Confusion In Araby

The confused boy

Children growing into teenagers and then into adults. It is a wild process for some more than others. We all go through it, and some of us even fall victim of confusion and delusion from it. In James Joyce’s “Araby” we will learn of a religious boy’s confusion as he tries to identify his relationship with religion, unrealistic feelings for Mangan’s sister and how reality snapped him out of his unreality.

This is an old short story about a young boy who seems to be a kid turning into an adolescent. He still plays with his friends “the cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed” but at the same time he was fantasizing about a girl “Mangan’s sister.” He seemed obsessed with seeing her. “Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching the door,” also, the story states, “When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped.” The boy also “follows her.” He also has a religious background; he attends the “Christian Brother’s School.” He also reads books left behind by the priest who use to be a previous tenant in the boy’s home. These books were “The

Abbot, by Walter Scott, The Devout Communicant and The Memoirs of Vidocq. The boy liked the last listed book the most because of the yellow leaves. The books subjects were of different natures such as romance and religion. He seems to tie in his religion to how he sees Mangan’s sister. He feels for her in a spiritual yet lusting manner.
He goes with his aunt to the markets on Saturday evenings to help carry what they bought. While he is with his aunt his imagination goes wild when he hears the loudness of the drunken men, and bargaining women. He imagines “that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes.” In imagining this does this mean he feels through religion he can defeat sinners? All the while Mangan’s sister stays on his mind, in his constant thoughts. He even prays for her without thought “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand.” He states, “But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires” suggesting maybe a religious connection in a romantic harmonious way. He felt this way but words to him by her were never truly spoken, so all this is just in his mind. There is no real connection.
This is when the truth hurts, when reality about his infatuation comes to lite, the narrator’s epiphany.

In the story “Araby” the boy wanted to keep his promise to go to the “Araby” and get Mangan’s sister a gift. He waited for his uncle who was late coming home and had forgotten that he said he would give him money. He was determined to get there before it closed and when he did he was disappointed. It wasn’t what he thought it was at all, it was just a merchant sale of goods. When he listened to the people who worked there talk, he had an epiphany. He realized at that moment he was being foolish. He made no real promise to the girl that didn’t even realized how he felt for her. He doesn’t even think she took him serious. It was all in his mind, he imagined things that weren’t real. This girl was not his angel, but she was just a girl and he wasn’t some hero, he was just a

boy.