In this story's rising action, we are introduced to the young boy and his life in Dublin, as well as is his intense emotions for Mangan's sister, the girl he wishes to impress. As the story continues, she tells him of the bazaar and of her desire to attend it, although another commitment prevents her from doing so. This conversation inspires him to go to the bazaar himself and bring her back a gift.
As the story proceeds, we follow its narrator as he asks for permission to attend the bazaar and as he waits impatiently for that day to come. In these scenes, we find the story's tension building. When the day finally arrives, his planned sojourn is further complicated by his uncle's late arrival home. It is nine at night by the time his uncle gets back, but this doesn't prevent the boy from attending the bazaar. By...
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the time he arrives, however, the bazaar is closing for the night.
This arrival at the bazaar, I would suggest, is the climax of the story. At last he has finally reached his long sought destination. However, as we proceed into the story's falling action, he finds the bazaar disappointing and doesn't purchase a gift at all. The story resolves with his epiphany, concerning the harsh reality of life.
James Joyce's short story "Araby" reads much like a coming-of-age story until the resolution, because rather than acquiring maturity with a satisfying realization, the protagonist's new knowledge brings him disappointment and feelings of failure to achieve fulfillment.
During the rising action of the story, the protagonist finally finds the opportunity to speak to Mangan's sister, who asks him if he is going to Araby. Eager to accompany her, the protagonist asks her if she plans to go, but she has a religious retreat to attend. Disappointed, he promises to bring her something.
After this conversation, the protagonist can think of nothing else but the bazaar; he is distracted in school and at night the girl's image haunts his mind. Having asked his aunt permission to go, he reminds his uncle on Saturday that he wishes to travel to the bazaar so the man will give him some money. "Yes, boy, I know," the uncle answers sharply as he searches vainly for a hat-brush. Later, when the protagonist comes home to dinner, his uncle is not there. As he waits for his uncle's return, the protagonist occupies himself by watching out his bedroom window. When he comes downstairs, it is an hour after the meal has been prepared, and the uncle is still not home.
Finally, at nine o'clock the uncle is heard entering. The protagonist listens to him and "understands the signs" of his having been at the pub. He has forgotten that his nephew wants to go to the bazaar, and he tells the boy it is too late, but his aunt urges her husband to give him the money and let him go anyway. The uncle hands his nephew some money, and the protagonist rushes to the station. However, the train is delayed and by the time he arrives at the bazaar, it is almost ten o'clock.
The story reaches its climax as the protagonist excitedly sees the "magical name" on the building.
The falling action takes place as he enters only to discover that many of the booths are closed. Then he overhears two shop girls' prattle about mundane things. "I remarked their English accents and listened vaguely to their conversation." After asking if he wants anything and the reply being negative, the girl returns to the other girl and the two young men with whom they have engaged in local gossip.
Then, the protagonist turns away and walks down the middle of the place without having bought anything, disillusioned by the falsity of what was supposed to have been an exotic bazaar. As he departs, he lets his "two pennies...fall against the sixpence" into the pocket of his pants in his disappointment.
The resolution occurs when the lights of the building are all off and the protagonist stands in the deepening darkness as he reaches his epiphany:
I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.
The protagonist has made a transition from his idealistic and immature dreams to the reality of adulthood.
Concerning Joyce's "Araby," I suggest that the climax of the story occurs when the boy, the narrator, decides not to buy a gift for Magnan's sister at the bazaar.
The young boy confuses secular and religious issues and confuses Magnan's sister with the Virgin Mary. She is purity and holiness and he is obsessed with her. But when he arrives at the bazaar, its appearance, the trivial conversation he hears, and, possibly, the commercial nature of the bazaar lead him to an epiphany. He realizes that the conversation he had with Magnan's sister, during which he promises to buy her a gift at Araby, was just as trivial and was just as much small talk as the conversation he overhears. And he realizes that the girl is just a girl.
Therefore, everything leading up to the climax is the rising action, and everything that follows it is the resolution, including his "announcement" of his epiphany.
What is the rising action in "Araby"?
In a narrative, the rising action consists of the events that directly precede and lead to the climax. In order to determine the rising action in “Araby,” therefore, we need to identify the climax. This is usually the moment in a story when the tension or action reaches its highest point. In the case of “Araby,” this moment comes when the narrator arrives at the bazaar, where he hopes to buy a nice gift for Mangan's sister. Upon his arrival, his dreams and hopes give way to disillusion.
The most important aspect of the rising action is the introduction to Mangan's sister, who will occupy the narrator's thoughts for the rest of the story. The rising action begins in this moment, because it is the meeting between the narrator and Mangan's sister that sets the central plot—the narrator's plan to go to the bazaar—into motion. She says that she would love to go to the bazaar but cannot, because she will be going on a religious retreat instead. This puts the idea into the narrator's mind of going there himself and bringing back a gift for Mangan's sister.
The rest of the rising action consists of the narrator's attempts to secure from his aunt and uncle the money and permission to go to the Araby bazaar and carry out his romantic mission.