Examples Of Coming Of Age In Araby

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“Araby” is a short story written by James Joyce. This short story is about a young boy who struggles with his sexuality and obsession with a young woman. In this story, Joyce expresses a lot of religious imagery and irony so that the reader can understand how having a religious upbringing affected his coming of age and how it all impacts the way he deals with finding the truth of his own self. The way that Joyce describes the boy “eyes were often full of tears,” sends a message to the reader that he is not being able to see clearly when he thinks of the young woman. This ongoing matter of the boy not being able to see keeps repeating and it illustrates how the boy’s innocence is very blind. The boy can only understand that this is “confused adoration” and he cannot comprehend why he feels like this for the young woman. The boy also describes how “her image accompanied” him when he goes through a market and envisions himself bearing his “chalice”.…show more content…
He also views her as something larger than life, and that he will follow any commands that are given by her. This is how Joyce makes it clear and proven that its not the boys youth that makes him innocent, it is his religious upbringing. For the boy, the young woman is an idealized object of worship, and because of this, he is blind and unable to see her for whom she really is. The reader later on learns that the boy is a little bit aware of this sexuality and his ambitions, but he is struggling to deny it because of his belief. The boy believes he feels a sin because in many religions the topic of sexuality is taboo. This is very noticeable in the scene when the boy enters the room “which the priest had died’. Joyce describes the scene as a “dark evening” to show that his views on his sexuality is a dark and sinful side of
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