Examples Of Foreshadowing In Araby

Just a Glimpse: Mandatory Heartbreak in James Joyce’s “Araby” Fueled by youthful expectation and ignited by the first spark of love, the protagonist in James Joyce’s “Araby” jumps head first into offering to be the hero for the older girl next door who he has developed feelings for. The boy is playing tug of war with his youthful “hid[ing] in the shadow” (Joyce 111) with his friends, and not having time for the “monotonous child’s play” that “stood between [him] and [his] desire” (112). Based on the disappointment in her words, the boy believes if he delivers the girl next door a trinket from the Araby Bazaar she would be eternally grateful. The domino effect of events meant to discourage the boy’s desire to provide for the woman he loves, illustrates a foreshadowing for what this relationship is meant to be to the emerging young man. It is a story I, like most, know firsthand. I have been on the receiving end of being played “like a harp” by a woman who, like the girl next door, was only

Music was my mistress, she “was like a summons to all my foolish blood”, and it was she that led me to the most toxic yet liberating time in my life (111). It was the week before my nineteenth birthday, I was standing at the mic stand in a dive bar checking sound before I sang when the breath was ripped from my lungs from across the room. Looking forward I saw leaning against the bar, just barely emerging from the shadows of the dimly lit bulbs above, the most awe-inspiring woman I had ever seen in my young life. Although I could not see her clearly there was something about the way the subtle light illuminated her blue eyes and flickered from her bright red hair intrigued me, I knew I had to knew her. I whispered to my friend who was playing guitar to switch songs, and as I sang John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band’s “On the Dark Side” our eyes met and a mutual contract of both desire and manipulation was