The Sisters, A Meeting, Araby: Themes, Symbolism and ChangeThe short stories collected in Dubliners are mostly predecessors and characterizations of James Joyce's later works. “The Sisters” is no different. This film, as well as "An Encounter" and "Araby", are drawn from Joyce's personal memories and feelings. The young boy and the characteristics of these stories are an indirect sample of Joyce's later published work, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, a novel written primarily from his own memory. “The Sisters,” by James Joyce, is a story that blends supernatural associations in an effort to teach with realistic effort, revealing truths about life and death. This short story revolves around a young boy's struggle to assert and rationalize the death and madness of an important figure in his life. The narrator arrives home to find that Father James Flynn, one of his confidants and informal educator, has just died, which is not surprising, as he had been paralyzed for some time following a stroke . Mr. Cotter, a family friend, and his uncle have a lot to say about the poor old priest and the narrator's relationship with him. The narrator is angered by the belief that he is not capable, at his young age, of making his own decisions about his knowledge and that he should "run and play with young boys his own age..." That night there, images of death haunt him; he attempts to make light of the tormenting face of the deceased priest by “smiling weakly” in the hope of denying his terrible visions. The next evening, his family visited the house of the old priest and his two guardians, two sisters, where he rested in vigil. There, the narrator must try to rationalize his death and the mystery of his previous madness. The title “Sisters” is in one case a simple title, but it can also indicate a larger and more expressive intention. First, on a mundane level, the title “The Sisters” refers to the two sisters, Nannie and Eliza, who cared for the priest during his illness and helped arrange the formalities of his death – embalming and burial documents and insurance . Both sisters give Father Flynn's feelings about what happened in the months before his death, helping to explain his distressed state, always repeating: "Ah, poor James! Secondly, on a more significant and symbolic level, the title can connote the relationship between madness and death or that of the close relationship between sisters...