Classics Without All the Class discussion

The first three stories ("The Sisters," "An Encounter," and "Araby") are all narrated by young boys, each experiencing a painful lesson that makes them lose some innocence and learn something about what it means to be an adult. What do you think they learn? Which of these narrators goes through the hardest “lesson”?

I had to use sparknotes when reading these just to make sure I was grasping what was going on in the first few. It's actually disturbing to read there is an air of pedophilia suggested in both. The second specifically more so than the first. The man wandering around actually exposes himself to the boys. It seems more a study on how fear in these stories can effect a child. The first one also looks at how children deal with death. It feels odd to me to look for a lesson learned in these stories though because of the things suggested...would seem to put blame and shame on them. But that's just me.

I hear ya, Jessica. I guess the lessons could be that people aren't who they seem or life doesn't live out the way you envisioned it. Or maybe for "The Encounter," it's a cautionary tale about following the rules. Are these all about how you have to figure out which authority figures to trust and whose rules to follow?

I think all the boys were hurt in some way by harsh realities of life and perhaps some loss of innocence.

I agree with Beth, that loss of innocence is a theme to several of these stories. I feel like Joyce did a masterful job of seeing life through the eyes of a young boy and showing us their feelings, something we can forget as we get older. It took me back to that earlier time in my life.

The feelings are just so much more raw and intense when you're young. Joyce really seems to capture that. Do they feelings dull as we get older—thinking about, say, Gabriel in "The Dead"?

Hello Everyone. I am reading 'Dubliners' and came to good reads to share thoughts and read others thoughts about this book. This comment contain spoilers 'An Encounter' to me is about discovering that cruel truth that people can appear one way and turn out to be very different. The main character wisely withholds commenting on what the man says to the two boys but Mahony is quick to try to impress the elderly man, who initially encourages the young boy's views. But later, the old man reveals himself to have a cruel distaste for Mahony. The main character is shocked by this elderly man cruelness and bids him farewell. He comes to realize that people can initially hide a loathsome side. That was my interpretation of this short story.