Araby And Flannery O Conner's A Good Man

In James Joyce’s “Araby” and Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” both authors direct the reader’s attention to a key moment of insight or discovery by building the readers expectations throughout the story and then surprising the reader with an ending where the main character contradicts the readers built expectations, thus highlighting the epiphany. Joyce directs the reader through the uses of setting and narration while O’Conner heavily uses dialogue.
In Araby, the opening scene starts out with the unnamed narrator describing his surroundings as the way he is experiencing them. The word choice makes his environment seem bleak, stale, and unchanging. He states things like, “Air musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all
Gregor, being a vermin, is a reflection of his profession as a salesman, which in society are often categorized as “vermin”. There is something buggy about salesmen in the way that many are slimy and crafty to achieve sales. Salesmen historically have a reputation of being dishonest or self-interested, which in society are associated traits of a low, disrespected profession. Salesmen are shoed away by customers much like bugs are despised and unwelcomed guests in any home. Gregor is also treated like a type of worker bee or bug by his boss who acts as a micro manager by showing up to his home the day Gregor didn’t come in for work, and disapproving the work Gregor was currently doing in front of his family. When his boss says, “Let us hope it’s nothing serious. Though, on the other hand, I must say, that we business people-fortunately or unfortunately –often very simply must overlook a slight indisposition in order to get on with business.” He is implying that Gregor shouldn’t have an excuse for missing work if he took his job seriously. The boss looks down upon Gregor as he would to a bug in a literal and symbolic