Araby by James Joyce

In my perspective, Joyce’s Araby left an impact of how the society in Dublin portraying their culture. The setting described the environment with heavy religious influences right at the beginning had me wondered about the Protestant-Catholic conflict that happened in Northern Ireland. The people of Ireland had long history of suffering, suppression and poverty. The story illustrated how the protagonist diverted his attention to Mangan’s sister and from there it can be viewed that it was his ignorance to reality and perhaps an escape from the real world. From this experience, the protagonist slowly progressed to become matured and developed to think independently for himself. To end this off, I like the Araby bazaar concept that the love portrayed of buying gifts may just as well satisfy our selfish motives instead of being truly genuine towards the person.