Sunday, May 10, 2015

Show how 'Araby' is a truthful study of adolescent psychology.What are the things that adolescent boys do or feel generally and how are they...

Joyce's short story "Araby" features much more than just the typical behavior of early adolescents, but it does portray that as well.


The speaker in the story is a preteen or early adolescent boy who becomes infatuated with a friend's older sister.  He plays outside with other boys, hides from anyone who is calling them to come inside, needs to spend time alone once in awhile, and likes to look over books left in his house by the previous tenant.  These are normal behaviors for young adolescents.


He's obsessed with Mangan's sister, but terribly afraid that his feelings will be discovered:  he peaks out of the bottom of a window shade every morning so he can see when she leaves for school, then leaves immediately after she does so he can follow her to school. 


I suggest that these are all normal behaviors for a boy his age. 


The element that the story is most famous for, however, deals with the boy's epiphany, during which he realizes that his view of Mangan's sister and his "relationship" with her, using the term loosely, is idealistic, and he realizes his conversation with her, during which he promised to buy her a gift at the bazaar, was trivial.  This epiphany may or may not be typical early adolescent behavior.  I tend to see it as age appropriate for an older person.  In fact, many people lead their entire lives without discovering their illusions and trivialities.  I'm not sure most early adolescents are capable of this kind of insight.


Therefore, "Araby" certainly contains much that is psychologically fitting for a boy the narrator's age, but I'm not sure you could say that about the epiphany.

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