The first romantic encounters of young people are often caused by many different emotions and illusions. In “Araby,” a portrait of a young boy's experience of romantic reality, the reader witnesses the narrator's physical, emotional, and chronological journey. The emotional reactions, anguish and anger, show the importance of the events in the boy's life. The derogatory word vanity is significant to the theme of the story, because while anguish and anger are emotional reactions, the admission of vanity is a harsh moral judgment on oneself. Anguish is considered the key emotion in a boy's childhood. In James Joyce's "Araby," the narrator's exaggerated angst seems rather pretentious given the reality of his youthful perception. Throughout the story, James Joyce demonstrates an unwavering motivation to illustrate the narrator's disenchantment with most aspects of his life. As the narrator grows older, he only becomes more bitter. Distress is an emotion used to give a clear sense of the meaning of events. Joyce carefully places this emotion at the end of the story. Joyce combines placement with strong details to describe the boy's emotions. “Looking up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and mocked by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (Joyce, 1028). Many readers are struck by the idea that there is inadequate motivation for such intense anguish (Brugaletta 12). The subsequent search for explanation that Joyce experiences is somewhere between the boy's promise and his frustration. Such motivations must appear weak in comparison to the reaction they are supposed to arouse, despite the boy's youth and romanticism (Brugaletta 12). The boy has sensuality and emotion... at the center of the paper... of Joyce's childhood. The boy may have felt heartache, but the adult who looks back at himself sees someone who longs for romance and happiness. Joyce explains "Araby" as the life of a boy who has dreams and high expectations of the world, but instead the boy gets a bitter taste of reality. Bibliography Brugaletta, John J. and Mary H. Hayden. Joyce's "The Motivation of Anguish in Araby". "Studies In Short Fiction 15.1 (1978): 11. Literary Reference Center. Network. 19 March 2013. Coulthard, AR “Joyce's Arabia”. Explicator 52.2 (1994): 97. Literary Reference Center. Network. 20 March 2013.Fim, Stewart. “James Joyce.” British Writers’ Council, 1984. 19 March 2013. Joyce's ARABY”. Explicator 35.2 (1976): 5. Literary reference center. 19 March 2013.