James Joyce and John Cheever were two influential writers of the late 1800's and early 1900's. James Joyce was an Irish author that wrote various short stories, novels, and poems. In Dubliners, he is noted for his epiphanies and objective correlatives. John Cheever, is an American short-story writer and novelist whose work is known for his portrayals of the average middle-class American. His works include ironic comedies and the displaying of his imagination. Both writers are duly noted for their short stories. Their unique styles of writings are respectably different to a point. They are similar in the way they display their descriptions, and differ in the way they present the outcome of their story.

In the short stories of James Joyce, one is surely to notice his direct and sharp epiphanies. In the story "An Encounter", two schoolboys of 11 or 12, decided to skip school. There was a third but he bailed. They arranged to go along the Wharf Road until they came to the ships. Then they were to cross with the ferryboat and walk out to see the Pigeon House. When they reached the quay, the boy narrating the story, looked amongst the sailors by the N

When looking at these two writers we obviously see unique writing styles, for they are both different. They use the same skills; description, originality, and imagination, and create two different types of writing styles. Cheever used his imagination and created characters which may already exist in the world, for they are average. Joyce also used his imagination to collaborate on a place, which he already knew, Dublin. The main character usually had some representation of himself that showed his stream of consciousness. Both writers are similar in that they always have concrete conclusions to their stories, but differ in the way in which they show them. Joyce shocks us with his epiphanies and Cheever does the same with his ironies. The ways in which they present their denouements are different and make for the differences in their writings.

A noticeable factor in Joyce's works, are his descriptions of Dublin and its characters. In A Little Cloud, Little Chandler gives great descriptions of the things he sees. By doing so, we are exposed to vast imagery that helps us in getting the mood of the story, "He turned often from his tiresome writing to gaze out of the office window. The glow of a late autumn sunset covered the grass plots and walks. It cast a shower of kindly golden dust on the untidy nurses and decrepit old men who drowsed on the benches..." (p. 71). This particular scene gives a mood of the story right away. Following this observation he shows us the condition of the character, "A gentle melancholy took possession of him" (p. 71). This disposition presented puts you in the character's frame of mind, which Joyce did by exposing us to the character's feelings with a sense of reality.

John Cheever's writings are described, often through fantasy and ironic comedy, the life, manners, and morals of middle-class,

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Approximate Word count = 1248
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)