Araby by James Joyce - Book Report/Review Example

Throughout Joyce’s story, it can be seen that the boy’s desire for Mangan’s sister as well as his desire to go to the bazaar are truly both expressions of the same desire to escape from his everyday experience. This is made clear in the case of the girl by the things he associates with her: “These noises converged in a single sensation of life for me: I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes.” This reveals that his thoughts regarding the girl are more associated with ideas of adventure and romance than they have involved with the girl herself.

His conceptions of the bazaar are equally tied to an idea of escaping his everyday experience. “The syllables of the word Araby were called to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an Eastern enchantment over me.” Again, his response is not based on any consideration of what reality might be but is instead couched in terms of adventure and difference. The quickness with which the boy transitions from the girl to Araby to disappointment in both reveals the degree to which his true desire is to escape the unchanging reality of his daily life.