Love and Disillusionment in Araby and A and P

Love and Disillusionment in “Araby" by James Joyce and “A and P" by John Updike

“Araby" by James Joyce and “A and P " by John Updike are both short stories in which the central characters are in love with women who don’t even know it. The Araby story started sad and ended sadder, however, the “A and P” story started happy and ended with a heroic act that went unnoticed.

The main characters both experience new situations and truths of which they were not previously aware. Both stories will be examined with contemplation according to the type of initiation that took place, the similar and different features of both characters and various elements of the short stories. In the two stories, both characters were experiencing an initiation or awareness of new actualities that were outside of themselves. The main characters both clearly learned that this instigation was beyond their control. It was impossible for them to ignore the new certainty, which they both came to understand.

The location in Araby was in Dublin in a quite place “ North Richmond Street, being blind was a quiet street.”(Joyce 728). The young man is poor and lived in an old house. No one took care of this house, so it was in bad condition “Air, musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms the waster room behind the kitchen was littered with old useless paper.” (Joyce 728). The garden was growing out of control; books were everywhere, and a priest died in one of the rooms. It was windy a...