This story was intensely emotional. When the boy describes his environment, it seems to revolve mostly around how it effects him. He describes dark/night as gloomy and lonely. When the evening arrives, he describes the homes in his neighborhood as sombre. It feels like he is looking for something that brings him joy. In the beginning, he explained how he liked a book, “The memoirs of vidocq” not because of it’s literary content but because of it’s yellow leaves. When there is mention of light, whether it be through windows or the light that created the shadow of Mangan’s sister, the tone of the writing seemed more uplifted. It’s almost as though he associated the girl he was infatuated with, with the light. With a positive feeling. As he walked through the market area’s with his aunt, he explained that he imagined that he had bore his chalice safely through a throng of foes. Which sounds to me like he was able to maintain his sanity while strolling the amalgamation of sounds that he didn’t find pleasant or enjoyable. He seems to be very in tuned with his senses. I felt as though he may have been going through anxiety, loneliness and connected his feelings to the world around him. He seems to have felt a rush of intrigue and admiration for Mangan’s sister. The excitement he felt when thinking about her or seeing her. gave him a rush that he was almost dependent on it to feel happy. I found it strange, considering the ability to describe his surroundings and pair with an emotion, that he did not describe Mangan’s sister. He mentions the rope on her hair and the sway of her dress when she moves but did not describe her as beautiful, he did not mention her eyes or smile or any common indications of a love interest or crush. I could not entirely tie his feelings towards her as romantic. However she was able motivate him to express a gesture for her that would have brought them both some happiness, and he wanted to continue to explore that. I think this story was about a sad child possibly transitioning into a new phase in life, looking for things that can give him a feeling of contentment. Living with his aunt and uncle, I got the sense that he might have suffered a loss of some kind.
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2 thoughts on “Week 5 “Araby”- Melissa Cordero”
Melissa, this is a beautiful, sensitive, and thoughtful response to the story. Thank you for starting the week off with these comments. This integration of personal response and reference to specific details in the text is exactly the kind of discussion we want to be having—not totally emotional but also not totally intellectual, and always completely connected to the text.
Hi Melissa, I like what you said about the way the narrator speaks about Mangan’s sister because I also looked at it in the same way. He speaks about this girl in such a positive and full of light kind of way that that alone fills his imagination. When he gets back to reality he always seems so dull and in a depressed kind of mood. But this alone builds on the coming frustration that he’s going to feel at the end of the story.