Toni Cade Bambara And The Lesson By John Updike

John Updike is considered one of the greatest writers in modern American history. He is known for the idea that seemingly ordinary aspects of American life are actually quite fascinating. He wanted readers to see the beauty and magic of life, so he tried to describe everyday things using the most clear but beautiful language possible. Many of Updike’s pieces are drawn from his own life such as his marriage and his boyhood, as shown in three of his short stories: “A&P”, “Ace in the Hole”, and “Pigeon Feathers”. Updike’s narrative technique is explored through the analysis of plot structure, thematic patterning, and irony in these three short stories.

The central lesson the author, Jack Welch, is trying to teach is how to ‘win’ in the business and corporate world from usually the point of view of a CEO or manager. Winning companies are the only things that count because losing has no value to anyone. As I read the book, I came to the reasoning that Welch’s major lesson here is that a business and its CEO will win through candor. Candor had its own chapter but was also mentioned throughout the whole book, highlighting that candor takes part in every aspect he discussed in business in order to win. Candor is part of hiring, firing, Six Sigma, budgeting, leadership, and several other aspects. Most importantly though, it is essential to strategy—a significant topic discussed in this course.

“The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara is not just about a sassy, defiant, ungrateful poor girl that is out of place in an overpriced expensive toy store. “The Lesson” is a short story about a young black girl who is struggling with her increasing awareness of class inequality. When Sylvia’s new neighbor, Miss. Moore, a smart college educated woman introduces the reality of social inequality to Sylvia and her group of friends, they become cynical. Sylvia has always known in the back of her mind that she was poor, but never really let it bother her until she sees her disadvantages in glaring contrast with the luxuries of the wealthy.

As life continuously throws obstacles and challenges in life, humans tend to get through it with family members. In fact, most human/ people rely on family members to help them get through obstacles. Sending love to a family member for a hard situation leads to less stress as studies show. Obstacles are a things that happen on a daily basis and love may be the only cure. “Elena” is portraying a huge obstacle taking place, but no help is seeked, Pat Mora knows that this a struggle for others that they face everyday. Challenges vary on size and can have a great or small impact on a person but at the end, the person can overcome the obstacle. In “Elena”, Mora demonstrates love will overcome every obstacle when family is present.

The story that this research paper is being written over is “A&P” by John Updike. This story is filled with good grammar and has a well written plot and good transition. A person reading the story “A&P” could see it as an interesting story filled with good symbolism. The main character, Sammy, uses a great deal of symbolism when describing the three girls in bathing suits who walked into the store he works in. the three girls in bathing suits that walked into the store where the center of the whole story. Whether it was the fat girl, the chubby-faced girl or the girl identified as the “queenie”, Sammy still went into great detail about the girls that came into the A&P store especially the one he named the queen. Through using the bathing suits, the main character Sammy established several points of symbolism in the story such as what the suits meant about each of the girls status and personality.

John Updike wrote, “A &P” in 1961. In this era of the 1950s and early 1960s, conservative dress mirrored conservative social values. Conformity was the measure of popularity as well as a measure of moral rightness. During this time, people were more afraid of being labeled outsiders than they were afraid of the outsiders themselves (“A & P”). Gender issues and the emergence of feminist consciousness are represented when Lengel states the rules that proclaim the girls are "decently dressed"-coding the norms of the day for correct dress and behavior for women while Queenie returns, "we are decent." The story, “A & P” By John Updike is a story of enlightenment, whereby the main character Sammy grows from being a male chauvinist to seeing women as human beings. He uses this view to show how things function, that most people do not notice like how men view women. Through his text, John Updike conveys to the world his views on men versus women.

In John Updike’s story “A & P”, depicts a middle-class town. This short story focuses on the feelings of loneliness and isolation that lead the common man to seek some form of higher truth or ultimate meaning. The story relates to a teenaged boy 's sudden awareness of the split between his inner feelings and society 's values. I could kind of relate and get gist of what the narrator was feeling throughout the story. In this story, Sammy was an unreliable narrator, and the point of view was first person. It was told from Sammy’s point of view. This was most interesting and beneficial to me, because I like the thought of having an unreliable narrator because it is not thought on to be used mostly. An examination of critical styles represented in John Updike’s provides numerous perspectives for critical interpretation. His descriptive metaphors and underlying sexual tones are just the tip of the iceberg. With the use of his descriptive metaphors, it gave me some ideas on how descriptive that I needed to be in order to achieve the sense of imagery that I needed. The economic and social differences are evident through Sammy’s storytelling techniques and even further open up a biographical look at Updike’s own view’s and opinions. This story is all about the setting. If the story had not took place in a grocery store the story could not have happened the way it did. I feel like the setting was one of the most important part of the story to make the story what it was. John

