Week 5 Discussion

The story Araby by James Joyce is not a love story as we see in the end. It is more of a life experience story, a story of reality and to talk about how we can be blind from the reality because of simple things or our feelings or expressions, For example he is in love with Magan’s older sister and he is blind from the outside world. Another example is Joyce promises Magan;s older sister that he will buy something for her in Araby, as he sees this as an opportunity to get close to her. At the end he realizes Araby is not the magical place he thought and his eyes burned with anguish and anger. As we can see it more of a life experience where he is blind from the reality because of his love to the girl and he later realizes the truth.

“Araby” by James Joyce is a story about a boy who thinks he is in love and his realization that what he is feeling is not love but a simple attraction towards someone he thinks is attractive. The narrator himself realizes this a little before the end of the story in paragraph 5 where,” if I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration.” even when the narrator assumes he is in love he is confused about why he became like this. We the readers can also tell that something is wrong as the we don’t even learn the girls name. There is also nothing mentioned about her other than her beauty like in paragraph 9 where,” The light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing.” When the narrator finally gets to go to Araby it is mostly closed except for a few stalls and he goes to shop at one. When asked by someone if he wished to buy something he says that he doesn’t and he pretends that he is interested in the vases and tea-sets. After leaving he realizes that he wasn’t in love with the girl as he didn’t even know anything about her. Instead he was in awe of her beauty and mistook it for love and is angry at himself for deluding himself into thinking it was love.

Alex Barrios  Professor Conway  ENG 201 Sec. 0517  September 25, 2022  My takeaway from “Araby” is that things do not always go the way you want them to go and sometimes it can be extremely frustrating when there’s something you want so badly yet it feels like the universe conspires against you. Between bad timing and poor choices, it seemed like the circumstances were simply beyond the narrator’s control. I understand why it’s not a “Love” story while simultaneously understanding how others can view the story through those lenses. This is a person who was simply smitten and developed an obsessive crush to which the narrator goes about their day thinking about the girl and dreaming what it would be like to be the one who pleased her by providing a gift from the bazaar. I think had the narrator told the uncle about the girl he was interested in then perhaps maybe the uncle would’ve been more considerate and would even go as far as helping him reach the bazaar and pick out a gift.        

Araby is a complicated short story as at first glance it seems to be about love. However, as you dive deeper you realize it is actually about a boy whose longing after a girl becomes an unhealthy obsession. He describes the world as gloomy and depressing with his description of the street he lives on as “conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.” The only time he sees any sort of excitement in his life is when his crush, Mangan’s sister, is around him. He said “But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.” This statement clearly shows that he is crazy about her in an extremely unhealthy way. Furthermore, in the book he gets so nervous when she asks him a simple question, whether he will go to the bazaar. The first thing he says is why can’t she go. This along with the rest of the things he does in the short story clearly shows he is obsessed with her in an unhealthy way.

When I first read the title of this story, I thought that it would be more about nature. I thought that “Araby” was a very interesting piece, because it discussed love, but it wasn’t all around it being a love story. His surroundings are very gloomy and melancholy. He explains and describes that he is not happy in his environment. The narrator is in a very dark environment, however, the girl gives him light in his life. The narrator is very observant of this girl and admires her a lot and is very passionate about her. He becomes overly obsessive with her that whenever he hears, sees, or thinks about her, his dark life just disappears. She is like a distraction for him or even more so, a drug. Her presence is temporary but when she is there he craves it. He thinks about her and makes her do things that are very weird and creepy, it changes his behavior and body language.

“Araby” by James Joyce is not a love story. It is a story about a boy who is growing up and his fascination and obsession with his friend’s older sister. He speaks to her hardly ever in the story. The main interaction that the two of them share is when she talks about the Dublin bazaar that is happening that she wants to attend but can’t because of her school. The main character finally comes to terms with the fact that she is talking to him, he lies and says that he was planning on going and will get something for her. The only other times he says her is when she calls her brother in for dinner. Or when he would watch her from afar. There is no real connection between the two of them. He watches her and follows her around time. He thinks about her and how he would approach her as a way to escape from the monotonous day-to-day of his school work and home life with his Aunt and Uncle. This is the story of a young boy’s obsessive crush, not one of two people in love.  

