False Expectations When we are filled with anticipation, it leaves us with the opportunity to feel let down and discouraged. This is the case for Sammy in A & P, as well as the narrator in Araby. These characters are anti-heroes, or protagonists, who lack some heroic qualities. In both stories, Sammy and the narrator were fantasizing about making a strong impression on girls. These young adult boys were seeking love, but ultimately, they were seeking something greater. These boys were searching for significance in their lives. The similar approach by each protagonist in these stories is their false hope of what a girl will fulfill them with. The narrator and Sammy have idealized expectations for them in mind, but by the end of the story, as the narrator says in Araby, “Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.” Sammy also says at the end of A & P, “My stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.” In each of these stories, these boys place all their attention …show more content…
They have a false sense of their identity because they are trying to impress these girls who do not even know who these guys truly are. Sammy and the narrator are heroes because they seek good for others. Sammy admits to his attempt to be a hero saying, “Hoping they’ll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero.” I believe this desire to be a hero gets overlooked by the reader because of their loneliness. In Araby, the narrator says, “From the front window I saw my companions playing below in the street. Their cries reached me weakened.” The narrator chooses not to play in the streets with his friends because he would rather sit in his house, watching Mangan’s sister across the street. Sammy and the narrator are empty inside because they desire fulfillment that they can’t seem to find in their own