The Stolen Party And Araby By Liliana Hecker

Many times a person’s expectation does not meet up with reality. Ever expected something to be one way but discovered that your expectations were overrated? In “The Stolen Party” and “Araby”, through the characters and their conflicts, the authors give great examples of having high expectations for something that in the end will be disappointing. The story “The Stolen Party” is written by Liliana Hecker. The story is about a young poor Hispanic girl who want to attend a rich person’s party that she was invited to, but her mother thought that was a bad idea. After Rosaura attended the party she realized that it was a bad idea and she should have listened to her mother in the beginning. In comparison, the “Araby” is written by James Joyce.

Araby is about a young boy who has a huge crush on his best friend’s older sister. He wanted to attend the bazaar to buy a gift for his best friend’s sister and try to get her to like him.

The boy’s uncle tried to tell him that what he is expecting from the bazaar is highly exaggerated. After the little boy went to the bazaar and was not able to get his crush a gift he was heartbroken. In both of the stories readers discover how great expectation can led to great devastation.
In the short story, the stolen party we as reader learned that a little girl had high expectations for a birthday party, yet in the end she was letdown. The story is about a nine-year-old girl named Rosaura that was invited to a birthday party by her mother’s employer, Senora Ines’s daughter. Rosaura’s mother did not want her attending the party because she as an adult already knew her child’s high expectations were going to distress her. For example, the mother told Rosaura, “that one’s not your friend. It’s a rich people’s party.” This conversation started one of the conflicts in the major conflicts in the story between Rosaura and her

mother. Rosaura disagrees with her mother’s opinions about the rich people and party. No matter what her mother say about the rich people and party, Rosaura will always go with her own opinion. The mother did not want her daughter to found out that she is viewed as help or as the maid’s daughter to the rich people, so the mother told the daughter, “If someone asks, you say you’re the daughter of the employee; that’s all.” The mother saw that her daughter was not going to give up on attending the birthday party, so she just ended up letting her attend; leaving her to discover the truth about rich people on her own. While Rosaura was at the party your young mind did not notice that she was the helper for everything. For instance, she helped pass out pieces of cake, passed out the juice to the kids, and also helped the magician. At the end of the party Rosaura started to notice that every guest except her were leaving with a present. As Rosaura and her mother stood waiting Senora Ines, she finally approached them, and gave Rosaura two dollar bills. As she gave her the two dollar bills, she said, “You really and truly earned this. Thank you for all your help, my pet.” This is the point of the story were Rosaura was devastated. Rosaura expected to get a present just like the other guest at the party. Reality hit Rosaura as Senora Ines handed her two dollars bills instead of a present. Such as, “Rosaura felt her arm stiffen, stick close to body, and then she noticed her mother’s hand on her shoulder. Instinctively, she pressed herself against her mother’s body.” At this moment Rosaura realizes that she was not viewed as a friend to them; they only viewed her as extra help. Rosaura was very disappointed at this point. This disappointment is what her mother was trying to keep her child from in the beginning.
Araby is similar to The Stolen Party because they both have young characters that face the same conflicts by having over the top expectations.

In the story Arbay, there is a little boy who has a huge crush on his best friend’s older sister. During a conversation between the little boy and his crush, the crush implied she wanted a gift but did not actually ask for it. For an example, “While she spoke she turned a silver bracelet round and round her wrist” (Joyce 409). Once the little boy assumed his crush wanted something from the bazaar, he decided he would bring her a gift back expecting to win her as a girlfriend. From this point forward, the little boy is stuck on going to the bazaar on Saturday afternoon. He tried reminding his uncle about attending the bazaar, but his uncle blew him off like a dust ball on a shirt and left the house. The uncle paid no attention to his nephew. As his Aunt notes, “can’t you give the him the money and let him go? You’ve kept him late enough as it is” (Joyce 4??). This quote suggests the uncle has done what he can to get in the way of the little boy attending the bazaar. He is expecting bazaar to be this high Inn Shopping

Mall.
Once he arrived at the bazaar he sees it is getting close to closing time and everyone are starting to close down their shops. He walked into a shop and was immediately addressed rudely by the shop’s owner. At this moment the young boy is frustrated and broken up. The young boy expected to bring a gift back for his crush, but he did not because of his untrustworthy uncle who does not care about keeping his promises. It is not that the uncle does not care about the boy, but it is because the uncle does not care about what the boy wants to do and the reason why he wants to do it. The uncle already know that the boy’s expectation are faulty. The uncle knows a gift will not win his nephew a girlfriend. Then boy starts to realize that he should have stayed home and listened to his uncle. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger” (Joyce 4??).

Although both stories had main characters that experienced similar conflicts of having high expectations for something that let them both down in the end. In both stories there was an adult figure that tried to tell the young minded children that their expectations were misleading, neither listened and found out the truth on their own.