The third story in Dubliners is "Araby." I wrote very briefly about it here. It's the one you are most likely to have read, for it is frequently anthologized and assigned in literature courses on the short story. In its favor are its brevity, the youth of the main character, and a theme that one might expect to appeal to college-aged readers. Updike's "A&P" is popular for the same reasons. Indeed, "A&P" seems like an updated, American version of "Araby." You can predict the "compare and contrast" essay question on the midterm.
By the time you've finished the first three stories, you have an idea of what Joyce is about in Dubliners. Things are not stated but suggested. Hardly anything of note seems to happen. There is nothing showy about the prose. All seems calculated to create an aura of gray drabness. The characters in the stories feel it but can't escape. What's suggested but not stated in "Araby"? The narrator's high hopes, the holy feeling he has when thinking of Mangan's sister and of giving her a gift. O, love! But when he finally gets to the bazaar, it's late. The sellers are closing up, counting money. He overhears bits of coarse conversation. At a stall, he can barely get the attention of the sales girl, who resents the interruption of her conversation with two boys. Then the conclusion:
I lingered before her stall, though I knew my stay was useless, to make my interest in her wares seem the more real. Then I turned away slowly and walked down the middle of the bazaar. I allowed the two pennies to fall against the sixpence in my pocket. I heard a voice call from one end of the gallery that the light was out. The upper part of the hall was now completely dark.
Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.
The end. The last sentence calls attention to itself: the mutedness is dropped in favor of a rare statement of strong emotion. I like the sentence before that one. The upper part of the hall was now completely dark. The verbal associations, including how the narrator walks down the center of the bazaar, evoke a religious service in a church. But it's a market. Everyone is on the make. The boy longs for something sacred and is swamped by the profane.