Araby

In James Joyce’s short story “Araby” he describes his childhood growing up on North Richmond Street. The central idea of the story is his strange obsession for one of his friend’s sister and his task at hand to fulfill a promise he made to her, hoping to win her over. The promise that is made is that he will bring Mangan’s sister a present from Araby, a bazaar. The young boy faces …

…in his life in which he is unable to achieve his goals due to his young age. He deals with the external conflict of winning the girl, but mainly trying to achieve his internal goal of being accepted into adulthood. He soon realizes that he must wait along with the rest of his peers, and grows angry with that idea, but even more angry knowing he will not be able to do anything about it.