The Disillusionment of Love “Araby" by James Joyce and “A and P" by John Updike are both short stories in which the central characters are in love with women who don’t even know it. The Araby story started sad and ended sadder, however, the “A and P” story started happy and ended with a heroic act that went unnoticed. The main characters in each story experience new situations and truths of which they were …showed first 75 words of 1001 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1001 total…for girls that they don’t really know. The “Araby” character begs for money from his uncle and goes to a bazaar, only to be humiliated because he is too poor to buy anything. Sammy quits his job to make a statement defending Queenie’s honor, only to end up alone and unemployed. In both cases, the boys are worse off than they were in the beginning as a result of falling for a girl.