Araby is the third of the fifteen stories in Dubliners. This tale of the frustrated quest for beauty in the midst of drabness is both meticulously realistic in its handling of details of Dublin life and the Dublin scene and highly symbolic in that almost every image and incident suggests some particular aspect of the theme. Joyce was drawing on his own childhood recollections, and the uncle in the story is a reminiscence of Joyce's father. But in all the stories in Dubliners dealing with childhood,the child lives not with his parents but with an uncle and aunt-a symbol of that isolation and lack of proper relation between "consubstantial" ("in the flesh") parents and children which is a major theme in Joyce's work.
参考资料：
The narrator is raised by his aunt and uncle. He develops a crush on his friend Mangan's sister. He watches her stealthily, waiting for her to leave in the mornings so that he can follow her on his way to school.
One day, the girl asked if he will go to Araby, a bazaar with an Arabian theme. She can't go. The narrator, full of romantic notions, says he will go and bring some gift for her.
The boy reminds his uncle that he wishes to go to the bazaar that night. His uncle will have to get home on time to give him the money needed for the bazaar. His uncle has forgotten about the bazaar, so he came home very late that night. The narrator takes the **all sum of money for the train and heads off.
He arrives at the bazaar just as it is closing. Only a few stalls are open. He examines the goods, but they are far too expensive. The lights are turning out, and the narrator despairs.
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