Araby is a short story by author James Joyce, published in 1914. In the closing sentence by the narrator, he calls himself a "creature driven and derided by vanity." The author probably chose to describe the narrator as a creature to convey his disappointment at himself. The narrator had high expectations of the bazaar he was visiting, of the turn his love life would take, of all the romance and beauty that would be brought into his life. All of that was taken away from him once he realized the bazaar is a warehouse full of cheap things. He fails to find the gift he was looking for, something different, beautiful, something that would enchant the woman he is in love with. At the end, he realizes his own naivety and vanity. At this point, he is more of a creature than a man, in his own eyes, so disappointed he is at himself.