“Araby” by James Joyce did not feel like a love story at all. The narrator describes his day to day life and his surroundings seem like a very gloomy, sombre and a piercingly lonely environment. We get a very overwhelming contrast between “the dark” reality the narrator lives in and “the light” that the girl he is infatuated with represents for him. We don’t know much of the story of his childhood but we learn that he lives with his uncle and aunt. I believe there might be an implied connection that the lack of parents in his life and his very joyless, dull outlook on the surrounding world grows in what seems like “an obsession” with the only source of a positive sensation which his friend’s sister represents. His emotions are overpowering: “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand. My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom.” His emotions seems to be very powerful but we don’t see much of a romantic connotation in his mind. It’s almost like this obsession gives him some sort of purpose or a distraction from a hostile reality.

I believe “Araby” by James Joyce is about infatuation and anticipation regarding young people “falling in love” for the first time. I’d agree in saying Araby is not a love story but follows the emotions someone naive would go through for someone they like. Usually, in love stories, authors highlight the name of the character they are in love with, but James purposely leaves out both the narrator’s and friend’s sister’s names. Mangan is the only bridge between the two characters. I think this was done to incorporate the theme of the boy being blinded by love. Throughout the story, we see how much the narrator thinks about Mangan’s sister and going to Araby to bring her something. The narrator was so deadset on making sure he was able to impress Mangan’s sister that he wanted to go to Araby to get her something because she wasn’t able to go. He was impatient but had to wait all day to be able to go. He built up a lot of anticipation for going to Araby to find a gift when it was time to go he was first disappointed that his Uncle, the one who was supposed to give him the money to go, arrived late alluding to the fact that his Uncle had been drinking. After getting the money he went to Araby but upon arrival realized it was about to close for the night. He went to the only open stalls but the people running it made him uncomfortable. Overall, I think Araby is really about what infatuation will make you do. His infatuation blinded him that all he could focus on doing was bringing her something from the bazaar. When he failed to do so, his whole world came crashing down. So this may not seem like […]

In the short story “Araby” by James Joyce is about a boy who is overly obsessive over Mangan’s sister. He would hide in the shadows or even go further by laying on the floor in the front pariour watching her door. In the story when Mangan’s sister and him was conversing, he found out that she couldn’t go to the bazaar. He told her that if he goes, he’ll bring her back something. He was blinded by her beauty that he would go beyond lengths just to give her a gift. On Saturday, he reminded his uncle that he was going to the bazaar in the evening only for his uncle to forget and come in the house at nine o’clock. His uncle prolonged in giving him the money buy eating then saying, “the people are in bed and after their first sleep now”. but the boy didn’t want to hear it. he was fixating on buy this crush a gift. when he finally reaches to bazaar, he doesn’t buy anything which made him upset.

“Araby” is not a love story. This story is more of a “wake up to reality” for the narrator. Throughout the story, the narrator uses many literary devices to show the setting of the place he lives in and mainly talks about this girl he seems to be fascinated by. In my opinion, he is more obsessive than fascinated. He noticed the times she leaves, so he would leave at the same time, but it wouldn’t be for an actual conversation. This friendship or “relationship” that they have with each other is more one-sided because the narrator seems to be more interested in her than she is. This can’t be a love story if only one person is interested more than the other person. Throughout the story, the narrator talks to the girl and she brings up a “bazaar” that she wants to go to, but she isn’t able to. This led to an idea for the narrator in going to the bazaar himself to buy the girl a gift to show his “attraction” to her. Eventually, he ends up going to the bazaar, but he arrived late due to his uncle not arriving in time to give him money. When he arrived, everything was basically closed and the only shop that was open didn’t have something that was worth gifting. At the end of that night, he felt frustrated, asking himself why he went all this way for something he didn’t need to do. This made him realize he didn’t have a love for the girl and felt that he made a fool out of himself because he went all that way for nothing.

