Comparing Mortality in Hemingways Indian Camp and Joyces Araby :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

The Subject of Mortality in Hemingways Indian Camp and Joyces Araby mountain pass came face to face with his own mortality in Hemingways Indian Camp and, give care most of us, denied its inevitability, bear witness by the last line of the story In the early morning lake sitting in the stern of the boat with his father rowing, he felt sure that he would never die. (31) His first experience with the beginning of life was far from the joyous occasion most of us are taught to henchman with birth. Coupled with his first experience with a violent suicide in the same setting, his feeling that he would never die is understandable. I have undergo the loss of a family member in childbirth at an early age and my reaction was much the same as Nicks. It is that same conviction that causes us to continue to do things that we know is dangerous that feeling that one has that it will never happen to me. Perhaps Nick also learned a lesson from the inclemency displayed by his uncle and father towa rd the Indian woman as well as the other Indians in the story. Nicks father regards the screams of the Indian woman as unimportant, as evidenced by his comment to Nick No, I havent any anaesthetic, his father said. But her screams are not important. I dont hear them because they are not important. (29) Yet later, when Nick questions him as to why the husband killed himself, he admits, I dont know, Nick. He couldnt stand things, I guess. (30) Maybe Nick surmised that the womans screams his father considered unimportant and dismissed so quickly may have led to her husbands suicide.The protagonist in Joyces Araby learns a different lesson the bitter disappointment that is sometimes the result of youthful infatuation. The yearning he feels for Mangans infant is an emotion of which only he is aware I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.