"Araby" by James Joyce

The short story “Araby” by James Joyce is very dull and depressive one. The narrator brings the reader into the dark and gloomy setting, starting with the death of the priest (I guess the author reasonably hates Catholic Bishops): “North Richmond Street, being blind……A priest had died in the back drawing room” He lets us feel miserable and sad life of people on those streets.
The main character of the story is a nice boy, who lives with his uncle and aunt, and who crashes into one of his friends’ older sister. He keeps it in secret but emotions overwhelm him. He has so many illusions about his relationship but in fact the girl doesn’t even talk to him. The author gives very vivid description of his feelings. I guess, the boy is too young to understand what real love feels like, but fortunately he understands that later.
He travels to the Araby to get something nice for his adored one, but some circumstances work against him. At the end he realizes that his whole trip to the bazaar was foolish, because a gift from Araby is not going to make the young girl love him. He finally realizes that everything he has done has been driven by some foolish notion that he thinks is love. Now he knows it is just a pathetic obsession for the young girl. I feel pity for the poor boy, since he has no parents and no one to share his feelings with. His uncle and aunt let their young nephew travel to the bazaar, and don’t even curious why is he making such a far trip late at night. I can conclude that the boy has to rely only on himself and has to be a responsible adult in his still child’s life.
"Araby" is a story of broken dreams. The irony of this novel is that the only thing that the antagonist has to look forward to is buying something for the girl he “loves”, and in the end he can't even do that.