Araby is a story about a boy in Ireland who is infatuated with a girl living across the street. When the young girl talks about how badly she wants to attend a particular festival, he sees an opportunity to win her heart by attending the festival himself and bringing her back a gift. However, the boy’s plans are dashed when he arrives at the festival too late and finds that it is already over. The boy is left feeling disillusioned and empty-handed. He has gone through all the effort of traveling to the festival only to be let down, and he feels like he has missed his chance. The theme of the story “Araby” is that a person’s subjective feelings and the objective world are two opposing things. There is no agreement between them. First, we do not understand this disagreement, but later we come to understand that, and we are disillusioned. Even though he had the chance to win her heart, he was never given an opportunity to explain himself. The story ends with the girl walking away from him, never to be seen again. This story shows the importance of communication and how it can change the course of a relationship. The boy in the story never had the chance to tell the girl how he felt about her. If he had been able to communicate his feelings, the outcome of the story might have been different. The boy’s inability to communicate his feelings leads to his disillusionment. This story highlights the importance of being able to communicate effectively.

What is “Araby” really about?    “Araby” in my opinion is about a young boy that experienced his childhood playing with friends, becomes drawn to a crush but also matured shortly and becomes self-aware of adult issues surrounding him. The boy is completely infatuated by his friend Mangan’s sister, almost as if he built an obsession over her in a short period of time. As the story unfolds, the boy begins to fantasize about her almost in an unhinged way. He becomes fixated with the idea of going to the Araby Bazaar for an opportunity to buy her a gift to impress her and for her validation. Towards the end the boy starts to reflect on his desires, realizing he was drawn to the idea of admiration and motivated by pure vanity. He deemed to be a people pleaser and which results in feelings of low self-worth. At that moment he held himself accountable for his foolish ways and blossomed into a mature version of himself.  

The short story Araby by James Joyce isn’t a love story as it would appear on a surface level it’s more of a story about a child who is infatuated with Mangan’s sister he is obsessive and even goes to the point of wanting to get her something from the Bazar when she hasn’t really shown much interest in him but after his uncle gives him money he goes to the Bazar but realizes it is closed and it disappoints him because he couldn’t get her something when he promised her he would. He also started to realize he had too high of expectations when he was the only one that was showing interest and was infatuated  her which causes him to lose hope and be disappointed in the end because his love wasn’t reciprocated and it seems that he was more so obsessed with her than in love with her for who she was as he didn’t really know her well in the grand scheme  of things which is why Araby is not a love story.

   Araby is a coming of age story where the main character changes his way of thinking by the end of the story because in the beginning all he really had on his mind was the girl that he liked but because of the bazaar he ends up realizing that reality wasn’t all he thought it was. He has a crush on a girl but by the end he grows up in a way when he realizes that his imagination and reality conflict with each other. This is shown when he goes to the bazaar expecting for it to be this amazing place where he’ll find something to give to his love after she mentions that she wants to go but is unable to but when he arrives at the bazaar he ends up finding it to be a somewhat empty and lonely place with rude people. Which was nothing like he thought it would be. At the end he realizes that he wasted his time by going to the bazaar instead of having a fairy tale view of the place.

