A & P
With a seemingly benign title, "A & P", John Updike subtly acknowledges the eternal malignant struggle between antagonist and protagonist. In this short story, Updike introduces the reader to a small New England town, its citizens, and the A & P supermarket, all of which combined represent the antagonistic nature of oppression, closed-mindedness, abuse of authority, and a community morality that holds tradition in higher respect than civility. Conversely, Sammy, the protagonist, comes across as levelheaded and chivalrous. The three girls in bathing suits, Queenie, Plaid, and Big Tall Goony-Goony, are merely the setting upon which this story is sketched. They are described as though they were individual trees among a forest of cloned pines. They serve to provide the story with a backdrop, a crisis (damsel in distress), and a catalyst to bring about the eventual denouement between the antagonist and protagonist. Though no name is given for the small New England town, its proximity to Salem, notorious for the witch trials of the 17th century, and the fact that it is "north of Boston," evokes the sense of Puritanical values and conservatism associated with that area. Coupled together, this creates an atmosphere of oppression and u
They are so busy caught up in trying to find someone else's faults, that they completely miss their own imperfections. In a later exchange with Lengel who declares, "I don't think you know what you're saying," Sammy responds by stating, "I know you don't. The shoppers, who represent a microcosm of the townsfolk, are referred to in a number of derogatory ways by the protagonist. The sense that the shoppers, and therefore the townsfolk, definitely have the power to change but choose not to, is indisputable. What the others want is juvenile delinquency. He sticks up for what he believes is right, though the community would wholeheartedly disagree with him. When Sammy calls the shoppers "pigs", he is using it as a slang term for police officers. They were bound by and to tradition from the beginning. Lengel and the "cash-register-watcher" share an ability akin to George Orwell's notion of Big Brother; they don't miss much. Truly decent people would let such things pass but the holier-than-thou attitude prevalent in this society marches to the forefront because of her verbal remonstration. After watching his ex-boss take his place to handle customers, Sammy also comes to this conclusion, when he remarks, "my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter. In the end, Sammy conquers oppression, outdated traditions, closed-mindedness, and abuse of authority by simply confronting them. This implies that there is a Constitutional law dictating appropriate attire in an A & P supermarket.
Common topics in this essay:
George Orwell's,
Tall Goony-Goony,
Lengel Lengel,
John Updike,
Conversely Sammy,
,
closed-mindedness abuse authority,
antagonist protagonist,
damsel distress,
abuse authority,
closed-mindedness abuse,
england town,
|
Acceptance Essays
