James Joyces Araby - Lack of Insight in Araby :: Joyce Dubliners Araby Essays

Araby – Lack of Insight  Ã‚   Readers of "Araby" often focus on the final scene as the key to the story. They assume the boy experi ­ences some profound insight about himself when he gazes "up into the darkness." I believe, however, that the boy sees nothing and learns nothing--either about himself or others. He's not self- reflective; he's merely self-absorbed. The evidence supporting this interpretation is the imagery of blindness and the ironic point of view of the narrator. There can seem to be a profound insight at the end of the story only if we empathize with the boy and adopt his point of view. In other words, we must assume that the young boy is narrating his own story. But if the real narrator is the grown man looking back at his early adolescence, then it becomes pos ­sible to read the narrative as ironic and to see the boy as confused and blind. The story opens and closes with images of blindness. The street is "blind" with an "uninhabited house†¦ at the blind end." As he spies on Mangan's sister, from his own house, the boy intentionally limits what he is able to see by lowering the "blind" until it is only an inch from the window sash. At the bazaar in the closing scene, the "light was out," and the upper part of the hall was "completely dark." The boy is left "gazing up into the darkness," seeing nothing but an inner torment that burns his eyes. This pattern of imagery includes images of reading, and reading stands for the boy's inability to understand what is before his eyes. When he tries to read at night, for exam ­ple, the girl's "image [comes] between him and the page," in effect blinding him. In fact, he seems blind to everything except this "image" of the "brown-clad figure cast by [his] imagination." The girl's "brown-clad figure" is also associated with the houses on "blind" North Richmond Street, with their "brown imperturbable faces." The houses stare back at the boy, unaffected by his presence and gaze. The most important face he tries and fails to read belongs to Mangan's sister. His description of her and interpretation of the few words she says to him can be seen as fur ­ther evidence of his blindness. He sees only what he wants to see, the "image" he has in his mind's eye.