I believe “Araby” is a coming-of-age story centered around the narrator’s infatuation induced naivety. In the third chapter the narrator finds themselves inexplicably smitten with the older sister of their friend Mangan. The narrator spends the remainder of the story consumed with this girl.   This is shown when the narrator explains that they spend every morning watching her door waiting to follow behind her enroute to school. It is further illustrated when the narrator states, “Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance” all the while not truly understanding the source of these emotions “Her name sprang to my lips at moments in strange prayers and praises which I myself did not understand”  When the narrator is presented with an opportunity to impress the holder of his infatuation, they eagerly seize it. Their immaturity is displayed by the narrator’s expressed delusion of going to this “magical place” and finding the perfect gift that will cause the girl to fall for them of We see the main character become frustrated when their uncle doesn’t arrive in time to take them to the bazaar and fear when they arrive to see the place closing. upon arriving late to the bazaar, the narrator finds most shops have closed and the one shop open does not contain anything they feel is worthy. In his failure the character comes to realize that he did not love the girl and in realizing that he realizes what he has become something of  a mockery of himself   His attraction represents his maturing, his disillusioned fantasy of going to Araby and getting the perfect gift that will make her fall in love with him represents his childlike innocence that lingers. 

“Ararby” is certainly not a love story in my opinion. The narrator saw Mangan’s sister as this beautiful girl by the way he described her. But he seemed like he was obsessed with her. He would watch her every morning so he can leave at the same time she did. He mentioned that he’s never spoken to her before just a few casual words. I feel like you can’t be in love with someone who you have never gotten to know. She had this control over him. When she mentioned that she wanted to go to Araby but couldn’t he jumped on it and told her that he would get her something from there. It was a long way, but he eventually got there. At some point he saw a girl talking to two other guys at the shop while he was looking for something for his crush. At the end, he didn’t get anything. It seemed like something switched in his head and felt like he let his unhealthy obsession go out of his way to get something for the girl that he doesn’t know. He was angry in the end.

The story “Araby” by James Joyce isn’t a love story but rather a story about a child that is infatuated with Mangan’s sister. The boy constantly keeps a distance from her but always is close enough to keep watch of her and admire her. When he was finally able to talk to her she mentioned if he was going to Araby. He had all these ideas about how magnificent the event would be. He went as far as wanting to buy something for her because his “like” was so deep for her. But when his uncle comes home late and gives him some money, as he rushes off to go to the Bazar and arrives he notices that it was dark and most of the stalls had already been closed. This disappointed him as he had told Mangan’s sister that he would go and buy something for her. At this moment he realizes that his expectation of the Bazar was not what it is at all. At the end of the story, he is mad that he was not able to buy anything for her but he also realizes that his expectation was too high and the hope he had was no longer there. The story was about a coming of age of sorts realizing that his obsession lead him to go this far for someone that would not really have noticed him in the grand scheme of things which had led him to become disappointed and upset.

“Araby” by James Joyce is not a love story. What is “Araby” really about? “Araby” is a short story written by James Joyce. This story revolves around a boy and recounts his disillusionment. The boy develops a big crush on his friend’s older sister. The narrator at first describes his mundane life. Then, Mangan’s sister becomes a mental escape for the narrator. All thoughts strike him as an escape from the real filthy world to the ideal world not only physically but mentally. Mangan’s sister provides him mental escape and the thoughts regarding Araby bazaar also provide him with an escape. He thinks of her every time. At some points, he could be seen daydreaming about that girl. He explains her in religious terms. Moreover, he thinks his studies are useless after falling in love with the girl. However, in the end, all his beliefs proved wrong and Araby market brought the understanding of epiphany to the narrator. The narrator thinks of something foreign in the Araby market. However, he found out that nothing in the Araby market matches the description he made in his mind. He observes people speaking English. He noticed things there are not so special. He realizes his illusion of love. At that time, all his delusions turn into disappointments.

