Araby Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Araby - Essay Example The first words spoken by the girl of his dream was also about â€Å"Araby†, giving the reader the assumption that it will be a mythological place that he can escape from reality and his harsh environment. The story of â€Å"Araby† highlights the contradiction between reality and illusion through illustration of the transformation of innocence to the path of realization and disillusionment as a phenomenon that occurs in a child’s boyhood. The protagonist of the story is the matured boy who had once been the innocent boy depicted in the story. The story opens with the lines â€Å"North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free† (Joyce, 538). Paradoxically, even though they were free from school, even their play did not give them the desired pleasure, for it was an equally dull world, where not even play brought any stimulant for the children. All these descriptions of dullness a ctually create the backdrop against which the boy takes resort to an imagination larger than life and hence encounters a surprising disillusionment.