In the story A&P by John Updike a young cashier by the name of Sammy learns about the power of desire and the mystery of others minds when working at an A&P supermarket in a small town north of Boston in the 1960’s, where there was a lot of social norms and many people didn’t step out of them. The young nineteen-year-old Sammy wasn’t expecting his Thursday shift at A&P to go the way it did when income three young girls but, these are not your socially normal teenagers who come walking in the door. The moment these girls walk into the A&P they attract every male eye in the store towards them, which clearly shows the kind of power their sexuality grants them over their opposite sex. In turn, Sammy imagination and interpretation of these

A & P is a story of Sammy who is a 19 year old boy working as a clerk at a grocery store in a small town in New England. Published back in 1961 narrative defining A & P is the popular mythology of 1960s basically where youthful rebellion powers took over the soulless system. (Sustana) Therefore Updike has written a story that includes key elements of myth along with the background of postwar prosperity and the attendant consumer culture. Where there is a strong hint of the Cold War as hero character of the story, Sammy imagines A & P controlled by Russians in 1990. Narrative revolves around the obligatory opposition of authority and youth in the confrontation between Lengel, girls and Sammy. Story provides particular significant indicators of the 1960s seismic social upheavals in the shape of inappropriate dresses of the girls. Girls walking in revealing bathing suits depicted the immodesty around the A & P and remained a forerunner of various confrontations over public decency of the resultant decade ahead.

People have to make choices every day, even without realizing it. No matter their background, this is something everybody has in common. Furthermore, how we face these decisions will have an impact in our lives, and sometimes the ones that seem to be small are the most important ones. John Updike understood how making decision affects people’s life, and he develops it in his short story “A & P,” which is the story of an unhappy boy who quits his job for a pretty girl. In order to develop this theme, John Updike takes Sammy, the main character of the story, through three different stages. In the beginning stage, Sammy is just a boy who is not happy with his job, by the second stage, is shown as an idealistic who quits his job as a gesture of support to someone in need, although there is a hidden reason why he does so, and by the final stage he realizes that quitting his job was not a good idea, and regrets it.

In Toni Bambara’s piece “The Lesson”, we are given a sort of personal memoir of an experience she had with a childhood teacher in F.A.O Schwarz. Miss Moore, a college degree holding neighbor that educated children she lived near took a group of students to one of the biggest toy stores in New York. On the way to this toy store, Miss Moore was speaking a lot about money and what it truly is, how it adds up, etc. Upon entrance, Bambara writes about feeling unsettled about trying to go in the door. She writes further about her experiences and starts to sort of suggest her uneasiness and even anger about the cost of the toys she saw. She continues to list all of the different things that a $35 dancing clown could do for her family and starts to hint towards the idea of inequality between classes. Bambara mentions how Miss Moore talks about who you are is where you are and “waits for somebody to say that poor people have to wake up and demand their share of the pie” (78). Looking back now, Bambara probably sees exactly that Miss Moore was saying it isn’t fair that people can spend all their money on flashy toys when people are struggling for food although at the time she admits they had no idea what she was talking about.

The debut fiction novel ‘The White Tiger’ by Aravind Adiga provides a dark, humorous perspective of the class struggles that exist in India. The novel is based on the life of village boy Balram Halwai who narrates the difficult problems that exist in Indian society for the ordinary citizen. The book is written from his point of view as a letter addressed to Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, and it highlights the problems that Balram has experienced throughout his life. The letter paints a grim picture of the lives of people living within the lower social classes because they are constantly discriminated against by the elite in society.

The narrator of the novel, “The White Tiger,” by Aravind Adiga writes in first person. This particular narrator is Balram Halwai, who tells about his own journey throughout the book. The writer uses the style of the narrator, Balram, writing letters to the Chinese Premier. This particular narrator is telling the story because it is him that is writing the letters. This style of letter writing helps to tell the story because through these letters Balram tells of how he came to be a success in life. The reason he started to write letters to Mr. Premier was in response to something he heard on the radio. He heard the statement that said, “Mr. Jiabao is on a mission: he wants to know the truth about Bangalore” (2). Balram, the narrator, knows he is a man with little formal education, but considers himself an expert on the hidden truth of the India culture. Mr. Premier also wants to meet with Indian entrepreneurs and hear about their success and Balram wanted to tell about his. He considers himself an expert because of his life story. Balram grew up in a rural area in poverty. In school an inspector calls him “The white Tiger,” because he said “it is the rarest of animals” (30). He called him this because thought Balram was the brightest kid in the village. He was forced to drop out of school and start working to help support his family. He ends up getting a job as a chauffeur to the Stork’s family. The Stork is one of the bosses that have control over Balram’s village where

Because of their short length, short stories may or may not follow this pattern. Some do not follow patterns at all. For example, modern short stories only occasionally have an exposition. More typical, though, is an abrupt beginning, with the story starting in the middle of the action. As with longer stories, plots of short stories also have a climax, crisis, or turning-point. However, the endings of many short stories are abrupt and open and may or may not have a moral or practical lesson.

In this essay I will be reviewing the six elements of fiction: point of view, plot, setting, characterization, symbolism, and theme in the story, A&P by John Updike, to see how it constitutes to the work as a whole.