In literature many stories can be compared and contrasted even if the stories are in two completely different genres. When comparing stories like “Araby”, written by James Joyce, and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, written by Flannery O’Connor, the reader can make direct comparisons and contrasts about how the authors are similar and how they differ. In regards to “Araby” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the reader can draw comparisons and see differences with the authors writing styles and the point of view the story is told.
First of all, the reader can notice similarities and differences in the writing styles of the author of each story. James Joyce, author of “Araby”, uses a slightly descriptive writing style throughout his story. One can notice this in the first paragraph on “Araby” where Joyce describes the houses at the end of North Richmond Street. “North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers’ School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys stood the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground. The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.” (Joyce 403). One can in the quote that Joyce describes the objects enough so the reader can develop a picture of the houses on the street but does not overly paint the picture in the readers head. This style of writing varies from the writing style of O’Connor, who wrote “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. O’Connor writing style wasn’t descriptive at all but more of a deliberate style. The story starts off talking about how the grandmother did not want to go to Florida and kept trying to change her son’s mind. This trend conti...
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...to an adolescent. This mental change coupled with the boys desire to impress his crush causes him to fall in love with the idea of being in love, which is something that he is not ready for. At the end of the story when the boy reaches the bazaar just to see that it is closed he has an epiphany with which he realizes that love isn’t about getting your significant other the best gift that money can buy. This is an age old tale where the reader can relate to it in some fashion, whether it’s directly to their own lives or the lives of someone else.
In conclusion, two stories from two different genres can be compared and contrasted by an author’s writing style and point of view. After analyzing the two stories, “Araby” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the reader is able to come to the conclusion that “Araby” is the more interesting story because one can relate to it.
works of literature have tremendous amounts of similarity especially in the characters. Each character is usually unique and symbolizes the quality of a person in the real world. But in both stories, each character was alike, they represented honor, loyalty, chivalry, strength and wisdom. Each character is faced with a difficult decision as well as a journey in which they have to determine how to save their own lives. Both these pieces of literatures are exquisite and extremely interesting in their own ways.
In our contemporary civilization, it is evident that different people have somewhat different personalities and that novels behold essential and key roles in our daily lives; they shape and influence our world in numerous ways via the themes and messages expressed by the authors. It is so, due to the different likes of our population, that we find numerous types and genres of books on our bookshelves, each possessing its own audience of readers and fans. In this compare and contrast essay, we will be analysing and comparing two novels, The Chrysalids and Animal Farm, and demonstrating how both books target the general audience and not one specific age group or audience of readers. We will be shedding light at the themes and messages conveyed to us in both books, the point of view and the style of writing of the authors as well as the plot and the format used by the authors, in order to demonstrate how both books are targeting the general audience.
In this essay I will discuss the short stories A&P by John Updike and Araby by James Joyce which share several similarities as well as distinct differences between the themes and the main characters. I will compare or contrast two or more significant literary elements from each of the stories and discuss how those elements contribute to each story’s theme.
Joyce, James. “Araby”. The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Eds. R.V. Cassill and Richard Bausch. Shorter Sixth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. 427 - 431.
Some people think that if they could only change one aspect of their lives, it would be perfect. They do not realize that anything that is changed could come with unintended consequences. “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs and “The Third Wish” by Joan Aiken both illustrate this theme. They demonstrate this by granting the main character three wishes, but with each wish that is granted, brings undesirable consequences. The main idea of this essay is to compare and contrast “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Third Wish.” Although the “The Monkey’s Paw” and “The Third Wish” are both fantasies and have similar themes, they have different main characters, wishes, and resolutions.
In the story “Two Kinds”, the author, Amy Tan, intends to make reader think of the meaning behind the story. She doesn’t speak out as an analyzer to illustrate what is the real problem between her and her mother. Instead, she uses her own point of view as a narrator to state what she has experienced and what she feels in her mind all along the story. She has not judged what is right or wrong based on her opinion. Instead of giving instruction of how to solve a family issue, the author chooses to write a narrative diary containing her true feeling toward events during her childhood, which offers reader not only a clear account, but insight on how the narrator feels frustrated due to failing her mother’s expectations which leads to a large conflict between the narrator and her mother.
