Comparing A & P And Araby

A&P and Araby were written in two different time periods and locations. However, the two stories share many similarities. In the short stories A&P by John Updike’s and James Joyce’s Araby; Sammy and the unknown character both experience a girl who they find to be God's perfect creations, living in a town in which the authors describes to be boring, dull and gloomy. But as the story progresses the characters find themselves left with nothing but empty wishes. Blinded by lust, both Sammy and Araby’s nameless character both try to impress a beautiful girl. But by the end of each story, Sammy of A&P and James Joyce’s character both come to realize that their attempt of valor is nothing but drunken love, causing them to think differently of themselves.

The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces”(Line 1 and 3). Based on the description James Joyce illustrates in the short story you can come to a conclusion that there is nothing exciting where the anonymous character lives. As well as John Updike’s A&P story is being taken place in the A&P supermarket. But the similarity that you can get from the two stories is that both Sammy and the unknown character were starstruck by a beautiful girl. In the story Araby the unknown character tries to escape from his boring lifestyle, pursuing his love for Mangan’s sister. To turn his dark life in the opposite direction he finds himself pondering about the beautiful figure in the the light of her doorway. Tunnel visioned by her beauty he worships her as a

In fact the joy they thought that was going to come out of the situation weren’t actually true. The character in Araby was determined to get Mangan’s sister a gift but after reaching the bazaar those chances became very slim. At the moment he knew he was never going to be the lover of Mangan’s sister, thus leaving him alone in angry. In similar fashion, Sammy comes to terms that he can’t do nothing but be a cashier at a supermarket. Furthermore, he never became the girl hero and now he doesn’t know what to do next. Becoming conscious of their actions both character are now by themselves without the girl of their and cannot imagined what the world is going to be like from now