What Is Araby?
James Joyce’s Araby as it might have been viewed by Leo Tolstoy
Andrea P.
EN 385-50

We must decide if the short story Araby by James Joyce is good art or bad art. To do so, we must remember that in every society there is a religion and religious perception that is common to most. It has been compared to the path of a streaming river; “if the river flows at all it must have direction. If a society lives, there must be a religious perception indicating the direction in which, more or less consciously, all its members tend (Richter, p472).” And that in our times, the predominant religion is that of Christ and Christianity, and in order for Araby to be good art, it must embody these ideals. These ideals must be available to all, Christianity rejects no one, so too should our art. If the work of art does not explicitly promote Christianity, it must promote the “art of common life (Richter, p476),” or the celebration of feelings felt by any human regardless of race, gender, monetary value, sexual orientation, or any other inherent quality.
If the reader is not careful, perhaps they will come to the conclusion that Araby is bad art. They might say this story is insignificant because it aims merely to entertain one certain audience; in particular the suburban Christian lower middle class. But this reader has failed to do the work justice, and missed its value.
The denomination of “Christian idea” is broad but can be separated into two large categories, “first, feelings flowing from a perception of our sonship to God and of the brotherhood of man; and next, the simple feelings of common life accessible to every one without exception (Richter, p475).” And although Araby may not explicitly describe the relationship between God and humankind, it does say a lot about emotion shared by all, regardless of class, race, gender, et cetera.
Let us take, for example, the scene in which our narrator describes meeting his love for the first time: “At last she spoke to me. When she addressed the first words to me I was so confused that I did not know what to answer. She asked me was I going to Araby. I forgot whether I answered yes or no (Joyce, p1).” From the most powerful king down to the lowliest serf, all feel the flutter of love in their hearts, and are able to experience the intoxication of a young crush. Love is one of the unquestionable universal feelings, we share it with God, we share it with companions, lovers, relatives, the list is unending.
Another example is the bitter defeat the narrator experiences when the vendors at Araby cast him off, and he sees the hopelessness of his plan: “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger (Joyce, p4).” The walls of poverty do not restrain the emotions of vanity, anger, anguish and disappointment, as can they pass through the walls of gender, religion, and the like. Joyce’s purpose for writing this story was to express the feelings we all can experience at one time or another, the setting is merely consequential. Therefore Araby is good art, since it seeks to unite us in common emotion.