Social Consequences In A & P By John Updike

A group of girls walk into a grocery story with nothing but a bikini on and all eyes immediately swoop to the bare skin that is showing. Attention always shifts when a bare shoulder is seen in almost any public setting. The controversy over what is suitable to wear in public is often seen in present day news. In the short story “A&P” written by John Updike, the main theme shown is dressing in the minimal amount of clothes can draw attention to one's appearance. The theme can be found through a humorous tone as a clerk at the local grocery store checks out the local shoppers.

Firstly, setting plays a crucial part of the story because of where and when the story takes place. This story takes place around the 1950’s in the United States near Boston. In the story, it read “It's not as if we're on the Cape; we're north of Boston and there's people in this town haven't seen the ocean for twenty years.” (Updike) This quote demonstrates of why the locals in the town where so upset to see the three young girls wearing only their bathing suits in the supermarket. This also takes place in a much older generation that is not okay with people walking around with revealing clothing. That is why Sammy’s boss, Lengel was so upset with the

He verbally attacks the girls, saying "This isn't the beach... After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It's our policy." (336). Not only does he attack the girl's outward appearance, but he also attacks them emotionally. Lengel's actions cause everyone in the store to stop and stare at the girls, causing the half-naked trio to become somewhat uncomfortable with what they are wearing, embarrassing the girls beyond all shame. Lengel does not stop for one second to think that maybe these girls have more pride than they are outwardly expressing. He does not seem to care who the girls are, or what the girls can become, he simply stereotypes them into being nothing more than those of ill-repute. Even though Lengel has spent the entire morning "Haggling with a truck full of cabbages" (335), this is still no reason to "fly off" at the three girls for doing nothing more than representing the free-spirited, individualistic, andnon-conformists of the era.

The story happens in 1961. This is the post war period when the market is prospering at the time. New ideas, such as dressing freely comes up as the economy grows. A&P is in a small town located in northern Boston, far away from the big cities. People there are not ready for the changes in the way people dress openly and in mindsets. People’s values in Sammy’s community are conformed. As Sammy points out that: “we’re right in the middle of town, and the women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car in to the street.” Women in this town should not wear revealing costumes to public places. This is not only people’s values, but their policy. When three girls dressing in bathing suits show up in A&P, they get condemned by the manager Lengel. Lengle, the lower class in society, is the representation for conservative in the town. As a manager, he supposes to put customers’ need in the first place. However, he puts his personal value above business’s principle. He reprimands Queenie that: “We want you decently dressed when you come in here” (749). “It’s our policy” (749). It is obvious that people are under strict supervision in this town. They are not allowed to dress what they want, but should follow the town’s dressing standard. Therefore, Updike creates a conserved setting that helps to reinforce the theme of conformity versus personal

He says, “Girls, this isn’t the beach…We want you decently dressed when you come in here…I don’t want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It’s our policy” (Updike 372). Because of their choice to violate community standards, they also suffer the embarrassment of being reprimanded by the manager. The girls will probably not take any more risks like wearing their bathing suits in public. This choice will most likely cause them to blend in with society.

Their wealth allows them to most likely live within a large city where the world moves much faster than in the rural regions and even in the suburbs. Whereas cities are always advancing in all aspects, the small communities, much like the one Sammy lives in, tend to hold onto tradition and more conservative values. The normal behavior for beach-goers in this small town is, as Updike so blatantly puts it, “the women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the street.” (Lawn 401) The three girls are part of a new generation, one that is changing styles of fashion and lifestyle faster than ever before.

The critical essay by Lawrence Jay Dessner explains the importance of the themes of irony and innocence in John Updike’s short story “A&P.” The essay begins with a short summary of the story, and introduces the character of Sammy. Dessner argues that the story depends on irony. The reader expects a certain action and reaction from Sammy, but instead he does the opposite. This irony provides an innocent air of humor due to Sammy’s lack of world knowledge and youthful outlook on life. The remainder of this literary criticism analyzes Sammy’s interactions with the other

The three girls in the story, Queenie and her two sidekicks flaunt their young bodies in very small bikini bathing suits in a small, conservative, town general store. Their “dirty-pink—beige…bathing suits with a little nubble all over it” (p371) is one of the very few examples of sexuality throughout this story.

