In James Joyce's "Araby" the boy' loss of innocence may be confusing and even
painful but at the same time it is important . It begins his journey in to adulthood. The boy in "Araby" is experiencing something all young men experience, the first crush. It is a time in his life where he is having new feelings, and trying to express those feelings to the object of his affection is next to impossible. Even the simple act of watching Mangan's sister brings up emotions in the boy. To say the least the boy is overcome when Mangan's sister actually speaks to him. He is in fact so overcome that he doesn't even know how he answered the girl. To think a girl he has secretly watched every day and shyly followed from a distance while he walked to school is actually showing him some attention .Unfortunately
James Joyce statue next to O'Connell street in Dub...
James Joyce, one of the controversial omissions of...
Mangan Haulage from Staffan Co. Kildare Ireland wi...for the boy the attention is mistaken for something more than it is.
As the boy waits for the day he can go to the bazaar, he thinks of nothing except Mangan's sister. The boy sees her when he is going to sleep, when he wakes, and in school in his papers. The boy wants nothing more than to see Mangan's sister again, but, in his mind for him to do that he needs to get her something from "Araby". The boy is so charged from his encounter that he says he wishes to annihilate the days separating him from going to "Araby" and ultimately Mangan's sister. Finally when the day has arrived that he can go to "Araby" he has to wait for Uncle to get home. To the boys dismay his uncle gets home late and is drunk. The boy is...