Araby And A & P Compare And Contrast

John Updike's "A & P" and James Joyce's "Araby" are very similar. The theme of the two stories is about a young man who is interested in figuring out the difference between reality and the fantasies of romance that play in his head and of the mistaken thoughts each has about their world, the girls, and themselves. One of the main similarities between the two stories is the fact that the main character has built up unrealistic expectations of women. Both characters have focused upon one girl which they place all their affection. Both Sammy and the boy suffer rejection in the end. Both stories also dive into the unstable mind of a young man who is faced with one of life's most difficult lessons. Their

Joyce uses diction to support the overall tone of “Araby,” through his use of words and phrases such as “had grown somber. . .” (Joyce 400) and “musty. . .” (Joyce 400). The verbiage he uses constructs a dull and increasingly gloomy image as if darkness is enclosing the town being depicted. Word choices like “waste. . .” (Joyce 400) and “useless. . .” (Joyce 400) convey the stagnant environment that encases the lifeless neighborhood the boy lives in. Joyce communicates the dreariness that cloaks Dublin by using dreadful adjectives to describe the setting. The young boy’s short lived “confused adoration” (Joyce 401) for his friend’s sister, is depicted using feminine words in association with her, such as “petticoat. . .” (Joyce 401) and “soft. . .” (Joyce 400). When the speaker is professing Mangan’s sister’s control over him, he proclaims, “[m]y body [is] like a harp and her words and gestures [are] like fingers running upon the wires” (Joyce 401). The boy reveals his ignorance by incorrectly calling harp strings, “wires. . .” (Joyce 401). This simple error portrays his confusion about his own feelings and the reasoning behind them. The author uses diction to support the tone of the short story, “Araby,” through his choice of words that reveal both the glum atmosphere of the setting and the naive affection being displayed by the speaker.

The narrator “Araby”, an unnamed young Irish boy, living with his aunt and uncle on North Richmond Street, residing in a house once occupied by a now-dead priest. The narrator, an orphan, spends his days attending school, spending time with his friend Mangan, and pining after Mangan’s sister. The narrator lives a relatively normal live, although he gradually becomes more consumed with the idea of Mangan’s sister, “I could not call my wandering thoughts together. I had hardly any patience with the serious work of life which, now that it stood between me and my desire, seemed to me child’s play” (Joyce, 124. The narrator idealizes Mangan’s sister, barely speaking to her, yet he

John Updike’s A&P and James Joyce’s Araby are very similar yet very different in many ways. Each short story has a normal kid with an obsession over a girl. The big difference between Sammy in A&P and Jimmy in Araby is just that they were raised differently and have different values. The way Jimmy talks about his fantasy girl is on a more religious level while Sammy in other words is kind of impolite about how he describes the three girls that walk into the market. From the narrator’s point of view in each story to the use of imagery and the main characters motivation, each story has multiple points of comparison to compare and contrast.

The plot in “A&P” begins when the three girls who walk into the grocery store wearing their bathing suits. The conflict of the plot is the the girls who walked into the grocery store wearing nothing but their bathing suits. In this time period it was socially unacceptable for girls to walk around showing a lot of skin. The manager, Lengel confronted the girls for dressing inappropriately and because of this Sammy quits his job right after Lengle confronted the girls. Sammy removed his apron and bow tie and walked out of the store. When Sammy gets outside he expects the girls to be waiting for him but they are gone. The plot in “Araby” starts by the narrator telling the readers how he is obsessed with Mangan’s sister. He says “Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door. The blind was pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen. When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped” (Joyce 331). Mangan's sister tells the narrator about the Araby. She tells him that she wants to go but cannot. The narrator decides that he is going to go to the Araby to get his crush a gift. When he gets there most of the stalls are closed and he does not have enough money to buy her anything so he comes home with nothing. The

In the history of John Updike A & P and the story of James Joyce Araby, both of them are personal stories, since in both of them uses first person writing style, and also in both of them tell us through the stories, their feelings in a specific moment, or how what they reacted to a specific event. hIn both stories uses the contrast between darkness and lightness to transmit a specific message, in A & P, John Updike uses the cashier named Sammy to perceive a sterile world, ugly and boring, always doing the same thing: “I bet you could set off dynamite in an A & P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists” (Updike 594). Suddenly, a young girl and her two friends enters to the A & P supermarket in bathing suits.

