Question

What symbolism is found in this excerpt from James Joyce's "Araby"? North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground. The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.

Answer 1

Answer:

Solution: As per the given excerpt, the narrator is describing the streets of Dublin, Ireland which is particularly described as blind. The word blind here is used to describe a street. In the entire story, the idea of blindness is symbolised in which the light and the dark is used for emphasizing the shadows that are created in this whole world.

Answer 2

A. The boys being set free symbolizes them being free from the rules of the church.

C. The blind street symbolizes the aimless and drab life on North Richmond Street.

Explanation:

• Araby by James Choice is the story of how a boy gets infatuated with a girl, and he wants to buy her a gift from the Araby Bazaar. The storyteller, a schoolboy, experiences Dublin's aimless and dull lifestyle  immersed in religion, and describes it as "North Richmond Street is blind".
• He observes this boring lifestyle in the residents of the Street and in his uncle too in. Each attached to their routines. The narrator therefore feels empty and uses the street as a representation of his community and how detached he finds himself from it, as his faith is dying.
• Blindness on the street means Dubliners' lives are so immersed that they can't find any other path to a happier or more fulfilling existence. The narrator is the one who expresses his need to escape this dullness and awkwardness. He believes he is in love with a girl, but then he realizes it was all an illusion