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Chandra In talking about Araby Champa wrote, "I was struck by references to what I thought were Biblical." Maureen wrote later that she wrote a paper on Araby linking it to genesis and to Adam and Eve. Manish is like me in that we did not see this aspect. That is why I want to talk about symbolism in Araby, and symbolism in writing, in general. Champa, did you see all this biblical reference by yourself? Was it the result of that story being a part of a class on Short Fiction? In other words, is this your inference or were you told to look for it by somebody else? This question is interesting to me because I tend to read, perhaps as you all have already made out, literature as it is written. The reason could be because I have not studied literature but read literature. To me araby is a love story, a moving, beautiful one, a one sided love story, and has nothing to do with Adam and Eve. How could it be Adam and Eve anyway? Do Adam and Eve stand here for any male and female figure? Is it anywhere written in the bible that Adam worshipped Eve? Did he have any choice? I can imagine Maureen thinking of white bearded God (a la Sistine chapel) by the reference to the priest in the story. But more extrapolations fail me. Were you, Champa and Maureen, seeing these symbols, their explanations, because you were expecting to see them? Let me tell you an embarrasing experience I had a couple of years ago with such symbols. When the movie "Dance of the Wind" was released in Zürich, I was asked to give an introduction to Indian music and lead the discussion after the movie with the director who would be present. I had had no chance to see the movie before that and was given some writeups by the director to prepare for the discussion session. One of the ideas the director (Rajan Khosla?) had mentioned was how symbolic the movie is. Well, I watched the movie along with others in the cinema hall, and saw symbols in every scene! Wind blowing in to turn the pages of a book, an apple on a table (I forget the connection now) etc. Well, the discussion started, and I started off with questions on what those scenes symbolised. To my utter dismay, the director answered, "I don't know. I didn't use them as any symbol!". It was one of the most embarassing moments of my life :-( What kind of connection did Joyce have to the East? Was this story written during a period when East stood for something unknown? Why do people who study literature read so much in between the lines? Do note that I am not saying that this should not be done. What I am saying is why (or how) do these readers see in a story more than what, perhaps, the author himself saw? |
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