Compare and Contrast Fiction Essay
“The Found Boat” and “A&P”

Sexuality and personal growth has and always will be a topic of conversation in real life and even in fiction short stories. The idea of sexuality has just recently not only became an open idea to discuss but one to also write and publish about. Both Alice Munro and John Updike both illustrate the idea of sexuality and personal growth in very different ways. “The Found Boat” by Alice Munro, deals with sexuality in an aggressive manner while “A&P” by John Updike, deals more with the idea of sexuality rather than sexuality itself. They also have very similar elements of fiction that include (but is not limited to) characters, theme and conflict. The characters relate in both
They were off her shoulders looped loose around the cool tops of her arms…” (p371), it shows that freedom and sexuality that she has and isn’t afraid of showing. Other characters that are very similar are Clayton, from “The Found Boat” and Sammy, from “A&P”. Both of these young men grow more mentally than anything else throughout these stories; they are able to experience sexual thoughts. Clayton see’s the body of a naked young woman and is in awe, “He hooted to see it, a loud self-conscious sound that nobody would have expected, from him” (p359). Sammy experiences these thoughts throughout the story; from the time that the three girls arrived to the time that they leave. He grows though when he quits (p373) to follow the girl of his dreams.
Battle of the sexes is a conflict that both stories experience. In “The Found Boat” the major conflict consist of who gets the actual boat. The girls, Eva and Carol, believe that they should keep and have privileges to the boat because they are the ones who found it. While the boys; Frank, Bud and Clayton, believe that it is their right to keep the boat because they are the ones who restored the boat. In “A&P” the battle of the sex’s conflict deals with Lengel and Queenie and her two friends. Queenie and her friends think that it is perfectly appropriate to dress in only their bathing suits while entering the A&P. They do not see the problem with not wearing cover up clothing inside of a store because they