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Two Short Stories of Awareness

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Two Short Stories Of Awareness Beyond Oneself:"Araby" And "A Sunrise On The Veld""Araby" by James Joyce and "A Sunrise On The Veld" by Doris Lessing are both short stories in which theprotagonists gained a consciousness that was beyond themselves. The main characters are both initiatedinto new realities and truths of which they were not previously aware. Both short stories will beexamined with reflections according to the type of initiation that was experienced, the nature of thenarrators, the similar and dissimilar aspects of both characters and various components of the short stories. In the two stories, both characters were experiencing an initiation or awareness of newactualities that were outside of themselves. The main characters …show more content…

They felt a oneness with the object of their love. They tried to breakdown the boundaries of their isolation. Both passions brought them out of their aloneness and loneliness. A difference in characters was that the boy in Araby was passive, inactive and reflectiveabout his passion. The focus was on himself and how he felt about his friend’s sister. He was anintrovert while the character in the second story was an extrovert being active and involved in his lovefor nature; he was more aware of what he was doing. In addition, the boy’s pride in Araby took over hisfeelings for the girl which were destructive and almost destroyed him. The girl had a ruinous influenceon him as she occupied his mind taking him away from his sleep and school work. She haunted his mindwhen he was not around her. In A Sunrise On The Veld, the character had a purposeful obsession. Onethat taught him valuable lessons about life, for example, that nature can be hostile and not to take itfor granted. There was a difference in what the boys learned from their experiences. The boy in Arabylearned something about himself. He learned that his love for the girl was one-sided, unreal and itsonly basis was in his feelings. It was not a mutual feeling and therefore may have destroyed what he felt for her. However the boy’s joy for nature in A Sunrise On The Veld probably did not go away evenafter witnessing the buck being devoured by ants. He learned about

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