A Comparison of the Main Characters in "Araby" and "The Swimmer"

<Tab/>During a person's lifetime, he or she will go through an experience where reality sets in. This realization happens either very quickly or takes time. In "Araby" and "The Swimmer" the two main characters go through a circumstance that brings them into reality. Even though the boy in "Araby" and the man, Neddy, in "The Swimmer" are in different phases of their lives they share a similarity in the process …

…vanity" (Araby 224) while Neddy walked to his house and found "the place was dark" (Swimmer 304). <Tab/>Even though these two characters don't share physical similarities, they do share similar processes in the way they figure out life. They went through life in their dream world until the "darkness" of life revealed what was really going. It only took a situation to show them what was real. <Tab/>