In "Araby" by James Joyce, the narrator uses vivid imagery in order to express

feelings and situations. Joyce uses imagery to establish motifs, identify symbols, and
provide thematic unity throughout his work. Araby relies upon an introspective, unnamed
narrator who is recollecting his adolescent infatuation with the sister of a neighborhood
friend, Mangan. More than a simple account of childhood love, however, the story lays
out the larger question of the proper use of the imagination. In asking what differences, if
any, exist between the images that an active mind produces as a source of aesthetic
pleasure and those created as a form of escapism, the story challenges readers to
articulate the interpretive values that allow one to distinguish a powerful narrative form
idle speculation. Joyce uses visual images of darkness and light as well as the exotic in
order to suggest how the boy narrator attempts to achieve the inaccessible. Accordingly,
Joyce is expressing the theme of the boys exaggerated desire through the images which
are exotic. The theme of "Araby" is a boy's desire to what he cannot achieve. Joyce uses
visual imagery from the world of Christianity, images of light and darkness and auditory
imagery in order to enhance the meaning of the story.

Although the plot of Araby makes the story seem like a straightforward narrative,
looking at the story from a reader- response investigation point of view, demonstrates that
the author has written the story with a knowledgeable and sophistical individual in mind.
There are a number of illusions throughout the story, for example, that subtly critique of
catholic religion. Many of these references, however, would not be obvious ta a reader
who is unacquainted with the conventional imagery and practices of the catholic faith. A
type of subtle allusion appears in the religious imagery Joyce uses to describe Mangans
sister, who is portrayed as a modern-day representation of the Virgin Mary. She is
constantly haloed by a ring of light, and the narrator confesses that her name corners to
mind during his moments in strange prayers and praises. For the reader who is aware of
all these subtle religious references, Joyces story becomes a conscious, methodical
critique of the deceptive and idealized facades inherent to Catholicism, and the boys
experience can be read as a cautionary tale about the dangers of any type pf extreme
religious idolatry

Even if the implied reader does not understand all these religious allusions, however,
Joyce fills Araby with more easily recognizable patterns of imagery and language that
guide the reader to an understanding of the storys central tension between idealized
image and actual reality. All these authorial techniques further reinforce the storys
overall theme of shattered, youthful illusions. The diction in much of Araby, for
instance, creates a strong contrast between the world of childhood and the world of adult
responsibility. Joyce portrays the boys childhood activities as positive, almost magical,
things. The house of his neighborhood come alive through personification, and the boy
thinks of them as living creatures that gazed at one another with brown imperturbable
faces. In the chill of winter time, the narrator plays outside with his friends until their
bodies glowed. At one point, he compares his own body to a harp and the sound of
Mangans sisters voice to the fingers running upon the wires. The accumulation of
these images in the readers mind demonstrates that in Araby childhood is equated with
possibility, openness, and imaginative freedom.
Throughout literary history, authors have been fascinated by the use of the light and dark
to adjust mood and atmosphere. Light is often a symbol of pleasantness, contentment and
joy, whereas dark more often represents hardship, frustration and confusion