Their Loss of Illusion.
The two stories "Araby" by James Joyce and "Jasmine" by Bharati Mukherjee are both stories of youth and lost innocence. These two stories have different settings, different characters, they were even written at different times. One of them is the story of a boy and the other of a young woman; however, the basic concept is still the same. Both of the authors through their stories lead the way for their characters and their final disillusionment.
In his brief yet complex story "Araby", James Joyce concentrates entirely on his character, a young boy who lived in Dublin around the turn of the century. This is a story about a boy's quest, but even though the quest ends in failure, it results in his awakening and his first step into manhood. At the beginning of the story he is lonely and isolated, yet imaginative. He is ignorant and therefore innocent, and lacks the full understanding of the world around him.
This all changes quickly after he finds himself in love with a beautiful young girl. He agrees to go to Araby to buy her a gift; however, when he arrives there it is too late. "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity, and my eyes burned with anguish and anger." I believe that this darkness is used as a symbol. At this moment he probably realizes that thing young lady was only using him, and the darkness symbolizes his sudden awareness and disappointment as he finds his fantasies shattered. .
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Muhkerjee's "Jasmine" has similarities, yet on the other hand it is exceedingly different from "Araby". As the story begins the main character is already a young woman. The reader would assume that she is in her early twenties, being that she already had attended college for two years and was employed. She was not a girl in search of love like in "Araby", she was a young woman with an ambition in search of a different life.
