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The Disillusionment of Love 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 in each story 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. Both boys make monetary sacrifices for girls they are enamored with only to let themselves down. The boys learn that love hurts. The location in Araby was in Dublin in a quiet 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 and dark, cold at sundown, and it was winter. Everything looked dark, including the street lamps. He doesn t live in the best neighborhood. The boy in Araby is secretly in love with his best friend s sister who lives in his neighborhood. We only know about the girl based on what the boy thinks of her Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance (Joyce 729) but not what the girl thinks of the boy.
The boy is shy watched her from our shadow peer up and down the street. Every morning I lay on the front parlous watching her door. The blind was pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen. (Joyce 729). Throughout the story, we don t know what type of person she is, but she had a very positive influence on him Her figure defined by the light from the half opened door, her dress swung as she moved her body, and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side the light from the lamp opposite our door caught the white curve of her neck, lit up her hair that rested here and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing. At fell over one side of her and caught the white border of a petticoat, just visible as she stood at ease. (Joyce 729).
John Updike s A and P takes place near the beach in the summer time and the story took place on a sunny Thursday afternoon. In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits. (Updike 733). Sammy, the clerk at the store, is nineteen-year-old man. Three young women in their bathing suits entered the store. They caught his eye, and Sammy scrutinizes and examines the girls There was this chunky one, with the two piece-it was bright green and the seams on the bra were still sharp and her belly was still pretty pale. On the second girl Sammy s impression was There was this one with one of those chubby berry-faces, the lips all bunched together.
the kind of girl other girls think is very striking and attractive. (Updike 733) and the third one he called her Queen or Queenie She was the queen. She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round. She didn t look around (Updike 733). She didn t walk in her bare feet that much, putting down her heels and then letting the weight move along her toes as she was testing the floor with every step. (Updike 733). The way the girls were walking appeared to have angered the Level and he comes over and says Girls, this isn t the beach. (Updike 735) Queenie felt embarrassed, Sammy felt bad for her Her voice kind startled me (Updike 735) and in signal of rebelliousness he gave up his employment at the A and P store. Sammy felt that by giving up his job, he sent a clear message of Level s action and behavior toward the girls.
Sammy hopes that the girls will stop and notice his heroic act. Hoping they ll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero. But they didn t They keep right on going they flicker across the lot to their car. (Updike 736). At the end, Sammy was happy, he won his freedom and he reacted according to his conscience. He is only nineteen, he is young, and he does not realize the significance of his actions. The girls are gone and he is alone.
In both stories, the boys went the extra mile to reach the girl they want and both failed. The Araby, promised his girl to buy her a gift from the Bazaar and he knew he couldn t afford it and Sammy from the A and P store quits his job because he disagreed with the owner. Both of these guys went out of their way for girls that they don t really know. The Araby character begs for money from his uncle and goes to a bazaar, only to be humiliated because he is too poor to buy anything. Sammy quits his job to make a statement defending Queenie s honor, only to end up alone and unemployed.
In both cases, the boys are worse off than they were in the beginning as a result of falling for a girl.
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