In order to find a symbol that will connect the three stories about childhood in Dubliners, you will likely find it helpful to compare the themes of the stories first and then focus on the ways Joyce conveys these ideas in each of them using symbols. If you can identify similar ideas in each of the stories, you will be in a better position to think about how the symbols that recur in each story tie them together.

"The Sisters," "An Encounter," and "Araby" share many similarities beyond being narrated by children. All of them involve some sort of journey. In "The Sisters," Father O'Rourke has embarked "to a better world," according to Eliza. In "An Encounter" and "Araby," the narrators both go on more literal journeys—to the other side of Dublin and to the bazaar, respectively.

Another shared element of these three stories is the presence of antagonistic adults. In "The Sisters," the narrator experiences a dream where he sees "the heavy grey face of the paralytic" and describes how "it began to confess to me in a murmuring voice." It seems odd that the priest who recently mentored the narrator now becomes on object of terror for him. The narrator even goes so far as to strip the humanizing pronoun "he" from Father Flynn: instead, he refers to his deceased mentor as "it." The image of an authority figure the narrator supposedly enjoyed a friendly relationship with has become a source of terror for him. In "An Encounter," the narrator and Mahony run into the "queer old josser," and in "Araby," the narrator encounters the uninviting stall-keeper.

In each of these stories, the narrator also experiences an early encounter with some meaningful emotion or event. In "Araby," the narrator experiences love for the first time; in "An Encounter," the narrator gets his first chance to escape and feels real danger for the first time; and in "The Sisters," the narrator witnesses death and a funeral at an early stage in his life.

With all this in mind, we can now begin to think about symbols. Personally, I find the journeys in each of these stories powerfully symbolic. Especially in "An Encounter" and "Araby," we see children traveling to some desired end destination in much the same way they are metaphorically journeying towards adulthood. If we connect these two journeys to Father Flynn's move from life to death, the symbolic meaning behind the other journeys becomes even clearer. Just as Father Flynn may travel from life to death, we are invited to see the movement between different stages of life as a journey. The narrators of "Araby" and "An Encounter" both journey through the city of Dublin and, in doing so, move toward further self-knowledge, as evidenced by the final lines of each of these stories.

On the topic of movement, it may be worthwhile to think about stasis as well. "The Sisters" begins with the narrator describing how "every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis." Although the physical affliction of paralysis only comes up in "The Sisters," the theme of being stuck or immobilized comes up in all three stories, as the narrators in both "Araby" and "An Encounter" fail to achieve their ultimate end goals.

These stories share many similar elements, and Joyce uses similar symbols and metaphors to convey ideas about progressing through life and being frustrated in attempts to achieve escape or love.