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Araby Theme Essay

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The Two Major Themes in “Araby” James Joyce’s “Araby” depicts two excellent examples of themes that are becoming of age and going on a quest. The short story takes place in the late nineteenth century in Dublin, Ireland. Araby also shows how life was like for kids during that time period. The story follows the life of a young boy that goes on a quest for his crush, and realizes the harsh reality of getting older. James Joyce use the theme of going on a quest to show that the kid is trying to have fun in using his imagination. The young boy first develops the idea of going on a quest when he meets his friend Mangan’s sister and develops this crush for her. Before this his life had been a very structured one and is seen as a very devout Catholic …show more content…

When the young boy goes on his quest to Araby, doubts start to creep into his world that all might not seem as it is. “I began to walk up and down the room, clenching my fists”, this quote is said by the young boy when his uncle began to run late on getting back home. His uncle has previously promised that he would give the young boy the money to go to the bazaar. He now realizes that he has to face the thought of not being able to go to the bazaar and this causes some anger and fear in the young boy. Eventually the uncle came home and gave him the money to go to the bazaar and the young boy headed to the train station. The young boy said, “I took my seat in a third-class carriage of a deserted train. After an intolerable delay the train moved out of the station slowly. It crept onward among ruinous houses and over the twinkling river”. After the long wait, evident of the “intolerable wait” from the quote, for the train to start moving he starts to get really bored and is now thinking that this quest will not be as fun as he thought. He also gets to see the area outside of his neighborhood for the first and it is not a pretty sight according to the words “ruinous houses” from the quote. The theme of becoming of age is very evident in Araby because the further along the young boy gets in his quest he starts to realize what it’s like to get

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