Name: Karen Bulanag
Course: ENG 102
Professor: Prof. Sean Taro-Nishi
Journal about “ARABY” by James Joyce
Reading Araby felt like entering a memory: foggy, full of desire, and inevitably
disappointing. The narrator is a young boy who is completely smitten with his friend's sister and
feels that buying her a gift from the bazaar will either confirm his feelings or make him worthy of
her attention. The adolescent kind of hopefulness appears both foolish and profoundly real.
Religion is interwoven throughout the narrative, however not in a consoling way. The
young boy his aunt, and uncle reside in a room that was once occupied by a priest, and Joyce
presents items that allude to a stale version of spirituality—books with dusty pages, a lack of
concern. In addition, there is the conflict between the boy's religious commitment and his own
idealized interest in Mangan's sister. He has an almost religious and awe-inspiring emotion for her,
as though she were an object of veneration from afar rather than a real person.
The disappointment that comes with growing up is one of the most important themes in Araby.
Despite his early conviction that his objective was good, the narrator ultimately confronts the
terrible reality of life's indifference. The bazaar, which he had envisioned as a magnificent and
exotic location, is almost deserted by the time he gets there. The vendors are uninterested, the scene
is dismal, and suddenly his mission seems meaningless. This marks a change in lost innocence as
one transitions from hope to disillusionment.
Joyce creates a universe that is almost oppressive through her words. A gloomy atmosphere is
produced by the lack of light, the neighborhood's rain-soaked streets, and the house that is silent
and passive. The narrator's depiction of Mangan's sister radiating brightness in the impending
darkness was one particular image that really stood out to me. She stands in sharp contrast to the
routine of his inner existence, much like his fleeting attraction to her. However, the last lines
contain the most striking image:
“Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes
burned with anguish and anger.”
This was profound. This is when the narrator realizes, once and for all, that his journey for
something broader—whether love, adventure, or meaning—was ultimately based on illusion. The
“darkness” doesn’t just mean his physical state. The “darkness” refers to the void of space created
by failing to find satisfaction in his illegitimate pursuits. He sees that he is foolish, that he chased
after something that was never there in reality. It is painful, and yet such a voyage feels like an
existence that many of us have experienced or will experience—the despair after hope has
produced shattered expectations—and this feeling carries long after the conclusion.