Araby by James Joyce is far from a love story, it’s about infatuation, obsession and what it means to find light in the darkness of ones surroundings. The young boy’s environment was cold, somber and mostly quiet, until the Christians Brothers’ school was out of session. He explored his home a bit, revealing that the previous tenant had passed in that home, in the drawing room. He found old papers that have no relevance, books that were shriveled and moist. He explored the garden, that wasn’t being tamed or looked after. The boy’s home was even depressing. He and his friends played in the cold and somber streets, which there’s a high chance that the young boy felt joy laughing and running around. Joy that he did not get at home or school. The streets were so dark that the lights from people’s houses filled his area with light. The young boy would hide if he had ever seen his uncle turning the corner, he would hide in a dark spot with his friends until they have seen his uncle go inside the house. But, when the young boys friend Mangan’s sister was to ever call out for Mangan, the young boy did not feel inferior. He felt intrigued and delighted to be near her, even if they never spoke, her presence was enough for him. The young boy described her so elegant and soft, that her figure was defined by the light of the house, her dress swaying with her when she moved and her hair so soft, moving side to side. He watched her, he sought for her. As if she was something that made him light up inside. He could not stop thinking about her, even in times there was nothing about what he was doing she […]

After reading “Araby,” a short story by James Joyce, I believe that its main idea is teenage love and despair. The short narrative shows us how our young man progresses from his regular tasks to being in awe of the young woman he so desperately wants. He develops a strong desire for her and gains the opportunity to prove his sincerity. After spending so much time getting ready for the market and with all the adrenaline he has to show his love for the young woman, the young man realizes that nothing about getting there is as it seems. Then, at the very end of the night, when he arrives at the market, reality sets back in. There is nothing that he can accept and buy that is equal to his feelings for this young woman. The short story contrasts teenage angst with disappointment, or what some of us now know as plain reality. It’s a reference to seeing the world through rose-colored glasses, love can truly cloud your judgment.

“Araby” isn’t a love story but it’s about frustration and disappointment. The young boy had a huge crush on Mangan’s sister and wanted to win her heart by buying something. She brought up the bazaar and he liked the idea just because she mentioned it. As he arrived late, he was immediately disappointed with what he saw with most of the stalls being packed up and ended up buying nothing. This boy is losing himself because of his immaturity, he believes he’s inferior and is blinded by lust which the girl takes advantage of. She sees how obsessive he is with her and she sees the opportunity to obtain gifts from him without any commitment. At the end of the story, the boy feels disappointed with his behavior, firstly realizing Araby is a trade show and not a magical place. Secondly, he’s annoyed with himself for how obsessive he became with his crush and knows that he was just blinded by her, realizing she doesn’t care for him. 

“Araby” isn’t a love story, but more of a story about having high expectations and disappointment. This young boy  had such a huge crush on Mangan’s sister. Big enough to where he wanted to be around her and buy her something. She brought the bazaar up in conversation, and he envisioned it to be something grand, but only because “his crush” spoke about it. He couldn’t wait to experience such a place and upon his arrival it was nothing like he imagined. His high expectations of this place lead him into a place of disappointment because most of the bazaar was closed, it was dark, and there wasn’t many people, but that wasn’t the only time he was disappointed in the story. He was so eager to have this experience he depended on, the on time arrival of his uncle so he can give him money to go. His uncle came home late and claimed he forgot that he had to give him money. This not only disappointed the boy but it also led him to grow frustrated and angry. Nothing in his day went as planned. I grew up with the saying “do not disappoint yourself with high expectations”.

“Arbay” is not a love story. In my perspective, it serves to distinguish between objective reality and subjective feelings. Throughout the story, the narrator uses multiple metaphors, hyperbole’s, similes, etc. All of which makes us use our imagination. In the beginning of the story he states, “But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires.” He is evidently infatuated with her. He thinks of her constantly which clouds his judgement and view on anything that’s not her. Later on in the story, after being held up by his uncle- he took the train to the bazaar. He even mentions that he has to “remind himself with difficultly” why had came, as if it had not met his expectations. He seemed to be unsettled throughout his visit, wandering around he realized that his stay served no purpose. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” Towards the end of the story, the boy’s perspective starts to shift.

