Compare And Contrast Araby And A & P

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Compare if you will both short stories of "Araby" and "A&P", the unnamed boy and Sammy are young males expressing a sort of love or lust towards a particular female. In "Araby", we were never told the young woman's name and she was referred to as Mangan’s sister. Also, in "A&P" the female interest was given the moniker of Queenie. In both cases, the boys of each story attempted to impress their love interest by presenting something they perceived would win them over. Sammy endeavored to defend the supposed infringement of the girls’ dignity with an ill-timed outburst, after they were chastised about their state of dress; in "Araby", the unnamed boy promised to return with a gift from the bazaar for Mangan’s sister. Both failed miserably in …show more content…

When read, it evoked a feeling of brightness, sunshine, and of exposed skin of the girls in the supermarket. All the words used portrayed the physical attributes of the girls’ sexuality. Sammy, was enthralled by the uncommon amount of skin exhibited in the supermarket. “The women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the street. And anyway these are usually women with six children and varicose veins mapping their legs and nobody, including them, could care less (Updike J, 1961)”. In contrast, "Araby" portrayed a darker more gloomier setting. The imageries are heavier and referred to death and vacant structures. Much of the story happens within the night and evening. Correspondingly the unnamed boy’s attraction to Mangan’s sister conveyed more of a suffering of sentiment than it did the lightness of love. Paradoxically the attraction to the girl expressed by the boy is not sexual in nature, but a sensual one. There was no nudity and a remark of the convent she attended. The descriptions of her read as dark, unattainable sensuality, "She was waiting...her figure defined by the light. Her dress swung as she moved her body, and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side (Joyce J,

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