In James Joyce's short story "Araby," the unnamed adolescent narrator sees the Araby bazaar being held in Dublin as a chance to undertake a quest (or a crusade?) in order to woo his friend Mangan's sister. The name of this bazaar is indicative of this quest into foreign lands. To the narrator, he sees his trip to Araby the equivalent of questing to the Holy Land to fight for Christianity. In his imaginings about traveling to the bazaar, the narrator says, "I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes."
In order to understand how this is a quest, I'll briefly explain how Thomas C. Foster explains quests in his book How to Read Literature Like a Professor. In his book, Foster explains a quest must have five things:
- A quester
- A place to go
- A stated reason to go on this quest
- Challenges and trials
- The real reason to go.
"Araby" has each of these present. The unnamed narrator is the quester, he wants to go to the Araby bazaar, he wants to go so he can bring Mangan's sister something back, he faces trials (his drunk uncle and the flirty girl at the bazaar), and he realizes his immature attitude regarding love, romance and women.
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