Araby's Use Of Symbolism In Araby

In Araby, Joyce includes a fair amount of symbolism. He says that“The wild garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree and a few straggling bushes, under one of which I found the late tenant's rusty bicycle-pump”(243). For example, a former tenant of the narrator’s house, the Catholic priest, could be said to represent the entire Catholic church. By extension, the books left in his room, which include non-religious and non-Catholic reading, represent a feeling of ambiguity toward religion in general and Catholicism in particular. According to Joyce,”She asked me was I going to Araby. I forget whether I answered yes or no.”(244). The most repetitive symbol is the bazaar Araby, that represents the East, a part of the world that is