The bazaar itself in Joyce's "Araby," doesn't fulfill its
magical name. The image of the bazaar that Mangan's sister and the narrator have is an
illusion. That's the point of the bazaar in the story.
By
the time the boy arrives, it's half-closed, the conversation by the workers that he
overhears is silly and coarse and trivial, and the objects for sale are not worth
buying.
The boy realizes the bazaar is just a low-rent
place to buy worthless trinkets sponsored by the church for the purpose of making money
for the church. It is the destruction of this illusion, that leads the boy to his
realization, or epiphany, that destroys his other illusions: that Mangan's sister is
somehow akin to the Virgin Mary, that he is a holy warrior, and that they have some kind
of special relationship.
He realizes how foolish and silly
he's been. The blindness, figuratively, is lifted from his eyes.
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