A comparison paper of James Joyce's Araby and John Updike's A&P

The brief but complex stories of "Araby" by James Joyce and, "A&P by John Updike focuses on character traits rather than on plot to reveal the ironies that inherent self deception. The theme for both Sammy from "A&P" and the narrator from "Araby" is the transition from childhood to adulthood, a process that everyone experiences in one's own way and time. The transformation that both characters make from children to adults …

…at all what he imagined. It is dark and thrives on the profit motive and the eternal lure evokes in men. The boy grasps that he has placed all his love and hope in a world that does not exist except in his imagination. "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger"(287). He feels angry and understands his self-deception.