Araby, By James Joyce (1914)

 Araby, By James Joyce (1914)

Yuna Song

Rating: 7/10

In Araby, the main character, the boy and the sister who he is in love with do not have their names. This allowed the story to gain the universality of the theme inside the particularity of the plot and also made me wonder when was I had lost my innocence and childhood. 

➤'Araby'

Through the story, the boy experiences the transition from childhood to teenagehood.

In our lives, when experiencing the loss of innocence, we tend to undergo both growth and decadence of ourselves. And I thought that the 'epiphany' boy gained through his hero's journey was also double-sided: obtaining both growth and irreversible escape from pure childishness.

Before reading this story, I had a kind of stereotype that elixir or epiphany characters get through the hero's journey is always the positive ones. However, Araby made me realize that epiphany can be also bad, and mostly be a double-edged sword.

Overall, I loved the various motifs hidden in the story and some details seeming to represent the criticizable Irish culture. However, the message Araby gave to me did not touch my heart very much, and was somewhat common, so that's why I rated 7 out of 10. (196 words)