The "A & P" had "fluorescent lights" whereas the beach has a "glare" so "nobody can look at each other much anyway" (18). Being in the "A & P" and being under fluorescent lights made "Queenie" and her friends more noticed. A lot of people in the store stared at the girls. This is a consequence they faced due to their decision to wear beach attire in the wrong place. These two pieces of evidence show the two consequences the girls faced when they made the decision to wear beach clothes in the "A & P" store. Another example is when Sammy decides to quit his job after the manager yelled at the girls. Sammy decides to quit his job in paragraph twenty-one on page twenty. He quit in hopes that the girls would hear him standing up for them and see him as their hero. Unfortunately, they didn't hear him. Sammy knew there was going to be a consequence for quitting when his "stomach kind of fell" because he realized "how hard the world was going to be" to him (20). The author also made is clear that there would be consequences when Legal said, "Sammy, you don't want to do this to your Mom and Dad"

This imagery shows the kind of scandalous clothing that they were wearing giving them the power to bring attention and desire to Sammy and his coworkers. They stood no chance to these appealing looks that the girls had with the help of the bathing suits and the environment that they were in as Sammy describes “You know, it’s one thing in to have a girl in a bathing suit down on the beach, where what with the glare nobody can look at each other much anyway, and another thing in the cool of the A & P, under the fluorescent lights, against all those stacked packages, with her feet paddling along naked over our checker-board green-and-cream rubber-tile floor.” (Updike 165). This also shows that Sammy can not control himself once he unleashes his descriptive imagination when thinking about Queenie and her friends walking through the store.

It has become a fact of life that our world is governed categorization. There is nothing in our realm of awareness that has not been labelled or ranked. These practices originated from the basic human conditioning for survival and understanding. However, they soon developed into numerous attitudes, behaviors, judgments and systems of policies that have constrained and segregated our population (Kadi). Heeding the ominous effects of these systems of classification, John Updike utilizes his short story “A&P”, as a reflector of our society. Updike exercises the literary elements of a condescending tone, commonplace setting and the characterization of Queenie to showcase the influence of classism in our country. Updike’s

In this passage, Sammy describes the swimwear of the leader of the girls who he calls “Queenie”. The clothes that girls wear, while creating a stir in front of the customers (mainly the men), are characterized by Sammy’s point of view as fresh, exciting, a chance of living a life of freedom. The sight of the girls makes Sammy realize that he doesn’t wanna work at a grocery store for rest of his life, but to have a rich and comfortable life like the girls do. When the manager, Lengel, insults girls, he basically insults the kind of life Sammy wants because Lengel viewed the way they dressed as inappropriate and impolite. So, Sammy quits his job to make statement for the girls. In the end when he loses sight of them in the parking lot. he finds

People tend to complicate their own lives as if living is not already complicated enough, but in these complex problems are the most powerful opportunities. Highly acclaimed authors John Updike, Raymond Carver, and Kate Chopin relate this to the world of literature by illustrating innovative plots in which the protagonists are confronted with crucial decisions that complicate their lives and threaten their traditional lifestyles by making them question their deep-rooted morals and the constantly evolving world they think they understand. In the short stories “Popular Mechanics,” “A Pair of Silk Stockings,” and “A&P,” each of the central characters suffer personal adversity in trying to redefine themselves, in which their success of reinvention

Life is full with “Clark Kents”, too frightened to show the world “Superman”. “John Updike’s A&P”, takes a unique journey into the mind of a young man, searching for his own individuality and the difficult, yet necessary decisions that comes along with it. Many times in life we defer to taking the safe route, as opposed to taking the road less traveled, because naturally as humans we fear the unknown and or unanticipated. Furthermore, what complicates this dilemma is that we also fear living with regrets, and what should be a life filled with promise becomes a balancing act that ultimately paralyzes our own progression. Imagine what could be if mediocracy did not exist, change was readily embraced, and taking risk were expected.

           In the short story “A&P” written by John updike,  the story is about a young man named Sammy who works at a grocery store called “A&P”. Sammy saw three girls walked into the store with only bathing suits on, which really caught his and his co-workers’ attentions. The story starts off with an noticeable sentence, “In walks three girls in nothing but bathing suits.” John updike waived the necessary introduction of social background, forced on the appearance of the three women, he wanted to drag his reader into the time period when women’s appearance is extremely important. A woman’s dressing style could somehow reflect her social status and character. This noticeable quote