John Updike's A & P

John Updike had purpose to include the A&P store and the time period in his short story of “A&P.” In the 1960s, America was having many political issues. There is importance for the setting and time Updike choose for this short story. He wanted us to relate to this boy named Sammy who wanted a change in his life. The setting in “A&P” written by John Updike, was an integral element for Sammy’s character to be dynamic. There is a word in the introduction that should be defined, Integral, which means, “necessary to the completeness of the whole”("integral" Dictionary.com). There are some people who might not know what an A&P is or the history. “It was an American chain of grocery stores. Founded in 1859 by George Gilman as "Gilman & Company",

Though it was difficult, it helped him get the dynamic change the audience wanted to see. It supported Sammy’s decision at the end of the story. During the 1950s and 1960s people were split into two again, there were the conformist and the nonconformists. Sammy was a conformist until he could no longer bare to be just like everyone else. There was a stimulation(the girls) in Sammy, he started to think of how different life could be if he was a nonconformist, he wants to rebel against all of the crisis that has been happening. Updike knew the crisis America was having and at the time all he could do is write and create a story. “All people can be equally interesting… Now either nobody is a hero or everyone is. I vote for everyone. My subject is the American Protestant small-town middle class. I like middles that extremes clash”(131). Updike could have represented A&P as the whole nation of even the state of Massachusetts. Sammy would have represented the change that will soon be happening in the world. He could also be the protests that were happening in the 60s. It was a decade of change, Sammy was the change the world needed. Why did Updike choose to have Sammy work at A&P? Once the store has some change or out of the ordinary occurrences happen, Sammy also changes. The three girls in bathing suits come into the store and disrupt the whole A&P with the manager not