A&P by John Updike and Araby by James Joyce - Essay Example

[The [The [The "A&P" and "Araby" Despite their various differences, "A & P" by John Updikeand "Araby" by James Joyce, have much in common. The protagonists in both these short stories stumble upon disenchantment while moving from one stage of life to another. John Updike portrays Sammy, the narrator of "A & P", as a nineteen-year-old cashier at the local A & P in a coastal town near Boston. Sammy, thru the use of daring means, fruitlessly attempts to win the attention of a beautiful girl. The narrator of "Araby" depicted by James Joyce, also, conveys his first failed love, upon reflection of his boyhood in Irish Catholic Dublin in the early 1900's. Updike's "A & P" and Joyce's "Araby" both illustrate youthful narrators who come into conflict with a sexual and cultural clash. The protagonists from both stories live in a restrictive culture antagonistic to romance. The location of Sammy's New England town offers some insights to its cultural values. When Sammy has an altercation with a lady at the cash, he reflects, "If she'd been born at the right time they would have burned her over in Salem" (Updike 864). Furthermore, the location of the A & P grocery store shines some light on the town's values. Updike places the setting for the A & P "right in the middle of the town, and if you stand out front our doors you can see two banks and a Congregational church and the newspaper store and three real estate offices" (Updike 866). Cultural values and order of importance are shown by Sammy's perception of his surroundings. The banks are the first among those mentioned an indication of the importance of capital in modern society. After that the newspaper office, representing freedom of speech, sets the moral median for the town. The American dream is endorsed by the presence of the three real estate offices. All of these cultural values publicized outside, are reiterated inside the A & P, where rules, policies and routine are dominant. Although the A & P views this as efficiency, Sammy scrutinizes about the lack of spirit, "I bet you could set off dynamite in the A & P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their list and muttering" (Updike 866). Nothing natural exists here, just a maze of aisles through which customers bump their carts, Sammy says, "The whole store was like a pinball machine" and move collectively like "sheep pushing their carts down the aisle" (Updike 866). He watches her every move from the moment she walks in, so fixatedly, he rings up the Hi-Ho crackers twice. He ogles the girls then idealizes the prettiest one, showing a chauvinistic attitude towards woman. Although disgusted by the butcher's lustful stares, Sammy is not much better. Quite similar to the shopping habits of the customers, are Sammy's methods of picking out girls. He looks for quality, associating Queenie with "Kingfish Fancy Herring Snacks in Pure Sour Cream", that she purchases (Updike 867). He admires her for being part of the upper-middle class, similar to a named brand product. As Sammy appraises the girls as objects, he dehumanizes them and becomes part of the institution he despises. Sammy's view on woman is to a great extent naive, not to mention his act of bravery to try and win them over. Angry with Lengel and the A & P, Sammy retaliates, quitting his job in a gesture of devotion. While the Girls are still watching, Sammy disassociates himself with the A & P and its management. All that is left is "some young married screaming with her children about some candy they didn't get by the door of a powder-blue Falcon station wagon", a love that did succeed (Updike 869). Just as the A & P grocery store stands at the heart of life in Sammy's conservative Massachusetts's town, the Catholic Church is the center of life in Dublin. James Joyce's narrator of "Araby" portrays the Dublin that he grew up in as coerced by Catholicism. He begins describing North Richmond Street, "being blind", where the dull houses wear "brown imperturbable faces" and seem "conscious of the decent lives within" (Joyce 427). The narrator links the decency, of the people on the street, to a subdued lifestyle. Even when the boys are "set free" to play, they are released into joyless surroundings: "The cold air strung us as we played till our bodies glowed. Our shouts echoed in the silent streets" (Joyce 428). The inhabitants of Dublin striving to escape their reality, priests read adventure novels, uncles get drunk, people sing nationalist songs, and old ladies collect stamps, young girls dream of exploration, and young boys dream of girls. Conflict arises when, the protagonists' respective quest for ideal romance, clashes with their conventional and stubborn cultures. Chivalry has failed for both boys; their efforts remain unseen and therefore wasted. However, Sammy's fate has not yet been decided, and he leaves the reader with some hope. He loses his job but is still the "unsuspected hero" against an uncompromising culture (Updike 868). The boy in "Araby" resigns himself to a much more oppressive Catholic culture. He learns to stifle his emotions and live a life where dreams and romance are frivolous and redundant. The perceptive and imaginative young boy grows into an adult that shuns himself as: "a creature driven and derided by vanity" (Joyce 431). In Updike's "A & P" and Joyce's "Araby", two boys lose their innocent idealism, when cultures and sexuality clashes, and are left with the callous reality of the world. Works Cited Joyce, James. "Araby." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, Shorter Sixth Edition Eds. R. Bausch et al New York: Norton, 2000, 427-431 Updike, John. "A & P" The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, Shorter Sixth Edition Eds. R. Bausch et al New York: Norton, 2000, 864-869 Read More