“A&P” A coming of age story by John Updike. Updike was born in 1932 in Reading, Pennsylvania. Throughout his life, Updike wrote more than 20 novels, hundreds of short stories, poetry, and children. A&P is a story of a boy that finds impression to go against society. And, events envolving a shop in a small New England oceanside town. The main themes of this tale are one of conflict of one boy’s surroundings and his own feelings over fitting in. The main background of this tale is set in a plain quite shop called A&P. The store is placed in a conservative seaside town in Massachusetts. As told by the main character Sammy he sets the atmosphere of “You know, it's one thing 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 checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor.” (2 Updike) And the reaction it gets from the store manager and his disapproval of the girls’ attire. Adding Sammy’s description of the other day to day customers as “sheep” and otherwise dull. Updike’s “A&P” shows a way to fight conformist in this tale of a young man going against the system. For Example, in the story Sammy, …show more content…
In “A&P” Sammy shows great distain for three girls bulled by the store’s manager in front of the sheep. When Sammy states "You didn't have to embarrass them” (Updike 4), Sammy stood fast in his on conversions by showing his care in three complete strangers in front of not just is boss but also the sheep. He also shows strong individualism by standing up against suppressive people like Lengel by quitting his job. This is even when Lengel tells him "I don't think you know what you're saying,” (Updike 4) to try to get Sammy to stay with the conformists. So, in the of the store Sammy knows how hard it’s going to for him and the decision he has