ôArabyö is one of the 15 short stories that make up James JoyceÆs Dubliners, and the story remains relevant outside of its time and place because of the universality of the main character, a boy of about 13 who is experiencing romantic love and sexual desire for the first time in his life. The object of his desire is a neighborhood girl of about 15 whom he hardly knows, but fantasizes about. He is as much û or moreùin love with the idea of love than with the actual object of his infatuation. The boy is filled with ideals and dreams that are shattered at the end of this brief story when he encounters the reality of life by undergoing an epiphany, a sudden revelation he experiences at a moment of crisis.
Although the story centers on the boyÆs experiences and awakening to the reality of his life, he is not the narrator. The narrator is the adult boy, and he brings a perspective to the boyÆs experience that contains more insights than if the narrator was the young, shy boy. In ôAraby,ö the innocent boy is initiated into the shabby adult world.
The boy lives with his aunt and uncle in a dreary, poor section of Dublin. The boyÆs environment is a key to his romantic nature, and his need to find some beauty in the drab world he inhabits. The story opens with a description of the dead end North Richmond Street where the boy lives, and the street may be seen as a symbol of the emotional dead end he finds himself living in. The setting in winter when the boyÆs environment is even more deadening. Adjectives Joyce uses to describe the street are ôcold,ö ôblind,ö ôsilent,ö and ôsomber,ö where the houses ôgazed at one another with brown imperturbable facesö (131). Decay and death are also present, symbolized by the former tenant of the boyÆs house, a priest who died in the house, leaving behind musty air, old useless papers and books, and a rusty bicycle pump in the yard. In contrast to this dreary, cold environment i...