Araby And A & P Compare And Contrast

Our environment tend to have a great impact on what we desire in life. The story “Araby” was written by James Joyce and “A&P” was wrote by John Updike. Both young protagonists in the short stories live in an enviroment where everything are strictly determined and uneventful. In such enviroment, young boys are eager for changes and hope. The boy’s innouncent personailties was exposed clearly by their action and later result in the tragic ending. Although the two stories are very different in the setting, there are many similarities between the them.

In the story “ A&P”. The protagonist , Sammy. lives in a tedious town north of Boston, where he works as a cashier in a grocery shop. Doing the same work in the same sterile environment, Sammy is excited to see girls wearing bikinis to come in. For Sammy, girls symbolize the opportunity to change. Also, Sammy speaks of people in the town saying” the customer had been showing up with their carts but, you know, sheep, seeing a scene, they had all bunched up on Staksie”. From his point of view, the boring town has changed citizens into mindless sheep. He shows condescesion through his later action. Just like Sammy, the Irish boy in “Araby” lives in a strictly religious and gloomy surrounding where he seek chances to escape reality. Megan’s sister is the light in the dark

Sammy, on the one hand, regreted as soon as he found the girls are gone. “His face was dark gray and his back stiff,as if ........to me here after.” Comparing to Sammy, the Irish boy is more angry than regret. The Irish boy was “ Gazing up into the darkness i saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vancity,........and anger.” Both protagonist experience humuliation by their own action but their reaction differ. The Irish boy definetiely experience greater epiphany. They found the diffculty to escape realilty and become more experienced through these