Protagonists’ Desire for change

In “A&P” by John Updike and “Araby” by James Joyce the protagonists make important life decisions. Both stories are about young men, leading dull lives, who go through a major change, while trying to escape from their lives. In both stories this change takes place while trying to please a female who triggers something inside them, causing them to act. “Araby” is different from “A&P” because it has religious elements as well as a connection through alienation. In “Araby” the narrator is closely following the crush that he has on Mangan’s sister. The narrator makes a kind of gesture to take Mangan’s sister to the bazaar, but she turns it down because of previous plans. Sammy and the narrator are similar in the sense that they both follow their desire for change. ‘Araby’ and ‘A&P’ are stories of unsuccessful attempts to escape from ordinary lives, only in different ways. Both stories end in darkness to prove that alienation can change the way people react to different situations and both show how the characters react towards change. The fate of Sammy from “A&P” surrounds the ideas of self-identity, desire for change and emerging adulthood, whereas “Araby” outlines alienation, desire for change and the dangers of idealization. The reader gets caught by the setting first in both stories. The protagonists describe the neighborhoods and the daily life in the cities that they live in, in detail. Sammy is stuck in the daily routine of the policy of A&P, while the boy in ‘Araby’ uses negativity while describing the setting. The opening description uses these adjectives to reinforce the mood:
“Uninhabited…blind end…detached…imperturbable…dark…muddy,” (Joyce 91-2). That is how the reader is able to picture the monotony and the dreariness of Dublin and its detachment from other places.
Similarly, Sammy in A&P describes the town he lives in by referring to everyone around him as sheep, intensely describing the distinction between the beach and his town, which causes the reader to picture a small town with many mostly older people who lead unexciting lives, and a boy who has lived there and worked in the same shop all his life. In this way, the reader knows that both the characters are not happy with the lives they are leading. Everything that they talk about gains complexity.
With nothing to hold on to, both protagonists search for something that will give them the courage to change, something that will spice up their lives. In ‘Araby’ the boy is trying to escape from his boring everyday life which is his supposed love for this girl, Mangan’s sister. She is the only light in the dark life, and his only source for joy. He devotes himself to this girl so much that she becomes a god-like figure: “The light from the lamp caught the white curve on her neck, lit up her hair that rested there and, falling, lit up the hand upon the railing,” (Joyce 92). This comment which intensely details Mangan’s sister’s god-like figure tells the reader that the narrator has a deep infatuation with her.
Whereas, in “A&P” Sammy sees the girl he calls ‘Queenie’ a beautiful teenager in a bathing suit and develops an infatuation for her. Sammy rings up the girls he described so thoroughly, the reader sees a deeper meaning:
Hello (bing) there, you (ring) hap-py pee-pul (splat) – the splat being the drawer flying out. I uncreased the bill, tenderly as you may imagine, it just having come from between, the two smoothest scoops of vanilla I had ever known were there, and pass a half and a penny into her narrow palm and nestle the herring in a bag and twist its neck and hand, (Updike 1346).
Sammy’s thoughts mean more than just ringing up the customers; they also signal change which the girls represent. The observation also describes the way Sammy acts around the girl he nicknames “Queenie”. It is ironic that she pulls the money from between her breasts and it sort of hints on Sammy’s feelings towards her because normally people would have money in a purse, bag or a pocket. Sammy makes a desperate act of chivalry to show his desire for change from the usual everyday routine because he believes that ‘Queenie’ is the road to his freedom and the road to change in his future. Porter says “The reader learns that the market is not far from the beach, so even though they do break the rules, it is somewhat plausible, especially since they are there to pick up just one item,”(Porter 1). The manager Lengel embarrasses the girls for rebelling against store policy. Clearly being a father, a husband, or a figure of authority does not stop the male employees from behaving like children. Sammy eventually realizes that he does not want to be “sheep” either, nor does he want to be like the other male employees, and Lengel. What Sammy wants cannot be found within the daily routine of the A&P. Sammy sees the freedom that ‘Queenie’ represents as his imagination takes him into Queenie’s upper class lifestyle:
“All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room. Her father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them. When my parents have somebody over they get lemonade and if it's a real racy affair Schlitz in tall glasses with "They'll Do It Every Time" cartoons stenciled on,” (Updike 1345-46).
