Coming Of Age By James Joyce And A & P By John Updike

Reading coming of age stories are always interesting and at times nastolgic. Coming of age stories typically include a young protagonist forced to make a grown decision which is a transition to their first move into adulthood. In a sense, these stories show the protagonist shifting from innocence to gaining experiences. The two coming of age stories that we read in class were “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett and “The Man Who Was Almost A Man” by Richard Wright. Both being coming of age stories, they have similar features but were different in the sense that one protagonist seemed to have made a shift into adulthood whereas one did not.

In the short stories A Rose for Emily and The Story of an Hour, Emily Grierson and Louise Mallard are both similar women, in similar time periods but they both are in entirely different situations. This essay will take these two specific characters and compare and contrast them in multiple, detailed ways.

In the short stories, “Saving Sourdi,” by May-Lee Chai and “The Moths,” by Helena Maria Viramontes, the main character of each short story goes through their own coming of age experience where they are forced to mature in order to overcome an obstacle. Chai explains her main character, Nea’s, struggle as she is forced to mature and overcome the departure of her older sister, Sourdi, from her life after she gets married and moves away. Viramontes, on the other hand, depicts her narrator’s struggle as she is forced to mature and overcome the death of her Abuelita on her own. Despite their very different approaches, both Chai and Viramontes successfully convey their main character 's struggles in their journey from youth to adulthood.

Coming of age is an influential part of many people’s lives. They begin to leave behind their innocent childhood views and develop a more realistic view on the world around them as they step forward into adulthood. (Need to add transition) Many authors have a coming of age theme in their books; specifically, Harper Lee portrays a coming of age theme in his book To Kill A Mockingbird. Through the journeys of their childhoods, Jem and Scout lose their innocence while experiencing their coming of age moment, making them realize how unfair Maycomb really is.

James Joyce’s 1914 collection of 15 short stories The Dubliners has the continuous theme of money which further dwells into the idea of class systems, how colonies became a dichotomy, and how in the end, the colonists were nearly the same. Since Joyce writes these stories in the early 20th Century, there has been a large history behind colonization and the life that comes with it. In using everyday examples or little segments of the average day, Joyce expresses the idea and components of the class system in Dublin which shows the distinction and yet the similarities between the impoverished and the well to do.

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek to find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

This coming-of-age story is narrated by Ari, thus the reader is constantly aware of his feelings and his point of view. Ari is angry at everything and everybody. His family

As people reach the age of adulthood, their life begins to drastically change, whether that change be positive or negative. Two poems, To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age by Samuel Johnson and When I Was One-and-Twenty by A.E. Housman, present the positive and negative changes that occur during the transition into a young man’s adulthood. In comparison to each other, both of the works have conflicting tones, points of view, audiences, diction, and overall themes. The former poem is written for celebration, and the latter is written for a more sad realization.

The idea of love towards a girl is interpreted in a mixture of feelings. In both pieces of literature “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien and “Araby” by James Joyce. The authors portray the lives of two individuals who are in love. The idea of love concerning a girl and expectations on being with this girl they love. The authors in both texts demonstrate too us that love can be very hopeful, but it can emotionally and mentally change us.

In both Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and Gorilla My Love by Toni Bambara, the description of the main character 's vision symbolizes the character’s conceptualization of their future. Both of these stories’ main characters start with clear vision and a clear sense of their futures. In Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the narrator is tasked with the responsibility of driving Mr. Norton around; at the beginning of the drive, the narrator intently listens to Mr. Norton’s story and has his “eyes glued to the white line dividing the highway” (Ellison 31). He focuses on driving and doing his job correctly; similarly the narrator also heavily focuses on his academic success at the university and completing his job

There is this one event that unites everyone on the planet, although it might not be the best experience, it definitely is fun. This event is called growing up.Growing up is when you transition from being a child to being an adult. Being an adult requires a lot of responsibility. You need to be responsible for you, your children, and your job. When you enter into the adult world you feel like you’re free because you can do anything you want to do but society is a very interesting and wierd place.In J.D. Salinger’s book The Catcher in the Rye and in the poem “His poems” the theme of how growing up changes us comes out and as we grow up we lose more innocence. In The Catcher in the Rye the main character is Holden Caulfield and he got kicked out of his school Pencey Prep because he was not getting good grades.

Coming-of-age is a chapter that every individual must eventually trek through in order to grow and mature into one’s own self. In John Updike’s A&P and James Joyce’s Araby, the theme of growth permeates throughout the narrative as their respective protagonists initially struggle to understand the world from a naive perspective, only to shed their ignorant fantasies about? and truly understand the cruelty of the world they live in. Dismissing the pragmatic aspects of life can lead to the downfall of a person’s ideals, and they inevitably and eventually come to the realization that their dreams are impractical, and even impossible. This forces them to grow up and understand that their childish hopes are worthless in the face of life’s truths and facts, which largely ignores one’s hopes. Growth requires the dichotomy of hope and failure; together they allow one to have an epiphany and realize that something, whether it be an action or an idea is amiss and then, with newfound knowledge, they may reflect and adapt. The young often make hopeful wishes that can never be realized due to the lack of experience that acts as a reality check. In James Joyce’s Araby, the narrator depicts a life of observing his crush, Mangan’s sister, and fantasizing her attention. One day his wish is granted as she finally shares a conversation with him about the bazaar in Araby and how she unfortunately cannot go. The protagonist takes the opportunity to potentially impress Mangan’s sister as the text depicts, “‘If I go,’ I said, ‘I will bring you something.’ What innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening! I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days” (Joyce 2). The brief encounter brings hope and excitement to the character, that perhaps by bringing his crush a gift from Araby, his feelings may be realized and she may share a mutual affection for him. Instead, as the story goes on, the boy arrives in Araby after overcoming obstacles like his apathetic uncle and the work of school only to arrive in Araby during its closing time. After witnessing the store clerk’s lack of interest he decides not to buy anything and then, upon his failure, he realizes how

Before I begin I would like to say that at no point did I ever just turn into an adult, in fact at times I wonder if I am one. There was a particular instant in my life when I finally released the death-like grip on my childhood that was already old, shriveled and meager to begin with, and took those first- reluctant- strides into the blinding light of adulthood.

Humanity is a species that relies heavily on emotion in our day to day lives. Not only do these emotions vary from day to day, but these emotions range throughout the course of a day as well. In novels such as Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and The Giver by Lois Lowry, the idea of a society that relies heavily on the suppression of intense emotion is explored. Does intense emotion hinder the advancement of society or is it what propels us forward? I believe that both Brave New World and The Giver support the idea that a perfect society cannot be created without intense emotion and trying to remove it from life creates stagnation and leaves one feeling unfulfilled.

People have created a world where coming of age means taking responsibility for one’s own self and creating a life one would like to live in. Values such as courage, personal dependability and confidence need to be applied to several areas of life in order to have a sense of co-creation and fulfillment. Yet, people live in a world that also requires people to work for a living and this can be troublesome when it comes to feeling self-actualized and content with one’s life-situation. Many dramas seem to dwell on characters with worldly problems that cause much despair and they, more often than not, have a mind projected future that will provide peace and accomplishment. This mirrors the reality of almost every person who feels