John Updike

The funny man: james kines James is a comedian, a rather well know one infact. His portfolio includes performances at all the major comedy clubs and a featured spot on SNL, as well as once doing a half-time show as in the super bowl half-time, and he deserves it this is a seriously funny guy. James is known for his almost fanatic stage personality, he becomes hyper and uses seemingly random outbursts to create a frantic and hilarious presence that often infects the crowd making it nearly…

My heart was pounding so loud that I could not hear what she had told me. I had to ask her to repeat herself, and I already felt like a fool. Despite the time spent building up courage, I was already doubting myself, and my dream girl was slipping through my fingers. Similarly, In Araby, a short story in The Dubliners, by James Joyce, a young boy finds himself consumed by “confused adoration” (Joyce). The boy develops feelings for a girl he has never talked to. He spends his time trying to find…

All Married couples hit rough patches in their relationships and it is about whether or not they power through those rough patches that determines the longevity of those relationships. If the relationship crumbles after just one fight or one argument then it’s questionably whether this relationship was real from the very start. In the story Under the Radar written by Richard Ford a married couple hit a rough patch. This rough patch not only destroys their relationship but leads to their…

The setting takes place in a small A&P grocery store on a Thursday afternoon in the summer. In the story, Sammy is described as a nineteen year old who lives with his parents. He specifically works at register nine in the A&P store. The customer he is ringing up in the beginning of the story is not important to the story but is described as a 50 year old woman who is a “witch” and a “cash-register-watcher”. The girls are described as being barefoot, one having a nice “can” and another having the…

In the short story “Janus” by Ann Beattie we learn about our desires and dislikes with life through the character of Andrea and her ceramic bowl. Beattie heavily enunciates Andrea’s obsession with the bowl through the use of literary devices of symbolism, allegory, and tone. Beattie uses these tools to show how her relationship with the bowl displays her true desires. In the story the main example of symbolism would be the cream colored bowl she got at a crafts fair. The bowl represents many…

In the short stories, “Araby” by James Joyce and “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, we are able to interpret and analyze the stories and find a common ground between the two, with authors use of Figurative language, themes, and symbols. Both stories explore the ideas of love, loss, reality, and the feeling of imprisonment through social norms. In the short “Araby” James Joyce transports us to North Richmond Street, a quiet dead-end Street in Dublin, where the narrator lives. The narrator…

There are similarities between John Updike’s short story, "A&P" and James Joyce’s short story, "Araby." The characters and their situation they are going through are alike both guys are crushing over a girl. There are some differences in the settings though, they are in two different countries. In both short stories the boys are trying to be heroes and win the girls affection, which in the end doesn’t work for either guy. The main characters in "Araby" and "A&P” have similar traits. They are…

The central idea of the short story, “Araby,” by James Joyce, is a young Irish boy who has a crush on his friends sister, who is considerably older than him, he goes to the market to get her some but eventually realizes that it’s not worth it. The author demonstrates this by writing, “But my body was like a harp and her words and gestures were like fingers running upon the wires” (Joyce 2, Paragraph 5). This quote illustrates how the young Irish boy has a crush on this woman. There are many…

James Joyce's "Araby" is about an unnamed narrator who remembers the days of his youth and tells the story of his first love. North Richmond Street is where the narrator would grow up and develop feelings for one of his friend's sister, who is also an unnamed character in the story. The narrator explains how he would spend much of his time thinking about his crush, thinking about her in the most unlikely of times and places. One day, the narrator presses himself to talk to his lost interest,…

descriptive. For example, “In walked three girls in nothing but bathing suits. […] The one that caught my eye first was the one in the plaid green two-piece. […] She was queen. […] she just walked straight on slowly, on those long white prima-donna legs” (Updike 17).…