In Joyce's short story, we see how the narrator goes from "looking at his door... every morning" (70) to "seeing himself as a guided creature and mocked by vanity” (70). Here, it is evident that the narrator realizes that Mangan's sister is just another normal girl and not worth all his troubles. The reader can easily see how the narrator changes from the beginning to the end of the story. Of course, the narrator wouldn't even think of talking to Mangan's sister, but he ends up having a conversation with her in the middle of the story only to not keep his promise to her at the end of the story. On the other hand, just like in “Araby”, “The Man Who Was Almost a Man” also describes how the main character changes. At first, Dave dares to buy a gun because he believes that "a man should have a little gun after working hard all day" (103). This passage represents that even though everyone else sees him as a boy, Dave sees himself as a man because he is going to get a gun, which is a rather childish belief. On the day he shot Jenny, that night Dave went into the forest and shot the gun again. As he is about to shoot, he closes his eyes but then says to himself “Nah, Ah, I can't shoot with my eyes closed and my head turned away.”.” (112).