Araby Group

Question:

meggie457
meggie457
Student
Community / Jr. College

What does "the Araby" symbolize to Sammy? 

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Posted by meggie457 on Monday February 2, 2009 at 10:57 AM and tagged with araby, characters, sammy, symbolism.

Answers:

  1. anzio45
    anzio45

    eNotes Editor

    Problem here: there is no Sammy in Joyce's Araby. The central character is presumably Joyce himself as a child / adolescent on the edge of sexual awakening. His strong attraction towards Mangan's sister becomes closely connected with the romantic notions he forms of the bazaar/amusement arcade Araby and he builds up a fantasy of bringing her back an exotic gift from it. However, he realizes the cheap, tawdry reality of the place soon after he arrives there and this combines with the realisation that his infatuation with Mangan's sister is also a hopeles delusion, driven more by his vanity and tendency to romanticise than by any notice she will ever take of him.

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    Posted by anzio45 on Wednesday February 4, 2009 at 7:26 AM