Compare and contrast John Updike's story "A&P" and James Joyce's story "Araby."

"A&P" and "Araby" have a similar plot: we have a first-person narrator, a young teenage boy, describing a particular encounter with a highly attractive and desirable teenage girl; the boy has to struggle to stay focused as he works to achieve what he wants; and in the end, the boy does not get the girl in any sense or even win her attention, and the boy feels a more intense frustration than when the story began. Themes of failed gestures, failed connections, and disappointment can be found in both stories.

They also both have a similar setting in a small town where the narrators feel trapped and limited, the older adults are authoritative and unsympathetic, and there's a pervading sense of poverty and shortage. In "A&P," the narrator, Sammy, feels the impending stress that will result from his quitting his job in his awkward and unsuccessful attempt at standing up for the hot girls who got chided for coming into the store dressed only in swimsuits. Likewise, in "Araby," the unnamed narrator has only a few coins to buy a gift for his crush; it's not enough, he can't afford anything at the bazaar even when he finally gets there, and he comes home empty-handed. "A&P" ends with intense sadness ("my stomach kind of fell") and so does "Araby" ("my eyes burned with anguish and anger").

Despite these similarities, it's often more interesting to look at how two stories like these diverge. For example, even though both stories are brimming with imagery and figurative language, Sammy in "A&P" seems to use those devices to objectify the girls in the story, focusing on their body parts and the way their clothes fit, while the unnamed narrator in "Araby" uses figurative language to glorify his crush, focusing on her beauty and allure. Also, we sense a vastly different tone between the stories: "A&P" comes off as casual and cool while "Araby" is deeply serious. And though both stories build quickly to a tense climax, "Araby" does so against a background of severe religious constraint, while "A&P" touches more on the tension between social classes.

So far, we've brushed the surface of each of these aspects of both stories: plot, tone, the representation of women, etc. Both stories have such depth that they invite a closer, detailed look at any one aspect.