Transition from being a child to being an adult is a tough period. That’s when young boys come to life with big questions and curiosity about the world. Coming of age is always an interesting topic for fiction. Among stories about this topic, Araby, a short story was written by James Joyce, portrayed psycho-physiological changes of young boy accurately and successful. This story is about coming of age of the narrator in which awareness about adult world, loneliness and consequences of idealization of love grow strongly.
The young boy in this story was standing in front of the gate of life. He started being aware about adult world. Adult world began with him by love and sexual sensation. He paid attention the Mangan’s sister. He noticed small …show more content…
In Araby, a young woman from a remaining open stall came and asked him if he needed to buy anything and “the tone of her voice was not encourage”. He felt she asked him just because that was her duty. Then the young woman came back to the conversation with other two men. It’s the worst for him. He may feel he wasn’t “loved” by women. That shut him down. He may feel he a loser. He was shameful and lonely and isolated in Araby. He was disappointed and “derided by vanity”. His eyes “burned with anguished and anger”. He realized everything was just an illusion. Araby or even his love for Mangan’s sister collapsed in his vision at that night. Araby was a slap to wake him up in pubertal wet dream. Idealization is hurt. This reminds me a story of Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried”. A 22-year-old American Lieutenant, Jimmy Cross, came to Vietnam war with his love for Martha. He loved Martha passionately. That love became idealization. At that time, he was just “a kid at war”. Jimmy was young and seemed not very experienced in love. He loved Martha by all his devotion even Martha didn’t mention about love in letters which were sent to him. Jimmy believed the pebble that Marth sent to him a symbol of love. However, when his teammate died, Jimmy woke up in his love. He “realized that she did not love him and never would”. It was a slap to wake him up. Probably, “imagination was a killer”.