It is becoming increasingly difficult to get away from the materialistic facets of the ever-changing society we live in today. If a new social media website or application is released, the masses flock to it and will not see daylight for weeks. Types of music, clothing styles, and popular culture today are changing more and more rapidly, and if one does not conform and adhere to these new styles, they are considered uncultured and an outcast or just simply elderly. This is exemplified in many of Joyce's short stories in Dubliners. "Araby" shows how the narrator thinks the only way to win over his love is to buy her materialistic goods from a bazaar, and when he does not achieve this, he becomes enraged, and a feeling of helplessness is induced. "Eveline" conveys how the domineering nature of society and family can draw one to flee their own country seeking of refuge from this very oppressiveness. Finally, "The Dead" snow strangely falls in Dublin and Gabriel conveys his hope that the "qualities of humanity, of hospitality, [and] of kindly humour" (Joyce, 204) of those who came before are not lost with the new, "hyper-educated" (Joyce, 204) generation succeeding them. This recurring theme of conformity shows why society will always be prone to change, and why it always will.
In "Araby," this sense of helplessness is ever present. The short story shows this feeling especially through the Alfred Prufrock-like sense of self pity that the narrator feels. Araby's narrator is very much a recluse by society's standards, hiding from strangers in his neighborhood by cowering in the shadows. It is soon revealed that the narrator is in love with his friend Mangan's sister, also unnamed. He eerily stalks her every day, he waits from behind his window to see when she leaves her house so he can follow her, always keeping in mind how "[he] did not know whether [he] would ever speak to her or not or how [he] would tell her of [his] confused adoration.
