"Araby": How Setting Contributes to Other Elements of a Story There were a lot of stories to choose from in Dubliners by James Joyce, all of which occurred in places in Ireland. "Araby" was one of the short stories in Dubliners that had a very specific setting. Through this story, James Joyce was able to help his audience understand more about his characters, this story's plot, and himself as an author. "Araby" was a story about a boy who liked a girl, and this girl wanted to go to something, that is what seems to me, like a flea-market. The boy said that if he ever went to the market, he would get her something. He asks for permission to go to the market, and he gets that permission. For the next couple days, while he's waiting to go …show more content…
The whole story revolves around this marketplace/ bazaar. The boy doesn't really care about it, until the girl says she wants to visit it, and then it becomes his goal to get her something from the bazaar, and then that is all he can think about. Once Joyce starts describing the marketplace as "in a big hall girdled at half its height by a gallery. Nearly all the stalls were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness. I recognised a silence like that which pervades a church after a service." It gives the bazaar a sense of mystery and awe. That explains first of all why the girl wanted to go so badly. It was someplace that was kind of magical and mysterious, a lot unlike their hometown as I gathered from the rest of the story. It can also explain why the boy might've been angered at the end of the story. Joyce described him on page 28 as "a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger." He was late, missed most of the bazaar, and couldn't get a gift for the girl like he said he …show more content…
He obviously has had some experiences with something like this bazaar, like stories. In the introduction of this book, this story was not one that was listed as one that was written from a personal experience, but he obviously knew some things about them, which leads me to believe that he had heard some stories or seen pictures of one of these bazaars. One example where the author could have added more detail, but didn't, is when he writes that he hears the coins hitting the salver on page 27. He could have added in details about what it sounded like, or any other time that he heard money hitting other objects, like the "-two pennies to fall against the sixpence in my pocket" on page 27, also. He didn't do that though, which means that he probably wasn't recollecting an experience from the past. It can be inferred that if he was writing a story about one of his past experiences, he would write about something that he could remember a lot more specific details and include them in the story to immerse the audience. However, if he was writing about a story that he heard, or making up a story for a picture, he wouldn't have those details, and therefore the story would end up being the way it is