English 1020
01 October 13
"From Boy to Darkness" In "Araby" by James Joyce, we look into the quest of an un-named boy as he holds onto his last bit of hope while taking the relentless step into adulthood. Instantly, the boy has a sense of unimportance, for he is unnamed. He is desperately searching for a sense of purpose, and change. The boy progresses from an innocent child, to an adult riddled with anguish as a result of his journey to the bazaar. His complications run anywhere from lost religion, and infatuation with a girl, to becoming ecstatic for a bazaar, only to experience his "first bitter taste of reality"(Coulthard97) when he arrives. The story begins by taking the character down a blind street, which foreshadows that the upcoming pursuit is doomed for an abrupt end that leads nowhere. Also, at the blind end of the street is an uninhabited house that was once occupied by a priest who has passed on to the grave, leaving his earthly possessions to the educational system. The priest is a representation of the church and religion, which is now deceased and, "detached from its neighbours in a square ground" (Joyce213). Behind the house is an overgrown, unmanaged garden that revolves around a lonely tree. Some could see that this represents the Garden of Eden, and it is obviously being neglected after it's caretaker (the priest) has died. Therefore, the boy starts the story with already questionable faith to religion before his encounters with Mangan's sister, meaning, and misfortune to darkness. The night that the boy meets Mangan's sister the sky is described as "an everchanging violet" (Joyce213). If light is symbolizing youth and childhood, and darkness symbolizes adulthood, the everchanging violet is an approach of the darkness, similar to the violet in sky as the sun goes down. Meanwhile, the dim street lamps "lift their