The Things They Carried and Araby Essay - 1353 Words

The idea of love is very complex and can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Both â€Å"The Things They Carried† by Tim O’Brien and â€Å"Araby† by James Joyce portray the lives of two individuals who are in love. â€Å"The Things They Carried† is about a young lieutenant named Jimmy Cross during the Vietnam War. Lieutenant Cross was incapable of focusing on the war because of his constant thoughts of the girl he loved, Martha. â€Å"Araby† is about a boy who is infatuated with a girl he has never had a conversation with. Although both protagonists in â€Å"The Things They Carried† and â€Å"Araby† eventually realize that the girls they loved didn’t feel the same way about them, Lieutenant Cross tried to move on by destroying everything he had that reminded him of†¦show more content†¦Due to his strong love for her, the narrator wanted to make her happy and he believed buying her a gift would make her happy. He put a l ot of pressure on him going to the Bazaar and buying her a gift. He associated him buying her a gift with him being with her. They both took encounters they had with the girls they loved and made them more than they actually were. In both stories, Lieutenant Cross and the boy in â€Å"Araby† both had methods of thinking about and feeling close to the girls they loved. Cross had a pebble that Martha sent him and he kept the pebble close to him no matter what. His overwhelming love for her is obvious when they story states â€Å"He loved her so much. On the march, through the hot days of early April, he carried the pebble in his mouth, turning it with his tongue† (O’Brien 938). He went to extremes in order to have the pebble with him on his march. Similar to Lieutenant Cross, the boy in â€Å"Araby† also had a way of being reminded of the girl he loved. He kept a mental image of her wherever he went. He thought of her no matter what he was doing and expressed this when he said â€Å"Her image accompanied me even in places the most hostile to romance† (Joyce 207). Even in places he didn’t expect to think about her, he was reminded of her. While he was in church he said â€Å"I imagined that I bore my chalice safely through a throng of foes† (Joyce 207). The chalice was a symbolic metaphor for his love for Mangan’s sister. Both Lieutenant CrossShow MoreRelatedaraby and the things they carried Essay848 Words   |  4 Pages Head in the Clouds The main characters in â€Å"Araby† by James Joyce and â€Å"The Things They Carried† by Tim O’Brien are both at war with fantasy and reality. Both of these characters are ones motivated by their infatuation with woman they hardly know but believe that they love them. Both these stories tell us that their fantasizing and objectification of these women are used to cover up their true feelings. In return this offers the main characters an escape from reality. Through the exchange ofRead MoreThe Things They Carried By Tim O Brien And Araby By James Joyce892 Words   |  4 Pagesboth pieces of literature â€Å"The Things They Carried† by Tim O’Brien and â€Å"Araby† by James Joyce. The authors portray the lives of two individuals who are in love. The idea of love concerning a girl and expectations on being with this girl they love. The authors in both texts demonstrate too us that love can be very hopeful, but it can emotionally and mentally change us. The authors assert to the reader attention in the literature â€Å"Araby† and â€Å" The Things They Carried† that love can be hopeful butRead More The Decline of Chivalry Explored in Araby and AP Essay1211 Words   |  5 PagesRomantic gestures have been seen as a useful motive to win hearts of women for centuries. However, as society constantly changes, the effectiveness of these chivalrous acts has diminished. 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