Introduction
James Joyce’s Araby is about a young boy in love with his best friend’s sister, but is too afraid to let it show. The author employs various devices to convey the narrator’s emotions without being overly direct in their description. It is an essential point because Joyce chooses the descriptive language to reveal the narrator’s true feelings, which enables him to incorporate symbolism and traits characteristic of the bildungsroman. Araby is a bazaar that the narrator attends to escape his daily routine and explore his inner thoughts. Thus, the main character’s traits are evident throughout the short story, helping to explain the meaning behind various symbols.
Key Characteristics of the Narrator
The primary trait that is important to witness when discussing the narrator is his vigilance. He is always concerned about what happens around him and tries to understand how certain things happen. The main character’s vigilance is also displayed through the interface of his worldviews.
For example, he sees most people around him as blind because he is not content with his life. This misunderstanding sets the narrator apart from the rest because he wants to change the world, rather than going with the flow. Joyce even includes how the narrator “heard the rain impinge upon the earth, the fine incessant needles of water playing in the sodden beds” to showcase the main character’s attentiveness (2). Even the narrator can pick up the most minor details, which makes him superior to his surroundings.
Nevertheless, the narrator’s vigilance is perfectly balanced by his impatience. He does not like waiting and gets to “walk up and down the room” when upset (Joyce 3). Nevertheless, it does not make the narrator a bad person; it only separates him further from the inattentive, inert people around him. With this information in mind, it can be claimed that the narrator is a source of light trapped in a dark room where he cannot realize his potential and find the true meaning of his inner drive.
Symbolism in Araby
The stark reality portrayed in Araby can be associated with the lack of complacency and related awakenings, both mental and sexual. Joyce describes the narrator’s experiences to showcase how repressed consciousness affects human emotions (Rokeya and Ahammed 142). The inability to withstand the harsh reality while being driven by romantic ideals makes the narrator prone to succumbing to the cruelty of the world around him.
The feeling of self-importance is a recurring theme throughout Joyce’s narrative, where frustration and irritation escalate continually. The final epiphany underlines the futility of pursuing ideals in real life and teaches the narrator to escape romantic illusions. This is also one of the key elements of the bildungsroman that Joyce included to deconstruct vanity and prove that internally corrupt people are the worst (Maniee and Mansouri 204). This symbolic deconstruction of arrogance and narcissism creates space for a detailed discussion of how people should follow their hearts instead of succumbing to the anti-romantic societal agenda.
Another vital symbol to note when analyzing Araby is the total darkness that takes over the bazaar, leading to an epiphany. It can be seen as an awakening where a distressing environment was escaped in an attempt to find inner peace. The narrator experiences strange feelings before reaching Araby because he sees his love interest’s house as dark (Rokeya and Ahammed 142).
There is no light in the narrator’s best friend’s sister’s room because she is not interested in the same things as he is. Joyce employs irony here as a device to critique orthodox Christianity in relation to Orientalism. All these inherent contradictions complicate the narrator’s romantic quest and render it impossible to escape the darkness. The main character of Araby is preoccupied with his imagination and the pictures it draws for him. Thus, he finally awakens exasperated and tormented, realizing that the world around him is self-absorbed and blind to beauty and grace.
Conclusion
James Joyce’s Araby is a letter to the people who would like to explore the beauty of the mind instead of coping with the challenges of a commercialized world. The narrator does not romanticize his experiences despite being young and inexperienced. Instead, he follows the path of grim reality and frivolity to understand what is concealed within him.
The quest for beauty undertaken by the main character in Araby is symbolic in many ways. Nevertheless, the narrator quickly understands that many things in the real world are deceptive and unattainable. This idea fortifies the bildungsroman nature of Araby and the presence of several symbols that may help the readers decipher the story’s meaning. It was essential for Joyce to demonstrate that people must undergo painful lessons to become less corrupt and achieve an equilibrium that is not based on a romanticized world vision.
Works Cited
Joyce, James. “Araby.” 1913.
Maniee, Pedram, and Shahriyar Mansouri. “A Post-colonial Study of the Short Story “Araby” (1914) by James Joyce.” Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, vol. 8, no. 2, 2017, pp. 201-208.
Rokeya, Ms, and Zunayet Ahammed. “A Shattering Epiphany in James Joyce’s “Araby”.” Advances in Language and Literary Studies, vol. 8, no. 5, 2017, pp. 140-144.