“Araby”, a story told by a mystery narrator that ensnares the reader in an interesting and complex line of desires and disappointments. The story starts as the sister of the speaker's friend becomes the object of the narrators affection. He attempts to dazzle her with a gift from the Araby bazaar which is brought in to depict the idea of breaking free of the convening Dublin neighborhood. Thus through the uneasy setting and diverse range of characters, James Joyce let's the reader know that the theme of the narrative is centered around the conflict of an individual and the refusal of the reality of the world around him.
In “Araby”, author James Joyce presents a male adolescent who becomes infatuated with an idealized version of a schoolgirl, and explores the consequences which result from the disillusionment of his dreams. While living with his uncle and aunt, the main character acts a joyous presence in an otherwise depressing neighborhood. In Katherine Mansfield’s, The Garden Party, Mansfield’s depicts a young woman, Laura Sherridan, as she struggles through confusion, enlightenment, and the complication of class distinctions on her path to adulthood. Both James Joyce and Katherine Mansfield expertly use the literary elements of characterization to illustrate the journey of self-discovery while both main characters recognize that reality is not what they previously conceptualized it as.
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 visual and emblematic details established throughout the story are highly concentrated, with Araby culminating, largely, in the epiphany of the young unnamed narrator. To Joyce, an epiphany occurs at the instant when the essence of a character is revealed, when all the forces that endure and influence his life converge, and when we can, in that moment, comprehend and appreciate him. As follows, Araby is a story of an epiphany that is centered on a principal deception or failure, a fundamental imperfection that results in an ultimate realization of life, spirit, and disillusionment. The significance is exposed in the boy’s intellectual and emotional journey from first love to first dejection,
A&P happened during the summer in New England. A lot of sunlight and sunshine was talked about in A&P, the story talks about lightness, and half naked girls in the supermarket, and sexuality. Sammy’s love for Queenie was lustful and infatuated, Sammy is drawn to the girls nakedness, and my not have noticed them if they were not half naked. In addition, the theme of A&P seemed to be centered on the girls’ half naked body. In contrast, Araby happened during the winter “…when the short days of winter came…” (Joyce 251) in North Richmond street, Dublin. The story about Araby talked about the death of the priest…a priest, had died in the back drawing room… (Joyce 251), the description of the story is in a sort of way heavier than that of A&P. In Araby, there was no nudity, and the boy’s expression of love for the girl was more or less agonized and sounds like an obsession. Unlike A&P, the story about the Araby boy was not a sexual story, but was very sensual and he was very descriptive of the girl’s movement and behavior “…she was waiting… her figure defined by light. Her dress swung as she moved her body, and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side…” (Joyce 252) or when he said …while she spoke she turned her bracelet round and round her wrist…she held one of her spikes bowing her head towards me… (Joyce 253). Also, the boy in Araby’s character is drawn to the purity of the girl rather than her female
The narrator in “Araby” is a young man who lives in an uninteresting area and dreary house in Dublin. The only seemingly exciting thing about the boy’s existence is the sister of his friend Mangum that he is hopelessly in love with; “…her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.” (Joyce 2279) In an attempt to impress her and bring some color into his own gray life, he impulsively lies to her that he is planning on attending a bazaar called Arab. He also promises the gi...
I believe Araby employs many themes; the two most apparent to me are escape and fantasy though I see signs of religion and a boy's first love. Araby is an attempt by the boy to escape the bleak darkness of North Richmond Street. Joyce orchestrates an attempt to escape the "short days of winter", "where night falls early" and streetlights are but "feeble lanterns" failing miserably to light the somberness of the "dark muddy lanes"(Joyce 38). Metaphorically, Joyce calls the street blind, a dead end; much like Dublin itself in the mid 1890s when Joyce lived on North Richmond Street as a young boy. A recurrent theme of darkness weaves itself through the story; the boy hides in shadows from his uncle or to coyly catch a glimpse of his friend Mangan's sister who obliviously is his first love.
In the story of, "Araby" James Joyce concentrated on three main themes that will explain the purpose of the narrative. The story unfolded on North Richmond Street, which is a street composed of two rows of houses, in a desolated neighborhood. Despite the dreary surroundings of "dark muddy lanes" and "ash pits" the boy tried to find evidence of love and beauty in his surroundings. Throughout the story, the boy went through a variety of changes that will pose as different themes of the story including alienation, transformation, and the meaning of religion (Borey).