The overarching theme in "Araby" is stagnation, and this theme is a particularly important one for James Joyce. As a boy, Joyce watched as his family disintegrated, brought down by his father's love of rowdiness, drink, and generally not working. Like so many other Irishmen suffering the oppression of English rule, Joyce's father seemed to have little motivation to do anything besides drink. As such, he existed in a state of increasing stagnation and dragged...
The overarching theme in "Araby" is stagnation, and this theme is a particularly important one for James Joyce. As a boy, Joyce watched as his family disintegrated, brought down by his father's love of rowdiness, drink, and generally not working. Like so many other Irishmen suffering the oppression of English rule, Joyce's father seemed to have little motivation to do anything besides drink. As such, he existed in a state of increasing stagnation and dragged the rest of his family down into the bog.
This obsession with stagnation is clearly evident in "Araby." While the nameless narrator envisions a world of excitement, a world of fulfilling romance and adventure in exotic lands, he is stuck in the bleak confines of an impoverished neighborhood. The closing down of the bazaar comes to represent a nearly existential gesture, mimicking the walls of the world closing around the protagonist. Indeed, viewed within the context of Joyce's familial background, it becomes difficult not to read the ending of "Araby" as a representation of the stagnation threatening to overwhelm the lives of Irish men and women.
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