Evidence of Bblindness Present in James Joyce's Araby

The story by James Joyce's ''Araby.'' is projected through a little boy lens who perhaps seems to be a teenager. He starts the story with visualization of the house and the street he grew up in which was the North Richmond Street. The way narrator begins the story with intense visualization and as a reader, we are drawn towards the assumption that the narrator is may possible be visually impaired. Blindness can be used to define the physical disability of one to see or can be used symbolically to give a different meaning in relation to one's actions or behavior towards different things such as the narrator's actions and feelings towards the girl he is in love with.

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The narrator indicates that he is blind in the first line of the story, which is precisely states:

''North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free.'' (Joyce 125)

The narrator's way of writing is very effect,ive; he has the ability to draw out a mental picture in the reader's mind in understanding his life. As the reader progresses with the story, the narrator who has been identified as the boy goes on describing his house and the death of the previous tenant, who was a priest.

As the reader ventures further deeper into the story, the narrator goes on describing the room where the priest had died in which was the back-drawing room. He explains the room saying:

''Air, musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room behind the kitchen was littered with old useless papers.'' (Joyce 125)

In the above quotation it is evident that the narrator goes on describing the room, but if one looks at this quotation from a different perspective and tries to get the deeper meaning of it, the narrator can be seen describing the emptiness and loneliness in comparison to the other houses in the neighborhood.

The narrator seems to be naive and isolated from his life. He seems to be looking for someone or something he can invest his time in so as to distract him from the feeling of entrapment that covers him and eventually he does find someone to distract him from feelings of isolation and entrapment. Mangan's sister significantly helps the narrator distract himself from his life and what he was going through. She becomes the narrator's obsession and would simply imagine being with her on different occasions such as the incidence where he is out grocery shopping with his aunt, and his mind manages to keep on visualizing her. His love for this lady was enchanting and ended up significantly impacting his social life. He would not go with his friends anymore and would no longer focus on any other task at hand.

The narrator would start his day trying to catch a glimpse of her through the window secretly through the curtains so she would not notice that he is looking at her. He insanely obsessed over this her the narrator starts doubting himself that he cannot get the girl or would fail to confess his love for her. Which I believe it is cute for one's teenage years, but it becomes creepy once you're in the adult stage.

The narrator never tells the reader the name of the woman he is profoundly in love with; he goes on by describing her as Mangan' Sister. One day the Mangan' Sister asked the narrator if was going to the Dublin bazaar (market) but she is unable to join him because she already made a different commitment with the school to go on a retreat. Out of excitement, the narrator says that he is going to the Bazaar and would get her something from the bazaar as well.

"I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life, which now that it seemed work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child's play, ugly monotonous child's play.'' (Joyce 121)

This quote is also a great example of how blindly he is in love with this woman and is willing to do whatever it takes for her and how distracted from his own life he had become. The day of the Bazaar which was on a Saturday morning, the narrator is overwhelmed with joy and excitement as he sets off to get her a present. The start of the morning the narrator asks his uncle to come home early so he could give him some money for the Bazaar. But his uncle responded curtly to his request by saying yes. The way the uncle of narrator responded the reader could understand that the nature of there relationship with the narrator isn't that close, and the boy doesn't live with his parents but with his aunt and uncle.

''I sat staring at the clock for some time and, when its ticking began to irritate me, I left the room.''(Joyce 127 )

The narrator has lost his patience and his tired of waiting to go to the bazaar. But the uncle returns late at night precisely past dinner and at the same time he is drunk. Later that night he tells his uncle to grab something to eat so as sober him up due to the level of drunkenness the uncle his, he completely forgets the narrator's previous plans that they had shared. The uncle finally gives him the money but its too late since all the shops are closed by the time he arrives at the bazaar; he finally understands the reality of the world and how failure makes a man even stronger towards his pursuit.

The story is an inside look of the narrator life and how he was able to create a strong image of the feeling he is going through as a young boy and how this helps him understand the reality behind of life. Overall the story tells us about the journey of the boy from his childhood to manhood as well as an insight into his love life.

Work Cited

James, Joyce. ''Araby,'' Literature: The Harbrace Anthology of Short Fiction. Fifth Edition. E. John C. Scott and Raymond E Jones. Toronto: Nelson Education, 2012. 125-129