Obsession in ArabyIn James Joyce's short story "Araby", the main character is a young boy who confuses obsession with love. This guy thinks he is in love with a girl, but all his thoughts, ideas and actions show that he is simply obsessed. In this short story there are many examples that show the boy's obsession with the girl. There is also evidence to show that the guy doesn't really understand love or all the feelings that come with it. When the boy first describes the girl, you can see his obsession with her. He seems to notice every detail as “her dress swayed as she moved her body and the soft string of her hair waved from side to side” (Joyce 548). You usually don't remember every little detail about someone unless you're very intrigued by them. Also, notice the way she describes her hair as “soft rope.” This shows the intricate way the boy sees her. Another way you can see the boy's obsession with the girl is through his actions. Every morning he waits for the girl to appear and then follows her. The way the boy waits for the girl clearly shows that he is obsessed with her. The boy lies "on the floor in the parlor before her and looks at her. The curtain was drawn down to within an inch of the sash so that [he] could not be seen" (Joyce 548). It feels like spying, and spying on someone usually indicates that you have a thing for that person. In this case, the boy demonstrates this fixation. For example, while the boy follows her, she describes her adventure thus: "I always kept her dark figure in my eyes, and when we got to the point where our paths diverged, I quickened my pace and I have overcome. This happened morning... in the middle of the paper... the lights go out, and he is in the dark as he stands there in the darkness, he sees himself «as a creature guided and mocked by vanity; ] eyes burn with anguish and anger” (Joyce 551). I think this is the moment when the boy realizes that his whole trip to Arabia was foolish because a gift from the bazaar won't make the girl love him. The boy finally realizes that everything he did was driven by a silly idea that he thinks is love, but now he knows it's just a pathetic obsession with the girl. The boy's eyes burn because he feels so stupid for everything he supposedly did out of love, when he finally realizes that all his thoughts, actions and ideas were just an obsession. Works Cited Joyce, James "The Harper Anthology of Fiction." York: HarperCollins, 1986.