finally awaken to reality; he learned that life is not fair. Image File history File links Wikisource-logo. ... The original Wikisource logo. ...

Araby contains many themes and traits common to Joyce in general and Dubliners in particular. As with many of the stories in the collection, Araby involves a character going on a journey, the end result of which is fruitless, and ends with the character going back to where they came from. Evelyn is just one other story in Dubliners to feature a circular journey in this manner. Also, the narrator lives with his aunt and uncle, although his uncle appears to be a portrait of Joyce's father, and may be seen as a prototype for Stephen Dedalus of A Portrait of the Artist of a Young Man and Ulysses. The scorn the narrator has for his uncle is certainly consistent with the scorn Joyce showed for his father, and the lack of "good" parents is pertinent.

References

• Joyce, James. Dubliners (London: Grant Richards, 1914)

External Links

• Summary and Analysis of Araby at GradeSaver