A & P
John Updike is a writer famous for his short stories, essays, poetry, reviews, articles, art criticism and plays. He was born on March 18, 1932 in Reading PA. After graduating from High School, Updike was accepted to Harvard University where he wrote for the Harvard Lampoon. But the thing that made him famous was the publication of his "rabbit" books, Rabbit Run, and Rabbit Rest. Updike also received two Pulitzer Prizes for these books. Another famous piece written by him is a novel called The Witches of Eastwick. In fact, the novel was so popular that it was made into a film in 1987. Most of Updike's works deal with "Protestant, middle class, contemporary American life and the roles that marriage, divorce and sexuality play in it" (Wilson 2). Updike is now 69 years old and still working on his writing. "A & P" is the short story of how Sammy, the protagonist, grows up and separates himself from the sheep like people of society and becomes a non conformist. This story has become very popular among young people and is standard reading for many high school and college students. Updike got the inspiration for "A & P" while driving past a local A & P market in Massachusetts. He asked himself why no one had wri
All of the main characters get the chance to make a choice, but then they have to suffer the consequence of the choice they have made. Sammy makes the choice to quit his job after Lengel chastises the girls. From now on Sammy will always do what he feels is right and will no longer be a follower like everyone else. Lengel was just doing his job and enforcing the store policy. Although it is evident that the girls didn't really need Sammy's help as they assert that they are "decent" and walk out of the store. He thinks, "someone must stand up for embarrassed teenagers in bathing suits with the straps down" (Greiner 20). Although Sammy doesn't achieve the result, he desired he does accomplish something very important. To him it is more important to stand up for the girls than to uphold the store's policy. The snack items are used to show how different Sammy and Queenie are in their social standing. But in the long term, it might be hard for him to do that because he "will be branded as a trouble maker and a misfit by the community in which he lives" (Wilson 4). In the Beginning of the story, Sammy associates himself with HiHo crackers; "they are a fitting symbol for him- an ordinary, middle class (not Ritz crackers) snack item" (18). When Sammy compares her to such a fancy snack item, he "suggests the social class, the upper crust, to which she belongs" (18). He is very sympathetic toward the three girls wearing bathing suits because they are very different from the typical A & P shoppers like the "cashier watchers" and "the women with varicose veins". Sammy admires the girls for breaking the unwritten dress code and daring to enter the store with nothing but their bathing suits.
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Acceptance Essays
