Araby Interpretations

Both Crane and Ratinov have differing views on the short story Araby. While Crane argues that at the end of the story the boy has learned nothing and is still just as vain as he was when he was a kid, Ratinov argues that the young boy at the end actually learns something, and that would be the hypocrisy of adult life and his own feelings. Crane bases her logic on the darkness in the story. The darkness represents something that the boy does not know or is ignorant to. At the end she describes the boys own ignorance to his feelings and states that he is still ignorant. Ratinov on the other hand believes that through circumstantial evidence in the story that the boy actually learns and reflects the hypocrisy in his own actions as well as the actions of others.