Arabi is a short story by James Joyce. Around the early 20th century, in Dublin, Ireland, the boy narrator lived on a quiet, closed street with his aunt and uncle. The narrator never revealed his name, he was infatuated with Mangan's sister. He becomes obsessed with going to the Araby bazaar in order to buy her a gift. The narrator took a Florin (a coin) by train to the market, but when he arrived, the market was quiet and the narrator timidly walked in. The market began to close, and as the narrator stood in the darkness, he realized that he had been foolishly driven by vanity. However, when he finally realizes that the bazaar is nothing more than a commercialized event and that his romantic notions about it were false. This epiphany filled him with 'pain and anger'. “Araby” uses light and religious symbolism to represent the protagonist’s journey from innocence to experience.
Coming of age is a young person’s transition from being a child to being an adult. One of Arabi's core issues is growth. In fact, this story is told from an adult's perspective, indicating that it is about growth: the narrator is reflecting on a period of growth in his childhood. He reviews his experience in the Arabi market and provides some small insights from an adult's perspective. When the protagonist was engulfed by his infatuation with Mangan's sister, he lost interest in playing with friends and at school. Suddenly, the things that were important to him in the past became less important now. He even began to feel superior to his friends, thinking that his daily life was an "ugly and monotonous children's game," and now this kind of life seems to be an obstacle between him and his crush. He also began to reduce his time with friends and observe them from the perspective of outsiders. On the night of the Arabi market, the narrator refused to smile at his uncle's joke, which was a subtle act of resistance. At the end of the story, the protagonist does not buy anything because of his lack of money, late arrival, and most notably, his general disappointment in the bazaar. This disappointment is such a frustration to him that he distanced himself from his friends, and lost interest in his studies. He lost his innocence, and the narrator realized his previous innocence. Although adulthood is inevitable for everyone and something worth looking forward to, sometimes losing doesn't mean coming of age.
The process of growth is filled with imagination about beautiful things, but reality can be the most profound understanding of growth. Arabi appears to be the name of a market in the story, but it actually symbolizes the beauty, mystery, and romance that a boy longs for throughout his life It shows a boy’s longing for going to Araby which was to his imagination a place of mystic charms and romances. After obtaining his uncle's permission, he eagerly looked forward to the day when he would go to that place. Finally, he went there late at night, longing for the beauty and romantic grandeur associated with this Eastern name, which he had cherished for a long time. However, the boy felt extremely angry and frustrated after the actual visit to Arabi. Because he entered the market very late, many stalls were closed, and then he walked through different stalls, eager to enjoy things that could bring him a sense of romance and beauty. But he cannot be satisfied, and his dream has not yet been realized. The mediocre environment of this place destroyed his expectations and imagination of romance and beauty. In the story， the use of light throughout the story symbolizes the protagonist’s growing awareness and understanding of the world around him. At first, the light is associated with hope and possibility, but by the end of the story, it has become a symbol of the harsh reality of the world. In the process of growth, people often have unparalleled imagination and longing for beautiful things, but when they truly get them, they discover that reality is completely different from their own imagination. This may also be the most authentic experience of the growth process.
The Catholic Church's influence made Dublin a place of asceticism where desire is seen as immoral. The story uses religious symbolism to represent the protagonist’s journey from innocence to experience. The story takes place on North Richmond Street, which is a “blind” street because it dead-ends at a wall. This symbolizes the boy’s blindness to the realities of life. In the story of Araby, an apple tree is a reference to the Garden of Eden from the Bible. Since the story of the apple involves Adam and Eve falling from grace by eating the forbidden fruit and having their "eyes opened," the inclusion of this allusion helps provide context and foreshadow the events later in "Araby." The entire story has a strong religious color, and the author uses religious symbolism to express the narrator's sincere desire, admiration for his crush girl, and longing for romantic feelings under the influence of a religious atmosphere.
In conclusion, the story centers around the narrator’s infatuation with the girl and his epiphany that helps him to realize the harsh realities of life. The story begins in the afternoon, but by the end of the story, it is nighttime. This symbolizes the journey from innocence to experience that the narrator takes. When the narrator arrived at Araby, it was already dark and many stalls were closed. He stayed at the stalls for a while, pretending to be interested in shopping. When he left the booth, someone called the market to close, and the lights in the upper part of the hall went out. He said at the end, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creation driven and derided by vanity, and my eyes burned with anguish and angel.” This fully expresses the narrator's profound understanding of the difference between reality and his vanity fantasies, and also vividly demonstrates the narrator's disappointment in discovering that he has lost his innocence in his growth.
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