"Araby" revisited

After revisiting “Araby”, I realized that the Araby bazaar itself was a very strong symbol in the story. The narrator in the story uses the Araby to disconnect himself from his dull world for a time, and chooses to only focus on Araby rather than anything else. This is shown in the story by the narrator falling asleep in class, the rest of the world being described as “blind” “brown” and “somber”, and how Araby is one of the few things that has an excitement factor in the story. This shows Araby is a symbol of the narrator’s detachment from his life. This is similar to the movie The Red Balloon and how the red balloon was a symbol of the little boy’s detachment from his life. Also, in both of these stories their symbols of detachment are destroyed in the end with Araby being closed in darkness, and the bully popping the balloon. This hints at a larger meaning that while you can detach yourself from an unhappy life with something meaningless for a time, it is always short lived and you always have to come back to reality. Distractions may be a temporary solution, but they are never a permanent solution.