Araby Response

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It is painful to love and not be loved back, and it’s agonizing to lock your self in an imaginary palace where, only there, your love had fallen for you. In this story, Araby by James Joyce, the narrator portrays his one-sided love story as a young boy, or rather his feelings throughout it, and it was not a happy story. As I sat to write this post, the warning I heard from a narrator of some romantic movie echoed in my ears, and here I am doing my part and telling you that “you should know upfront, this is not a love story” (Tuchinsky & Webb, 2009).

I chose this story because of its name, as I, myself, am Araby. I thought it would talk about some eastern culture the narrator is fond of, and it turned out to be the complete opposite; he didn’t have the slightest interest in the Arabic culture. His only idea about it was that the girl he was infatuated with, Mangan’s sister, wanted to go to a bazaar that sells eastern artefacts. …show more content…

It was not about anything, I thought; so I read it again trying to find out its plot. A title of a poem was mentioned in the story, and it stood out to me this time, so I looked it up. "He asked me where I was going and, when I had told him a second time he asked me did I know The Arab's Farewell to his Steed” (Joyce, 1914, Para. 14). The Arab's Farewell to his Steed is a poem by Caroline Norton, an English author from the nineteenth century; in Google search results, it was only mentioned along with Araby story, and I found out that James Joyce mentioned it in his story for a reason. I also found out that this wasn’t the only thing I've missed when I read the story the first time, and that it was full of hidden messages and symbolism (Rhoda, 2010). After knowing many of them, I liked the story very much and decided to read it for a third time, only this time I really enjoyed

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