ARABY introduces the narrator recalling his memories as a little boy in a Christian Brother's, all-boy-school. He had a crush on Mangan's sister, even though he never talked to her. But one day, she spoke to him, saying she couldn't go to the Araby market, and seeing it as an opportunity, he promised to bring her something fabulous. But his uncle arrived late and the araby nearly closed. The narrator rushed to the market to be disappointed, as most of the stalls were closed, all were English sellers, and there was a scene in which a female shopkeeper was flirting with two young men. The narrator stood there in anguish and anger as the lights went out.
This coming-of-age novel shows how the main character changes and becomes more mature over the course of the story. Coming-of-age describes the transition of one person from their childhood life to a new start in their adulthood life. Joyce, who wrote the story when he was an adult, uses his mature perspective to narrate his childhood experience, therefore adding his own mature opinions here and there over the course of the story. But before maturity, always comes rebellion. One must be at least a tiny bit rebelling against one’s parents or teachers to realize one’s mistakes and change to be more mature. The novel greatly shows how the narrator as a boy entered the rebellion stage and then became mature over a series of events. He first thinks that he is superior to all the other immature boys playing their childish and foolish games, so he stays away from them. According to his conversation with his aunt and uncle, he is also found to be extremely annoyed by them. But in the end, he realizes his mistake and becomes mature. Before entering adulthood and becoming mature, there is always a certain point where rebellious thoughts kick in.
While imagination could one’s fantasy world and one’s dream come true, most imaginations are very different from reality. Idealization can even come with consequences that might affect one’s whole future. In the novel, idealization brings many consequences to the narrator’s childhood life and affects the narrator’s opinion about reality and imagination. The narrator as a little boy imagined many things: especially Mangan’s pretty sister. He strongly believes in unrealistic love, and already has a crush on her without even strongly knowing her or talking to her. When going to the Araby, he imagined a market full of foreign people selling foreign fantasies. However, the first thing he sees in the market is an English woman flirting with two young men. Most of the stalls were closed, and not one of the sellers was from foreign countries. Furthermore, idealization caused the narrator to be lonely and single as a child. Before going to the market, he thought the other boys were immature, and stopped playing with them. Then, he lost the opportunity of having Mangan’s sister as his lover. If one lives in one’s fantasy world of imagination too much without often coming back to reality, one can get affective consequences. Idealization can affect one’s life and future, as it lets one perform unrealistic moves in the real world that might only matter in one’s imagination.
Christian culture and religion can affect one’s opinions, personality, and even one’s lives greatly. The narrator as a child studies in a Christian Brother’s all-boys school, meaning he has learned to worship God greatly. But the religious teaching caused him to act to his lover nearly the same way as God. The narrator doesn’t understand how to behave in romantic situations, so instead, he acts the same way as he would to God. In the story, the narrator says that Mangan’s sister is like a “chalice” to him and he must protect her from a “throng of foes”. In this way, he is comparing her to the Holy Grail. But then, it gets a bit too much. He starts worshipping her like God and prays for her, praises her, and even tries to make her pleased with him. However, this strongly shows disrespect to both his culture and to God. He idolizes Mangan’s sister more than God, which is considered a sort of blasphemy, or great disrespect to God and Christianity. The narrator is unsatisfied with worshipping God, so he worships Mangan’s sister instead, and wants to run away to a foreign place, in this case, the Araby market. The narrator has come to realize that nearly anything, even his Christian religion is in fact hard and complicated to live with.
In the short story ARABY, the narrator recalls a childhood experience when he was still an immature boy. He had a big crush of Mangan’s sister, and promised to bring something fantastic for her from the Araby market. But to his disappointment, none were from foreign countries and most of the stalls were closed. In this coming-of-age novel, the narrator uses his adult and mature perspective to recall one of his childhood experiences. He, as a little boy, became mature and grew up after that series of events. Before going to the market, he thought himself superior to all the other childish boys, believed in unrealistic love, and lived in his imagination. His whole attitude changes after coming back to reality. The narrator’s Christian culture and religion strongly affect the course of the story. He is so used to worshipping God, he doesn’t understand how to behave in a romantic situation and worships Mangan’s sister instead.
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