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.

“North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers' School set the boys free.

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

golden calf and devotes himself to her. As though he is responsible for making her happy. As for the short story A&P, Sammy gets blinded sited when a group of girls walk in the store with bathing suits. But only one catches his eyes. “She didn't look around, not this queen, she just walked straight on slowly, on these long white prima donna legs”(Paragraph 2). Sammy was dazzled by her and that lit up the long awaited lights in his life. Same way in Araby where the unknown character tries to be heroic by going to the bazaar to get Mangan’s sister a gift; as for Sammy he quits his job thinking he’s the girl hero. Both Sammy and the unknown character thinks they have found something to fight for but little do they know that takes a turn for the opposite.
Both Sammy and the mysterious character come to a disappointing understanding when they recognize that their attempt to please the girls was not worth it.

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

on.
“Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (Page 5). Araby and A&P are stories that showed how the boys became creatures of vanity. In Araby the nameless character displays how he did everything to get to the bazaar but when he got there all hope was lost and he did not get Mangan’s sister a gift. As for Sammy, he did not like the way his manager was talking to the girl. So thinking irrationally he quit his job thinking it would capture queenies attention. As a result, it left him with queenie not noticing him and no clue of what the world has in store. 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.