Epiphany in Araby

Araby, by James Joyce, is a tale that examines first love and the confusions that surround it. The epiphany of the story is the boy's discovery that the ideal gives way to the real. This journey is a quick one and the author wastes no time setting the scene and shaping the boy's persona. In the first paragraph Joyce paints a scene of a dismal reality with his description of the houses and the neighborhood. …

…the epiphany. His love, like his magical quest for a gift, ends with his realizing that it existed only in his mind. It wasn't real to anyone else. He had been "blind" to this fact. He finally sensed the falsity of his dreams and his eyes "burned with anguish and anger." Joyce appeals to the hearts of all through this universal "rite of passage." After all, who has not experienced the "blindness" of first love?