In the short story “Araby”, the protagonist experiences disillusionment when his romanticized expectations of the bazaar are shattered.

A&P by John Updike and Araby by James Joyce are two short stories that have multiple differences and similarities. A&P is about a teenager and his lust for young ladies and Araby is about a young boy who had a crush on a older girl. I will be comparing and contrasting the portrayal of women, love and epiphany in the two short stories A&P and Araby.

In “Araby” by James Joyce and “A&P” by John Updike the narrators who are also the main characters both have interesting appearances with love. “Araby’s” narrator is a boy who lives on a street that is creepy and not many people live on it. “A&P’s” narrator is a boy named Sammy who works in a store called the A&P. Both of these character have a crush on a girl who they see very often or only on a one time occasion. These girls are older than the main characters and the main characters thinks these girls are the most beautiful person they have ever seen. They try to impress these girls by doing things they eventually regret. These stories have similar love and relationship ideas about the narrators and their crushes, including the way they talk about their love for the girls, the way they try to win them, and how they fail to get their attention.

The main character of “Araby” and “A&P” differ in just about every way imaginable. In “A&P”, the main character, Sammy, is in the late stages of his adolescence; whereas, the boy in “Araby” new to this stage of life. Yet, they both end up misconceiving emotions for girls who have a higher social class than them. For example, in “Araby” although age is never explicitly stated, we assume that that newly pubescent boy becomes infatuated with his friends older sister

John Updike's “A & P” and James Joyce's “Araby” are very similar. The theme of the two stories is about a young man who is interested in figuring out the difference between reality and the fantasies of romance that play in his head and of the mistaken thoughts each has about their world, the girls, and themselves. One of the main similarities between the two stories is the fact that the main character has built up unrealistic expectations of women. Both characters have focused upon one girl in which they place all their affection. Both Sammy and the boy suffer rejection in the end. Both stories also dive into the unstable mind of a young man who is faced with one of life's most difficult lessons. The lesson learned is that things are not

In the stories “Araby” by James Joyce, and “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro, there is a common theme of growing up. In both of these stories the characters came to a realization of who they were and what they wanted to be. They both are of the age when reality strikes and priorities take on meaning. The characters in both stories evolve through rites of passage but the way in which these revolutions occur differ with each character.

John Updike's A & P and James Joyce's Araby share many of the same literary traits. The primary focus of the two stories revolves around a young man who is compelled to decipher the difference between cruel reality and the fantasies of romance that play in his head. That the man does, indeed, discover the difference is what sets him off into emotional collapse. One of the main similarities between the two stories is the fact that the main character, who is also the protagonist, has built up incredible, yet unrealistic, expectations of women, having focused upon one in particular towards which he places all his unrequited affection. The expectation these men hold when finally "face

Although "Araby" is a fairly short story, author James Joyce does a remarkable job of discussing some very deep issues within it. On the surface it appears to be a story of a boy's trip to the market to get a gift for the girl he has a crush on. Yet deeper down it is about a lonely boy who makes a pilgrimage to an eastern-styled bazaar in hopes that it will somehow alleviate his miserable life. James Joyce's uses the boy in "Araby" to expose a story of isolation and lack of control. These themes of alienation and control are ultimately linked because it will be seen that the source of the boy's emotional distance is his lack of control over his life.

The first three paragraphs of “Araby” introduce the physical setting of the story—North Richmond Street—but also establish the mood of the story. The residents of North Richmond Street are Catholic and working-class. The street is twice called “blind,” emphasizing the literal limits of the street and the figurative limitations of the city. The mood is further established with the descriptions of brown and sombre houses, musty air and dark streets, yellowing pages and straggling bushes, dark muddy lanes and dark dripping gardens, ashpits and odorous stables, and the interplay of light and dark imagery, all of which suggest economic and spiritual poverty. “Araby” is the story of a young romantic boy who lives in this unromantic environment, and the motif of blindness and sight permeates his character development.