Friday, July 27, 2012

How does setting contribute to the story?

Place and story are closely integrated in "Araby." The
alleyway, the busy commercial street, the open door of Mangan’s house, the room in back
where the priest died, the way to school—all are parts of the locations that shape the
life and consciousness of the narrator. Before the narrator goes to Araby, it is his
thoughts about this exotic, mysterious location that crystallize for him his adoration
of Mangan’s sister, who is somehow locked into an "Eastern enchantment" (paragraph 12)
of devotion and unfulfilled love. At the story’s end the lights are out, the place is
closing down, and the narrator recognizes Araby as a symbol of his own lack of reality
and unreachable hopes. Seemingly, all his aims are dashed by his adolescent lack of
power and by the drunken and passive-aggressive uncle.

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