Comparing Araby And A & P

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Lessons Learned “Araby” by James Joyce and “A&P” by John Updike begin very much the same. The narrator of “Araby” and Sammy from “A&P” both have a girl that has caught their eye. They both pursue and attempt to impress the girls, but the way in which they pursued these girls brought upon different methods. The endings are also very similar with how they are left with just themselves and the thoughts of regret and embarrassment. The narrator and Sammy chase after women on a foolish whim, and learn very important lessons about expectation vs. reality and that being a hero does not always reward you. The narrator in “Araby” longed for Mangan’s sister. The story never explicitly states her name, but the story goes into detail of how the narrator begins idolizing and yearning for Mangan’s sister. The narrator says, “I had never spoken to her, except a few casual words, and yet her name summons to all my foolish blood” which captures his idolization of her perfectly (paragraph 6). The narrator learns of Mangan’s sister’s desire to go to Araby and sees it as an opportunity to impress her, and proclaims that…show more content…
While standing there alone and in the darkness, he began realizing the foolishness of which he had become victim of and that, even if he had been able to bring Mangans’s sister something, it would provide little change to their situation. The days preceding the event, the narrator speaks of his inability to concentrate and that he “answered few questions in class” (paragraph 12). He had built up the night and had such expectations for it that there was almost no chance that the reality could compare to it. The narrator learns that expectation will not always live up to the reality of the situation, and that sometimes, as people, our minds can blow things out of
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  • Comparing Araby And A & P

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    environment, or is his environment a product of man? Both “Araby”, by James Joyce, and “A&P” by John updike, both Pose that question. In Araby a young boy trapped in a lower-class neighborhood in the outskirts of Dublin, but knows in all reality it won’t happen. In A&P, the main character knows working at the grocery store won’t let him have a better life. However, Sammy will have more options than the protagonist of Araby--who knows he doesn’t really have a chance of having a better

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