Loss of Innocence

Heya, it’s Harry, again. It’s only been a day but here I am for, you guessed it, Araby. Joy, complete, utter, flipping joy. Alright sorry just needed to get that out of my system, but I guess I’ll just pick off from yesterday and say whatever come to mind?

Well Mrs. Devo, my lit teacher, cleared up those first two paragraphs for us, so that’s one bullet we dodged, thank the lord. I’m not really sure what to talk about so I guess I’ll just tell you what my first thoughts were when I finally understood it (kinda) after reading it like asdfhsvuiwc times. Okey-dokey so, like I said earlier, I had no clue whatsoever about the first two paragraphs and basically abandoned them after my first run through. But that third paragraph, that third paragraph, that’s where all the magic started. I’ll admit at first it this sudden change of perspective and subject threw me off for a good while, three or four readings, but I had an inkling of the idea. I mean come on two kids running around in the dirt then he meets a girl, not too hard to guess what happens next. Thus, when, in the next few paragraphs, the main character appears to become slightly obsessed with Mangan’s sister I wasn’t too surprised. And the trip to Araby was equally predictable; not necessarily going to Araby that was predictable, but the trip itself was easy to see coming. I mean really? Boy is lonely, Boy meets Girl, Boy goes on “grand” adventure for Girl, Girl falls in love with Boy, the end. But that’s where the surprises start. The trite, cliched steps begin to divert and, lo and behold, new material, at least to me. Of course, the main character encounters obstacles on this “quest” of his, what kind of story would it be if he didn’t.But the difference is in that his realization in the last couple lines of the book is of a different sort then is usually seen in these kinds of stories. Instead of finding love and living happily ever after our character realizes the filth that humans are stained with. How they’re so easily corrupted and controlled by sin, greed, and, especially, beauty. This is an unusually poignant loss of innocence because of how easily relatable it is but also, and more importantly, because of the total reversal of thought. All children must grow up, if not now then later, and this contributes greatly to how emotional this epiphany is. That scene causes a visceral response in the reader because of the complete one-eighty from the beginning of the passage. They’re children running through the physical grime and muck of humanity but are heartbreakingly innocent. And now, though physically unscathed, infected with the filth, blackened by the blemish that is being human. But this scene right here is why I’m so taken with this story hahahha. Alrighty, well seeya around and don’t forget to drop a comment.