The two stories I chose are A&P by John Updike and Araby by James Joyce. Both stories tell the story of the social and philosophical differences between the middle-class teenagers and the adults in the stories. In the short story A&P by John Updike, the story is told in the first person of a teenager working as a cashier at an A&P grocery store on a hot summer day. The story begins with the teenage boy named Sammy who becomes concerned about a group of three teenage girls who enter the grocery store in swimsuits. Sammy admires the girl's beauty as most nineteen year olds would, with a slightly lewd and immature nature. His grammar is faulty and he clearly does not come from a wealthy family, his work seems like a necessity for a son from a not-well-off family. The name he gives to the girl who seems to be the object of his desire, Queenie, reflects a social difference from him. Sammy further imagines the differences in class and lifestyle when he describes Queenie's voice as "a little toned, the way she spoke about 'pick-ups' and 'snacks'". He imagines her with an aristocratic family life describing "her father and the other men stood in ice coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking snacks of herring on toothpicks from a large wooden plate." glass and they were holding drinks along a large glass plate. water color with olives and sprigs of mint in it. on."Sammy doesn't seem to be content with his social status as he refers to "sheep-like customers who live five miles from the beach...... middle of paper...... cts to reach from both Arabian bazaar and sister Mangan. He realizes that his world is more and more insufficient and obstructs the possibility of his fulfillment in life. The boy seems to imagine that all his happiness will be accomplished through this mission, only to have his dreams dashed upon arriving in Arabia and finding it. most of the stalls have closed. The ending leads him to discover a disappointing reality, namely that he will bring nothing from Arabia to Mangan's sister and that he has become a creature driven and ridiculed by vanity. Works Cited Updike, John. “A&P.” Literature and the writing process. Comp. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day, Robert Funk, Linda Coleman. Longman, 2010. Print. (Updike 440-444)Joyce, James. “The Dubliners.” fullbooks.com. David Reed Haradda, November 6, 2004. Web. April 27, 2011. (Joyce)