Essay Database

In his brief but complex story "Araby," James Joyce concentrates on character rather than on plot to reveal the ironies within the conflict of self-deception. On one level "Araby" is a story of initiation, of a boy's quest for the ideal. On another level the story consists of a grown man's remembered experience, for a man who looks back to a particular moment of intense meaning and insight tells the story in retrospect. The author’…

…realizes his self-deception. He feels he is "a creature driven and derided by vanity"(806) and the vanity is his own. In "Araby," Joyce uses very deep and complex characterization to identify not only the boy’s emotions but also his conflict of dealing with such a blunt enlightenment of reality. Through such characterization the reader is able to identify the central idea that the saying is true: you can’t always get what you want!