Thein Joyce's
"" goes deep beyond the bazaar itself. The narrator sees himself as a religious hero,
and sees Mangan's sister as a Virgin Mary-like figure. As he courts her, so to speak, he is
participating in a religious quest. Of course, this is an illusion.
The boy
has not learned to separate the religious and the secular. The lateness of his uncle, the
trivial conversation he overhears, the fact that the bazaar turns out to be a low-life place
that sells low quality merchandise as a means for the church to make money, etc., lead him to
the realization/epiphany that all has been an illusion.
He has been
figuratively blind, as is the street he lives on (see the opening description of the
neighborhood), and in his epiphany his eyes are opened. He understands that he has been silly,
trivial, figuratively blind. He understands, it seems, that his relationship with Mangan's
sister is not a holy crusade, and that he, in fact, has no relationship with her. He is not a
crusader and she is not the Virgin Mary.
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