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Comparing Coming Of Age In Araby And A & P

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Coming of age signifies a change from childhood to adulthood. Two stories that are centered around “coming of age” are A&P and Araby. A&P is about a boy named Sammy who stands up for three girls who were being affronted about what they were wearing inside the grocery store. The conflict of the story and the coming of age moment revolves around what Sammy focused on when he saw them; until, he resolves to stand up for them. Araby on the other hand focuses on an unnamed narrator who is enamored with Magellan's sister and decides to go to Araby, a Dublin Bazaar, in order to get something for her. Comparing the two coming of age stories, Araby’s coming of age story is less apparent than A&Ps. The story lines depict the coming of age in two different …show more content…

Araby’s tone is very mellow and an angsty mood while A&P’s tone is serious but creates a very light hearted mood or a very raw mood. For example when both authors show their protagonists thoughts, Joyce uses much darker word choice which creates a very angsty mood as seen when the narrator describes his feelings for the girl. “All my senses seemed to desire to veil themselves and, feeling that I was about to slip from them, I pressed the palms of my hands together until they trembled, murmuring: 'O love! O love!' many times,” (Joyce). In comparison to A&P when Sammy is describing his feelings towards the girls, “With the straps pushed off, there was nothing between the top of the suit and the top of her head except just her, this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down from the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light. I mean, it was more than pretty,” (Updike). This description of the girls in A&P is much more raw in the sense that, Sammy describes them very materialistically but not in a way where it seems like he has an obsession with the girls. However in Araby, the way the narrator describes the feelings for his crush is almost creepy. It reminds us of a creepy middle school crush that wouldn’t stop following you

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