“Araby” by James Joyce is a sweet story about a young Irish boy, the narrator, in love with a girl much older than he is. The young boy moves into his late uncle’s house with his family, and he discovers that his neighbor is a beautiful young girl, a sister of one of his playmates, Mangan. The narrator realizes he likes her, and dreams of the day the girl will speak to him. He watches as she leaves the house every morning, walking with her and making childish attempts to catch her eye. Finally one day, she asks him if he is going to visit the bazaar in town. She cannot go, but she is curious about it. Filled with excitement, he prepares to go and bring her back something special, perhaps to woo her. His uncle comes home late, however, and the boy is not able to go to the bazaar until late in the night. As he arrives at the bazaar, the stalls are closing and he comes to the realization that his hopes are foolish. James Joyce uses setting, point of view, and strong language strategies to discuss the imagination of a young boy.

The setting is mainly physical. The boy says: “At Westland Row Station, a crowd of people pressed to the carriage doors… I remarked their English accents and listened vaguely to their conversation,” (701). This leads the reader to believe the setting is a suburban area in Dublin, Ireland. Of the neighborhood, he says: “When we met in the streets, the houses had grown somber,” (698). By the time the boy is done with his dreary school day, the sun is down and his friends play in a dark neighborhood, instead of the happy sunshine.

The setting is important because it gives the reader a contrast between the drabness of the suburban neighborhood, and the exciting expectations the boy has of the Bazaar. He writes: “[The train] crept onward among ruinous houses and over the twinkling river… it was a special train for the bazaar,” (701). This builds up hope in the exciting festival, which is tied to the exciting prospect of pleasing the girl next door. As the boy travels further from his drab neighborhood, his expectations reach a climax. When he arrives, he says: “Nearly all the stalls were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness.” He suddenly realizes that the bazaar is not what he expected, and he is too late for the fun. His is disappointed, and he simply gives up hope of the great adventure.

Joyce uses first-person point of view in this story. The narrator is the young boy. He says: “I may have stood there for an hour, seeing nothing but the brown-clad figure cast by my imagination,” (700). The use of first-person pronouns and detailed narrations of the boy’s limited thoughts makes the reader feel like they are walking in the boy’s shoes.

First-person perspective is used to give the reader a sense of being in the boy’s mind. The boy says: “All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring, ‘O love! O love!’ many times,” (699). Narrating the boy’s own emotions from first-person point of view gives the reader an inside look into the thoughts and feelings of his young love. It serves to draw the audience in, and let them understand what the boy thinks and desires. As the excitement toward the bazaar builds, Joyce writes: “I could not call my wandering thoughts together. I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child’s play, ugly monotonous child’s play… I had to endure the gossip of the tea-table. The meal was prolonged beyond an hour and still my uncle did not come,” (700). Joyce shows how impatient and preoccupied the boy is, and how boring his life seems in comparison to the bazaar and the girl.

In “Araby,” the author uses personification and a gradual change in the narrator’s tone. James Joyce contrasts the early caricaturistic language with straightforward, somber narration later in the story. He says: “Observing me the young lady came over and asked me did I wish to buy anything. The tone of her voice was not encouraging; she seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty,” (701). Toward the end, Joyce does not use as much imaginative or energetic imagery, and instead takes on a disinterested tone as the boy comes to his realization.

Joyce uses personification in the story to make the boy seem more youthful to the reader in the beginning. He writes: “The other houses of the street, conscious of the decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces,” (698). Only a child would think of the houses as living things in his imaginative playground. Joyce says: “Towards [the sky] the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns,” (698). It shows that he is so bored with his life that he relies on imagination and dreams to keep him going.

In the beginning of the story, he writes: “The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses where we ran the gauntlet,” (698). In this section, he uses energetic descriptions and personification to show the boy’s carefree imagination and youth. At the end of the story, he writes: “Then I turned away slowly and walked toward the middle of the bazaar,” (702). After coming into stark reality, the boy narrates in a more somber, disheartened tone.

“Araby” is a story about imagination. The boy has a strong imagination, turning a plain Dublin neighborhood into an adventurous game with his friends, and dreaming of love with the girl next door. He finds, however, that his dreams are childish. After having a terrible day, the boy finally makes it to the bazaar to find that it has closed. He is sure that his dreams will never come true, no matter how hard he tries. He sees the contrast between imagination and reality.