Araby - Lack of insightReaders of "Araby" often focus on the final scene as the key to the story. They assume that the boy experiences a deep understanding of himself when he looks "into the darkness." However, I believe that the boy sees nothing and learns nothing, neither about himself nor about others. He is not introspective; he is simply self-centered. The evidence supporting this interpretation is the imagery of blindness and the ironic point of view of the narrator. There can only be deep insight at the end of the story if we empathize with the boy and adopt his point of view. In other words, we must assume that the young boy is telling his own story. But if the real narrator is the adult man looking back at his early adolescence, then it becomes possible to read the story as ironic and to see the boy as confused and blind. The story opens and ends with images of blindness. The street is “blind” with an “uninhabited house… at the end with no exit”. While spying on Mangan's sister from his own home, the boy intentionally limits what he is able to see by lowering the "blind" until it is only inches from the window frame. window. At the bazaar, in the final scene, "the lights were out" and the upper part of the room was "completely dark." The boy “stares into the darkness,” seeing nothing but an inner torment that burns his eyes. This imagery pattern includes images of reading, and reading represents the boy's inability to understand what is before his eyes. When he tries to read at night, for example, “the image of the girl [interposes] between him and the page,” thus blinding him. In fact, he seems blind to everything except this “image” of the “maroon-clad figure projected by [his] imagination.” The girl's "brown-clad figure" is also associated with the "blind" houses of North Richmond Street, with their "imperturbable brown faces." The houses look at the boy, insensitive to his presence and his gaze. The most important face he tries and fails to read belongs to Mangan's sister. His description of her and the interpretation of the few words she said to him can be taken as further evidence of his blindness. He only sees what he wants to see, the "image" he has in his mind.