There is a stark contrast to his previous trip to the market:

"I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes."

The boy/narrator is obviously in love, yet he never says the girl's name. She is initially introduced as "Mangan's sister", and afterwards she is only mentioned by pronouns. An essay by Richard J. Gerber, titled "Joyce's 'Araby' and the Mystery of Mangan's Sister", explores the varying views on the significance of omitting her name:

• William Bysshe Stein describes "the young boy’s adoration of Mangan’s sister, and his reluctance to speak her name, as a form of religious devotion: 'This awe and reverence literally manifest an impulse toward deification". Judaic tradition states that God's name, Yahveh, was so holy "'that it was sacrilege...to pronounce it'".

• Ben L. Collins believes that Joyce is making a joke about Jesus Christ. He "cites Joyce’s well-known allusion to Irish poet James Clarence Mangan (and his poems about love, religion, and nationality)...[Collins] concludes that 'The role of Mangan’s sister as deity is made known, if it cannot establish itself in any other way, comically, for one little knows Joyce who feels he is unaware of or incapable of using Mangan’s initials—J. C.'" In other words, J. C. Mangan shares the same initials as Jesus Christ.

• The essay by Gerber examines these interpretations, but he ultimately comes to a different conclusion. J. C. Mangan had a sister; she is mentioned in his autobiography, as well as a biography about him. However, her name is never known. Moreover, "Joyce also adapted other significant portions of J. C. Mangan’s early life story for use in 'Araby'...Joyce’s appropriation (and fictionalization) of details taken from Mangan’s life explains Mangan’s sister’s missing name in 'Araby' because she is also nameless in the biographies of J. C. Mangan and in his autobiographical writings".

The stories in Dubliners incorporate complex layers of meaning into straightforward plot lines.

source: https://muse-jhu-edu.jpllnet.sfsu.edu/article/605563

The narrator reveled in the moment when the "Christian Brothers’ School set the boys free". Now the convent/church is preventing the girl he loves from being free.

Earlier, Mangan's sister told him it would be a "splendid bazaar"; even "The syllables of the word Araby were called to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an Eastern enchantment over me". That was in his imagination, but now he's in reality.

The boy and his friends are still ordinary kids. They like to be adventurous, run through the avenues, and let their imaginations run wild. Later on, the boy's interests evolve, as do the interests of all children as they grow up.

"Araby" is filled with religious allusions; religion was important in Ireland. This passage could be interpreted in a number of ways. In one sense, the boys being set "free" could mean that they are finally able to enjoy being kids. They are literally released from the rigid structure of school, and now they can do what boys do: play. Furthermore, Khorand observes that it is possible that the school "constrains and limits [the boys] so much more with it's didactic religious teachings".

source: http://epiphany.ius.edu.ba/index.php/epiphany/article/view/109/106

It seems his uncle likes to drink, and the boy knows what he sees. He may be used to seeing his uncle drunk, or perhaps he is able to glean new information from the world because he is spending less time with his friends and more time at home with the adults. After all, he doesn't seem to go out and play anymore, and he was just sitting with Mrs. Mercer during tea-time while she gossiped at him. He may still be a boy, but he has some insight into the world of adults.

In The Egoist, Ezra Pound asserts that "Araby" "is much better than a 'story', it is a vivid waiting". Indeed, the boy in "Araby" is often waiting for that which he desires the most. His thoughts are consumed by the magical bazaar called Araby: "I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days...I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child's play, ugly monotonous child's play". Later on, while waiting for his uncle, he is forced to "endure the gossip of the tea-table. The meal was prolonged beyond an hour and still my uncle did not come". He is repeatedly waiting for the moment that he believes will bring him happiness.

I much prefer this nomenclature especially since it allows me to add Christopher Alexander to the mix. He argued that there are machine systems and growing systems. Or perhaps we can think of the distinction as between engineered and rhizomatic? Or using James Scott's terms: legible v illegible.