What is the theme of "Araby" by James Joyce?

One of
the story's most important themes is the extraordinary hold that fantasy can exert upon us, how
it can distort our perspective of what is real.

The unnamed boyis certainly
in the grip of a very powerful, intoxicating fantasy. He yearns to escape the confines of his
boring, workaday existence, with its relative poverty and lack of excitement, to a world of
exotic fantasy, the kind of fantasy that he believes will be provided by the bazaar of the
title.

Mangan's sister, the object of the boy's affections, is a crucial
component of the fantasy world he's constructed for himself. She is the main reason for his
going to the bazaar as he wants to buy her a nice gift. But as the boy stands there in the
darkening hall, with all the stalls being packed up, cold hard reality finally hits home, and
the fantasy which had previously held him in its thrall has vanished forever.