Life’s Biggest Disappointment (A critique of the end of Araby)

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Throughout the lives we all live; there will be our highs and our lows. Depending on the way you look at life, there may be more highs than lows or lows than highs. One thing is for certain, during our lives there defiantly will be disappointments. Some of these disappointments will be small, while others will be large, life changing, disappointments. The person you are today decides how you will be able to take these disappointments. Disappointments aren’t always a bad thing; sometimes they can be life changing, life learning incidents that change our lives in the future. This is how the author James Joyce wrote the short story, “Araby”. He took a normal event or incident and broke that any normal person would read and understand the story plot, but looking at the deeper end of things, there can be seen a life learning event that happens in this boy’s mind. In James Joyce’s short story, ”Araby” the small boy at the end of the story learns about the fate of his future, the hard poor life he will live and his ability to control his anger and anguish. The first quality the small boy learns after the disappointment when leaving the Araby is the fate of his future. This boy (driven by love) rushes to this meeting place, a shopping mall of today, where he finds a single stand selling pottery and vases. He observes these vase and such, but at the end of the story he, “turned away slowly and walked down the middle of the bazaar. I allowed the two pennies to fall against the sixpence in my pocket,” (Joyce, Araby, page 1241, final paragraph) The meaning of these lines are telling the reader that this boy is walking away from the place that he spent the whole day waiting to get to because of his lack of money. With only two pennies in hi... ... middle of paper ... ... Araby. This young boy goes through the experience and realization that he will not live in a life where he gets what he wants, nor will he live an easy life. His life, from this bazaar experience, with be one of hardship and trial. The two epiphanies that the child first experiences help him with an important life quality. The first two of living a poor life and living a future life filled with hardships helps to control his emotions and better himself for being an adult. These experiences that the boy experiences at the bazaar are important qualities to posses and it is important that through our lives that we experience these moments and learn from disappointments in our lives. All of our lives will be filled with highs and lows, disappointments and accomplishments, in the story of “Araby” by James Joyce describes one boy’s experiences of having a disappointment.

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