I just wanted to jump in here, which I don’t usually do. So many responses come so close to the meaning of this story, and some touch at the heart of it. Observations about the negative effects of obsession are very relevant and well expressed. But then the question becomes: Why is the boy so obsessed? Why does he need this focus in his life? What does the girl represent to him? A closer look at the character of the boy suggests answers to these questions. And by the way, don’t be fooled by his failure to buy the girl a gift. Ask yourself if the girl would have cared about him even if he were able to buy her a little tea set or trinket from the bazaar?  One last request for when you are posting: In the “Category Sticky” box to the right, please do not change anything. Leave that to read “Select a Category.” In the box underneath this, which reads “Categories,” check the box for the current week, and then click the blue “Publish” button. Thank you!

”Araby” is a powerfully emotional story. In my point of view, this reading represents the confrontation of a child with frustration who plays in the street, that is, he is very young, and he cannot get what he wants because he does not depend on himself but rather on his uncle to go to the bazaar. He wanted to go to the bazaar because the girl he liked wanted to go, he saw this as an opportunity to win his heart to buy her a gift since she wanted to go to the same place. He is probably in a hurry and perhaps time will give him an answer since he was short of money and understanding that this was the main conflict of this reading, it may also be that the boy is vain and wants to conquer the girl with details. However, this reading can perhaps indicate how we are maturing from youth to adulthood.

“Araby” by James is indeed not a love story. Instead, it’s rather more of an obsession story. ” Every morning, I lay on the floor in the front parlor watching her door. The blind was pulled down to within an inch of the sash, so I could not be seen. When she came out on the doorstep, my heart leaped. I ran to the hall, seized my books, and followed her. ” His multiple attempts to impress her lead him to continue being disappointed and discouraged. The night at nine o’clock, the boy asked his uncle for the money he was supposed to give him so that he could buy his crush a gift. By the time the boy got near the store, he had feared Bazaar might be closed, but then he found a way in and recognized silence. A young lady asked him if he wanted to buy anything with a discouraging tone. In the end, he realized a gift wasn’t worth it and that doing so much wouldn’t get him anywhere. Being left with disappointment.

What is “Araby” really about? To me “Araby” is a story about obsession. James Joyce uses impressive figurative language to make the readers feel that the narrator is blinded by love. The narrator develops a crush for his friends sister who he hardly knows. He admires her from afar and daydreams about her. Once they finally speak and she lets him know of her wishes to go to the bazaar he becomes obsessed with going so he can bring something back to her. He uses his imagination and thinks the bazaar is going to be this extravagant market where he can get something that will hopefully make Mangan’s sister like him. Once he arrives, he is extremely disappointed and let down because the market is basically closed. He already felt very isolated and sad during most of the story and this final event makes him feel even lower. I think the main point of the story is to show that obsession and delusion is no good because you could be heavily let down when your expectations are not met.

“Araby” by James Joyce is not a love story. What is “Araby” really about?. The narrator is blinded with his obsession for his so called love for Mangan’s sister. It is not reality and only delusion obsession. This so-called ” love obsession” forces the narrator to grow up and face reality and take off his rose-colored glasses. He viewed the Bazaar as an exciting and exotic place to go like a white knight on an honorable quest to fetch something for his fair maiden, his one true love but in reality, he is not in love with her it is more of an unhealthy obsession that he bases his existence on until he finally gets to the Bazaar and is forced to take his rose-colored glasses off to see how it’s just like any other market there is nothing exciting or exotic, people are just going about their everyday life just like Mangan’s sister is and in this way the narrator has a realization and grows up and sees that he’s been delusional.

