Araby

In the story, as we discussed in class, the protagonist has a very active imagination. He has convinced himself that Mangan's sister has sent him on a quest to a far away land in search of exotic treasure. Some of the language Joyce uses connotes this idea of a knight on a quest. In the opening, the boy spoke of how he "ran the gauntlet", and later about how he "bore (his) chalice safely through a throng of foes". The boy had created himself as a heroic figure in his mind, and when he failed at his quest (that he ultimately created for himself), reality crashed down around him. The boy experienced that first sting of humility, or humiliation.

The boy made a lot of assumptions: he assumed that Mangan's sister had encouraged him to get her a present; he assumed that Araby would be an exotic and magical bazaar, as he said the name "cast an eastern enchantment over (him)"; he assumed that if he got Mangan's sister a present from Araby, she would be impressed with him; he also assumed that he was old enough to understand and participate in an adult romantic encounter. The boy realized that a present for the girl was out of his reach when he said the vases in her stall "stood like eastern guards at either side" of one of the few remaining booths. By the end of the story, the boy is described himself as "a creature" rather than any sort of knight, and he realized that it was his vanity that had "driven and derided" him.