A & P, By John Updike And Araby By James Joyce

A & P, a short story written by John Updike and Araby by James Joyce have various similarities in their plot and their main character’s actions. Both of these short stories deal with disillusionment when dealing with love. Sammy a cashier at the small town A & P, attempts to win over the attention of a beautiful girl by making a chivalric gesture. In a similar way, in Araby the narrator a young boy, is captivated by his friend’s older sister, and promises her a gift. In both of the stories, romance gives way to reality. In the short story of A & P, the main character Sammy, is a 19 year old kid who is a cashier at the local A & P in a small all American New England town. He is working one day when three girls come into the store in only their bathing suits. Instantly, he is attracted to the one girl who he describes as the leader and names her “Queenie”, he says how she is the most beautiful out of the three. The store is not by the beach so, the girl’s way of dress is out of the norm and start to create a stir in between other customers. As more …show more content…
The innocence of both the boys must to be the knight in shining armor for the girls that they like, makes them act illogically. To win back the girls in the A & P store Sammy quit his job, and the boy in Araby took a long journey to try and buy a gift to impress the girl he liked. In both stories the boys share an innocence about love and unfortunately, end up with great disappointment as a result. The boys in both of these short stories endure disillusionment as a result in their quest for love. They both try to be chivalrous and heroic but in the end, the girls don’t even notice them. Their efforts seem wasted, and their polite gestures are unnoticed. In Joyce’s Araby and Updike’s A & P, the two boys replace their whimsical ideas of love with modern life realism and in return, are closer to reaching their