Dublin Ireland in 1914 was a place of poverty and religious restriction, under the rule of the Christian Church. A place where literary diversity was primarily limited to that of poets Irish biblical books. James Joyce, published the short story “Araby” as a modern activist focused on English literature. Being an early 20th century story, my expectations were for a simple plot diagram, easily distinguishing between the climax. and falling action.Joyce broke all preconceived ideas of what the outline of a short story could be.Joyce was the leading modernist writer of the 20th century and changed the way the reader saw their perception of life. Say no to plagiarism essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Araby is a story that requires complete concentration, for which I struggled to find meaning on the first pass with my initial expectation developed over years. of reading books with happy endings, I've spent the last few paragraphs looking for exactly that. Previous readings of post-19th century pieces in Ireland had me expecting to see a piece with predominantly Christian influences. One that spoke of enlightenment or the search for faith. I knew Joyce had some pieces banned by the church in Ireland, but I was expecting a traditional atheism piece. While reading the story I was surprised to see the use of the "stream of consciousness" narrative mode. Slowly, you could see the seven deadly sins shown by the main character. Starting with Lust and Sloth, I didn't expect to see it in a book of the time. Breaking the seven deadly sins led to being punished in hell and thrown into the snake pit. Eventually, my expectations shifted to the thought that I was missing the critical meaning of the story. The escalating action was intruding into the typical climax space, my initial expectations starting to crumble. Joyce's explanation of the girl he wanted was that of virgin marriage, a confusing comparison for a piece about a seemingly traditional guy. The concluding paragraph left me in a state of dissatisfaction. I asked myself: “Where is the conclusion? The explanation for why he left the bizarre empty-handed?" I immediately reread the story and began to see references to an epiphany, the sudden realization that his life wasn't all he thought it was. I began to think about my life and how I could relate to the character's disillusioned thoughts about how he saw the world. All he needed was a change of perspective, something so obvious that neither he nor I had seen until now. . With each re-watch of Araby, my previous expectations were exceeded. There was a hidden message of the daily grind that I could talk about, an interesting twist. The final epiphany was key in shattering my expectations as it represented the break final of my hope for a happy ending. It was not the epiphany of auspicious enlightenment, but that of a painful realization, which I and many others experience in our coming of age. Abandonment, complete loss of care, awareness that fantasies have been misguided