Araby Group

Question:

mary37
mary37
Student
High School - 9th Grade

In "Araby," what is the  importance of "yellowed pages"? How  do they relate to the  story?

The narrator liked  from the dead priest room, a book  with yellow pages... 

relating to the  story such as the narrator´s imagining that  he bore his  "chalice safely through a threong of foes,...O love  O love

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Posted by mary37 on Tuesday August 26, 2008 at 5:39 PM and tagged with araby, characters, plot, themes, yellow pages.

Answers:


  1. ms-mcgregor Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    At the beginning of the story, the narrator mentions that a former tenant of his family's house, a priest, had left three books. The third book was the "Memoir of Vidocq", the memoirs of a French policeman and master of disguise. The boy says he liked this book the best because its "leaves were yellow". He was probably attracted to the book for two reasons. First it looked old and mysterious and secondly, it contained the kind of story which would interest a young boy. Also, these books are not what a person would expect a Catholic priest to have in his library. So if this priest has non−religious literature in his library, then how devout can an average churchgoer be expected to be? This turns out to be the case for the narrator, who confuses religious idealism with romance. He has not yet learned how to separate the religious teachings of his school with the reality of his secular life. Part of his understanding at the end of the story involves his finally
    separating those two aspects of his life. Thus the "yellow pages" are the first clue that Araby will have learn the difference between reality and his romantic ideals.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/araby

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    Posted by ms-mcgregor on Tuesday August 26, 2008 at 11:36 PM