Wells, Walter. John Updike’s A & P: a return visit to Araby. 1993. Studies In Short Fiction. 13 November 2008 Bnet <findarticles.net>.
Wells compares Updike’s A & P to Joyce’s Araby in this critical essay writing that both contain the contrast between spiritual value-systems and the adolescent sexual folkways. The reviewer further exemplifies A & P as evidence that Updike is one of the few non-Catholic writers that has made issues of religious faith and doubt as important in their fiction.
Hardin, Sharon. A worn path: a journey through the real and the not real. 2000. Publication of the Illinois Philological Association, 3. 13 November 2008 <http://www.eiu.edu/~ipaweb/pipa/index.htm>.
Hardin’s essay on Eudora Welty’s short story tries to make a distinction between what is real and not real in the story, quoting Welty that the readers, as the onlookers in the parade, are deceived. The protagonist herself, distressed over whether her grandson is dead or alive, has been deceived by dark secrets kept from her, which are revealed to the reader only after tracing back events of her journey at the end of the story.
Buchanan, Jeffrey. Tim O’Brien and the Narrative of Failure. 2008. The CEA Forum. 13 November 2008. <http://www2.widener.edu/~cea>
Buchanan assesses Tim O’Brien’s story of the Vietnam War, “The Things They Carried,” as a failure, saying that the author has fallen short on distinguishing the narrative and contextual points. He further contends that O’Brien is not consistent with his sense of realty so that it is difficult to tell when the author is telling a story of fiction or giving a commentary.