The coming-of-age story “Araby” by James Joyce is about a young teenage boy who has a crush on his neighbor, Mangan’s sister. The story’s setting is dark and gloomy Dublin, and when the narrator tells us about Mangan’s sister he writes about it as he is charmed and fascinated by her, she is like a light in all the darkness. I chose to use the word crush because he didn’t really know her or even talk to her but he had strong feelings maybe even an obsession with her. Finally, she spoke with him and asked if he’s going to Araby. She said she would go there if she could but unfortunately, she can’t, and then the narrator promised her that if he will go he will bring her something when he is back. Going to the bazaar wasn’t very important for him until he made this promise to her. We can see that it is really important for him to go there since he doesn’t want to disappoint her. The story ended up with his disappointment that he didn’t make it on time to the bazaar. When he finally got there most of the stalls were already closed and it was mostly dark. He was very eager to go there; reminding his aunt and uncle about it, and walking up and down the stairs impatiently while his uncle was late. This is why when things did not go as he expected he was upset and angry.

After I started to read “Araby” by James Joyce I realized what you mean in activity one that it’s not a love story. I feel that the mood throughout the story was very down, sad, gloomy, and dull. Well, there was a crush, like, love, young boy love. Whatever its call it’s sadly one-sided. He was you can even say obsessive over her and was very desperate for the sister. You can see a lot of that with his gift. While his, at this point let’s just call it a, crush on her, in the end, seem to kick him into some kind of depression “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity, and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” (37)    “

This story is not so much of a love story as it’s closer to a cautionary tale. This story is rich with literary devices to  The symbolism in “Araby” is very prominent and indicative of the young narrators naiveté. To give some context to the story, the nameless narrator we know to be a young boy, falls in love with this considerably older woman he hardly knows anything about. She is always presented in a positive bright light. He is deeply infatuated with her. While on the other hand, truth and reality are always tossed aside in the darkened background. He has a very literal black and white way of thinking. Of course, with this much blind infatuation doesn’t end up well. He ends up not being able to impress her by getting her something at their local bazaar. It seems like by the end of the story he realizes how foolish he was going as far as to call himself a “creature driven and derided by vanity”. I like where this story ended. I think anything more or less would have lessened the impact of the last sentiment.

I wanted to respond to the Week 4 discussion about “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara. I was very impressed by many of your comments in which you compared two characters from the story. Many of you discussed Mercedes, who serves as the “outlier,” as Eoin observed in his post. Clearly, she learns nothing from the expedition and only feels more hopeful that she might someday be accepted into the society represented by the clientele of the toy store. I don’t think she realizes how unrealistic that dream of acceptance actually is. There was also some excellent discussion of the interesting character Miss Moore, whom some critics say represents Black empowerment soon to come historically. I was glad to see mention of the other minor characters too, each of whom has slightly different reactions to what Miss Moore is trying to show them. They are so insulated in their world that they do not even realize their own poverty until this trip to the toy store. Some of you focused on Sugar, Sylvia’s best friend, who arrives at an intellectual response to “the lesson.” She is able to make observations about societal inequity and pose rhetorical questions about democracy, but that is as far as she takes the lesson of Miss Moore. It is only Sylvia who learns something about herself. She is an interesting, dynamic character, who runs through a gamut of emotions during the story. At first, she is cynical, wisecracking, and offhand about the venture. She is the clear leader in the group, which is why Miss Moore entrusts her with the taxi money, yet as the story develops readers see that there is deep vulnerability behind her tough exterior. She truly understands that she is not part of the world she has just been introduced to, […]

After reading Araby, I feel like many of us could have had a similar situation like this in our life. The narrator is so full of light and positivity and that it  fills his head whenever discussing Mangans sister but when life and reality actually hits him it’s always a more negative and dull mood. The narrator fantasizes about this girl and he doesn’t even know her name, he’s so infatuated with her and that’s how it is whenever you have a crush, but the feelings aren’t mutual back. All the little things he wants to do to get her attention only end up hurting him more in the end. The frustration starts to build throughout the story when things don’t go his way and this is just the reality of how life is. This disappointment and frustration that the narrator feels at the end of the story is quite a normal feeling for the people because they all have their own life to live, the Dubliners are focused on survival instead of love. The frustration really sets in at the end of the story when the narrator finally comes to the realization that this is just an illusion that he’s come up with and it won’t come true.

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 […]