Araby by James Joyce masterfully guides the reader from the age of adolescent wonder to the pinnacle of a young boy's epiphany and subsequent disillusionment. The disillusionment is revealed in his psychic journey from first love to despair and disappointment. The visual and symbolic detail used to achieve the authors' desired message are evident from the opening paragraph as he describes North Richmond Street as being "blind" and stating the houses "gazed nameless at one another with brown imperturbable faces." This is in stark contrast to the Catholic Brothers' School and the boys being set "free." Furthermore, it underscores the journey the reader is about to witness as Joyce tells the story through an intense nameless first person narrator that vividly recreates the drabness of Dublin with its' conflicted Catholic soul.
             First of all, religious symbols are the common thread binding the story together and showing the importance and omnipresence of the Catholic Church in Joyce's Ireland. For instance, the second paragraph of Araby represents the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve when Joyce relates "the wild garden behind the house contained a central apple tree and a few straggling bushes." The irony of the gardens existence is compounded by the fact that the former resident was a priest that found pleasure in the frequent reading of The Memoirs of Vidocq. The pages of the books "yellow" color is indicative of the unsavory book being read often. In stark contrast, the bicycle pump that was found beneath one of the bushes alluded to the priest's once youthful vitality and set the tone for the narrators shedding of innocence and ultimate epiphany.
             Despite the narrators' dark and grim surroundings, he is determined to find "light" in the darkness. This awakening takes place because of the boy's infatuation with his best frie...