North American Society Relected in John Updike's Short Story A & P

In "Outage" and "A&P," John Updike attempts to explore different facets of suburban life through ordinary and common events. In "A&P," Updike explores how innocent ignorance influences a young cashier named Sammy and his views of suburbia. On the other hand, "Outage" explores the seething underbelly of suburbia and the events that occur when no one is looking, or in this case, when the lights go out. Through each work, Updike counters innocence with knowledge and rebellion against submission.

The plot in each of these short stories focuses on normal American, middle-class life. “A&P” is about a young man that does not want to conform to society and what others want him to do. Sammy deviates from the social norm by quitting his job at the A&P while attempting to defend the girls wearing bathing suits. M. Gilbert Porter wrote an essay in The English Journal called “John Updike’s ‘A&P’: The Establishment and an Emersonian Cashier”. In this essay, he states that “Updike reveals the sensitive character of a nineteen-year-old grocery store clerk named Sammy, who rejects the standards of the A&P and in doing so commits himself to a kind of individual freedom” (Porter 1155). Porter is describing Sammy as a martyr for quitting his job because he believes that the standards of the A&P are unjust. He also states that Sammy

There is a sudden change in Sammy's attitude toward the girls throughout the story. At first, Sammy and his friend's he work

Sammy’s obsession with Queenie shows how Sammy doesn’t get much action. He is about a twenty year old guy who is obsessing over a 16 or 17-year-old girl. Sammy gives every single detail about Queenie; for example, he says, “She was the queen. She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round. She didn’t look around, not this Queen, she just walked on slowly, on these white prima-donna legs.” About 80% of the story is dedicated to the description of Queenie.

John Updike’s A&P is set in 1961, North of Boston, inside a grocery store named A&P. The main character is a young man named Sammy around the age 18 or 19 years old. Sammy works inside the grocery store as a clerk. The story starts off with some group young ladies walking into to this grocery store with nothing but a bathing suit on. As Sammy was staring at them he seemed surprised and distracted. He was so distracted that he accidently rang up an item twice. Then the lady he was checking out gave him hell. As he got the lady checked out he sees the girls again and just stares them down. He notices that they don’t have any shoes either. They then keep shopping and Sammy examines each one of them was chunky wearing a two peace that was bright green who had one of them chubby berry faces. Then there was this tall one with black hair sunburn under her eyes with a long chin. Finally, there was the one Sammy called the queen she seems to be the be the leader and the other two were just tagging along. Sammy keeps staring and he

A&P is described to be, “...five miles from a beach...but we’re right in the middle of town...north of Boston…” (Updike 19). Sammy’s description of the A&P present the setting as an ugly and boring place to be in. The fluorescent light is as cool as the “checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor”(Updike 19). The everyday grocery shoppers move in the same direction except for the girls in the swim suits, for they move against everyone else, and everything is organized into perfection along the tidy aisles. This degrading routine in this establishment is implied by Sammy’s careless reference to the usual shoppers as “sheep,” “houseslaves,” and “pigs” (Updike 18). These frequent customers seem to walk the store in oblivion to everything else around them; as Sammy points out, “I bet you could set off dynamite in an A&P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists…” (Updike 18).

In John Updike’s “A&P”, the revolution of the young people of the current age against authority is explored and explained. “A&P” reveals the shift from conservative and deferential to avant-garde and disrespectful. Through the observation of the behavior of the characters in the story, one can receive a clear picture of the evolution of the sexual revolution that has come in this age. Sammy is the first character that is introduced, he is the protagonist and narrator of the story. Stoksie and Lengel are next, Stoksie is a fellow store clerk with Sammy as well as a good friend and Lengel is the manager of the store. Finally, Queenie is introduced. “A&P” begins with Sammy noticing these three girls that come into the store in nothing but

John Updike, one of the most forward-thinking and socially provocative writers of the 50s and 60s, is known for his “incisive presentation of the quandaries of contemporary personal and social life.” (Lawn 529) Updike graduated from Harvard University and wrote for one of the more cutting edge publications like The New Yorker- both are notoriously ahead of their time and harbor controversial ideas. In his short story “A&P”, Updike reveals a young man named Sammy in a society on the brink of a social revolution- one in which a group of girls and an innocent cashier will unknowingly lead. Updike, through symbolism and syntax, shows how the girls are leading the revolution, how Sammy is feeling the wrath of this revolution, and

In the short story “A&P,” John Updike emphasises the overall theme of to be an individual is to face social consequences.

Sammy is obviously intelligent and is able to describe his thoughts so eloquently; it’s as if the reader is looking through a peephole in his mind. The first time Queenie speaks, he offers up an inner thought, “Her voice kind of startled me, the way voices do when you see the people first, coming out so flat and dumb yet kind of tony, too, the way it ticked over “pick up” and “snacks.” All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room”. (18) This brilliant passage is not a random thought of a normal grocery store clerk with no education or ambition. It is the voice of a scholar who hasn’t yet found his true calling.

In “A&P,” John Updike uses Sammy’s point of view to demonstrate that he is not as altruistic and kind as he thinks he is in order to demonstrate that people frequently ignore their own faults to criticize others. At the beginning of the short story, Sammy proves to be a judgmental type of person. For instance, he describes one of Queenie’s friends as “the kind of girl other girls think is very ‘striking’ and ‘attractive’ but never quite makes it” (Updike). Because his inner thoughts betray him as one who cares too much about a person’s appearance, it comes as a surprise when he later criticizes his manager for saying that the three girls in bathing suits are too scantily clad. He does not even realize that he is to be blamed for the same type

He starts to visualize her life by describing how, “Her father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coatsan bowties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big glass plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and spings of mint in them.” Sammy realizes in that moment that they come from 2 different worlds as he thinks about her life verses his own by describing how, “When my parents have somebody over they get lemonade.”

There are two generations displayed here, the elder and the younger one. Representing the senior generation is the manager, Lengel; the narrative states that he is friends of Sammy’s parents, so he seems to be a male from forty to fifty years of age. “Lengel sighs and begins to look very patient and old and gray. He's been a friend of my parents for years” (Updike 5). The younger portrait by the cashier and the girls. Mentioned in the brief tale, Sammy was almost 19 years of age. “I was nineteen this April” (Updike 2). So, there is a difference between the thoughts of the people from both generations. The characters views about what is right or wrong are all created by the atmosphere, environment, and individuals surrounding Sammy. Both worlds beliefs antagonize increasing the abysm that separates them. “He blames the customers of his A&P for being ‘houseslaves’ without any sensitivity to the misfortunes of literal or metaphoric slavery the epithet points to” (Dessner 316). Sammy is still in the youth’s world with his “boy’s innocence” (Dessner 316). Youngsters do not seem

The setting of 'A & P'; is quite usual for a regular grocery store on a weekday. The town is north of Boston, five miles from the beach. Since the store is right in the middle of town, banks and churches and the newspaper store can been seen from the front doors. The day is Thursday, so there is not very much business. Outside, the sun can be seen on the pavement. The main character, Sammy, is almost nineteen years old and his coworker, Stokesie, is twenty-two and married. The manager, Lengel, is gray and teaches Sunday school. The setting in John Updike's story, 'A & P';, is used as a way to show humor and realism.

I can not imagine what the three girls was thinking walking into a store with just a bikini on. The main character Sammy is having to deal with these problems during the story “A & P” by John Updike. The girls was dressed very inappropriate because of many reason including these. This is just a town grocery store with tons of old people shopping around. Even Though the girls do not think about it people will judge them for what they are wearing, finally there is always a dress code anywhere you go.