Araby, By James Joyce (1914) - Freud’s Psychoanalysis and the Hero’s Journey

Araby, By James Joyce (1914)

Rating: 9/10

Araby is one of my favorite short stories I’ve read. I first read this story in the British Literature class with Mrs. Jeong. At that time, I was very interested in Psychology, so I read Araby focusing on the psychological description of the boy. I also did a presentation about it analyzing the boy’s thoughts and behaviors from the point of Freud’s psychoanalysis. For example, the boy’s burning heart for Mangan’s sister is based on his id, his plan to go to the bazaar and make the girl fall in love with him can be his ego, and his behavior keeping the minimum obligation like doing the school work even though he sees nothing because of love can be his superego. These three elements contribute to the anguish the boy feels at the end, which is an epiphany.

Preparing the presentation, I read Araby many times, but I felt new when I read it again in the World Literature class. I didn’t know that Araby has a sexual part in it, so I was surprised when the teacher told us about it. Also, reading Araby again, I could think about the hero’s journey in Araby more deeply. About the fourth stage, which is meeting with the mentor, I thought that the mentor of the boy is his uncle because his uncle gives the boy money to go to the bazaar.