This daydream is shadowing an epiphany that Sammy has about Queenie’s lifestyle. It is a brief moment of intense self-identity that Sammy realizes he does not like where he is in his life. He now has a desire for change and he wants to see a better life than Stokesie and Lengel have at the A&P.
Social alienation is highlighted in different ways. Sammy likes the girl he nicknames ‘Queenie’ because she was good looking and hopes that she will notice him. The narrator from “Araby” also puts a girl on a pedestal, as he thinks “When she came out on the doorstep my heart leapt.” My eyes were often full of tears (I could not tell why) and at times a flood from my heart seemed to pour itself out into my bosom,” (Joyce 92). This disruption represents innocence because he wants to just watch Mangan’s sister from afar rather than talk to her. The narrator decides to follow his plan and go to the bazaar alone to bring back a gift for his crush. His uncle gets home late, forcing the narrator to get to the bazaar when it is about to close and therefore results in him not getting any gift. ‘Araby’ has a different love connection. At the beginning of ‘Araby’ the narrator is in love with his friend Mangan’s sister. Although the narrator suddenly comprehends that he has allowed his feelings to get carried away, this thought makes him neither happy nor satisfied. An epiphany occurs during the end of the story and creates a moment of intense insight and self-understanding. In ‘Araby’ the boy realizes that he is too young to be buying a gift with the little money he has, from a big bazaar, and for a girl much older than he is.
Sammy realizes that in reality he cannot do anything else other than to be a cashier at a supermarket. They both understand that they were not actually who they thought they were. After these recognitions they both find themselves in emptiness, having suddenly lost the mission of their lives. He is very angry at himself for acting foolishly. The narrator ends by saying. “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derived by vanity and my eyes burned with anguish and anger, (Joyce 95). Using the small pieces and key words of this statement, we can see it as a synopsis of the story’s major themes. Many feelings are swirling about in the narrator’s head. His trip to the bazaar has been largely unsuccessful. He was late arriving, unable to find a gift for Mangan’s sister, felt scorned by the merchants and suddenly found himself in a dark room. These surroundings left him both derided, and with a sense that this largely foreseen trip had been in hopeless.
At the same time, Sammy ends his story by saying his stomach fell because of the reluctance for change: “His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he’d just had an injection of iron, and my stomach fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me from hereafter,” (Updike 1347). The way ‘A&P’ abruptly ends makes it seem like the story should have more but it doesn’t. The world of ‘A&P’ turns to dark to show its loneliness and separation from society. Updike describes the darkness as Sammy leaves the store looking for the girls, realizing the girls are long gone and he made a bad decision to quit. Sammy tries to make a spontaneous decision that Queenie and the girls would notice but she is gone and never cares that Sammy had quit his job in order to meet up with them. Henig has a rather interesting opinion that sort of points at the life stage that Sammy is in: “Just as adolescence has its particular psychological profile, Arnett says, so does emerging adulthood: Identity exploration, instability, self-focus, feeling in between and a rather poetic characteristic he calls ‘a sense of possibilities,’(Henig 30). This comment points at Sammy because he is a teenager and he has found himself in the in between adolescent stage where he has a lot of possibilities but does not really think his actions through.
In conclusion, both “A&P” and “Araby” have similarities and differences, but among all have the common theme of “desire for change”. At the end of the day, the common themes are proven that the power of desire for change can change everyone. Sammy and the narrator are similar in the sense that they both follow their crushes. Although, in “Araby” there is a connection based on fate changing and in “A&P” Sammy doesn’t want to stay in the daily routine of “A&P” forever. The fate of the protagonists in both stories illustrates the desire for change in their lives through emerging adulthood and aspiring towards a goal in life.

Works Cited
Henig, Robin Mirantz. "The Post Adolescent, Pre-Adult, Not-Quite-Decided Life
Stage." New York Times Magazine 22 Aug. 2010: n. pag. Print.. /
Joyce, James. "Araby." Literature: A Human Experience: Reading and Writing. 9th ed. 2006. Print. pages 91-95
Porter, Gibert M. "Araby." Critical Companion to James Joyce: A Literary
Reference To His Life and Work. 2006. Print.
Updike, John. “A&P”. The Story and its Writer. Ann Charters, Ed. Bedford/St. Martins Press. 2003. 6th edition. 1343-1347.