Growing Up Sucks

"I have tried to present it to the indifferent public under four of its aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life. The stories are arranged in this order."

I think the time has come for the move to adolescence. First of all, the use of the third person suggests some sort of change at the very least. I'm not sure what to make of it on its own merit, but I think the shift in narration accompanies the shift in "aspect." The naming of the character too seems to indicate a greater level of formation. The narrators of the first stories seem more metaphorical for their anonymity, while Eveline has more identifiable occurrences in her life and formation. She has a past; children do not.

The details throughout the story emphasize the shift too. In the second paragraph, the  description of past enjoyments in the fields, a pursuit of youth, makes it clear that Eveline has moved on and " she and her brothers were all grown up."* Evenline's understanding of her romance gives another good example. Her romantic interest in Frank, unlike the obsessive idolization of the "Araby" narrator, seems secondary to the fact that "people would treat her with respect." This little adolescence angst, her pursuit of adult treatment, diverges considerably from the childish adoration we've seen, or even the typical idealization we might imagine. That she even takes care of the anonymous "two young children" categorizes her as not a child.  

Why now though? The order of the stories tempts me to read the move to adolescence in the context of the epiphany at the end of "Araby." That twisted self-torture seems an element of Eveline's psychology, but she doesn't seem aware of it, does she? Why does the first story of adolescence seem less self-aware and more impersonal, with its third person narration? Joyce's last sentences hold such importance that I have to think the last lines of "Araby" hold sway over this story, but I can only draw the conclusion that the paralysis gets more insidious and thoroughly embedded. 

If its getting worse, how will this ever lead to hope?

*Because I have a different edition, I have not included page numbers.