Question

Coming-of-age or initiation stories often parallel the journey of classical heroes. The young protagonist is beset with a conflict, takes a journey--sometimes physical but always metaphorical--experiences an epiphany, and returns "home" forever changed. Discuss this theme of change as it relates to the protagonist of "Araby" by James Joyce. Your thesis statement should convey the essence of what the change is. You must develop that thesis in the body paragraphs, using at least two direct quotations from the original source. Do not simply retell the plot of the story.

Answer 1

Answer.

James Joyce’s ‘ Araby’ is one amongst the many short stories in his book ‘ Dubliners’ which narrates the everyday narratives of city dwellers. In Araby, a developmental transition is described in the emotions and thoughts of an adolescent boy who becomes conscious of changes in his own emotional trajectory from childhood to adolescence. At an age when he is just beginning to adjust to the experience of interpersonal love he experiences frustration since his exaggerated expectations about the emotional rewards of his devotion to the little girl are cruelly deflated. He interprets the disappointing circumstances of his journey into adulthood as a sign of the hollowness of the ideals with which he undertook that quest for love. He thus connects the frivolous nature of his own ‘boyish’ feelings for Mangan’s sister and thinks that he has perceived the banal reality behind the romantic image. Thus the protagonist breaks out in the end , "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger."   

From such a point of view, this is a story of initiation, marking the rites of passage from the protected domain of childhood to the disillusionmnet of adult life.