Imagery and Symbolism in James Joyce "Araby"

Joyce starts out, "Araby," with the sentence, "North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free." Personification is used in the line to represent the "blind" street, which means that the street is unaware of any existence or inhabitants on it. Joyce brings this image back in the next line saying, "An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbors in a square ground." This line implies that the road the uninhabited house is on is a dead end and the house is unconscious of any habitants or life at all. Joyce may have used this image to create a tone of obliviousness as the story is about a young boy who is oblivious to the older girl, that he shows interest in, complete disregard of him. Joyce even comments on the way the boy feels towards the older girl by saying, "But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires." This image is used to show how the girl has lots of control over the young and impressionable boy. This connects to the end of the story and how the young boy's heart was broken by seeing the girl working at the market talking to the two boys. The market closed at the consequential time of his heart break which may represent the end to childhood oblivion for the young boy. Joyce writes, "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger." By the end the boy has a moment of realization and he knows that his carefree childhood has come to an abrupt end.