Summary Of Sexism In Updike's A & P

As people tend to grow older and more mature, they learn the difference between right and wrong. Before they really mature, they tend to do things that they do not necessarily perceive as wrong, but what may be viewed as wrong by their peers. As people mature they learn this difference between what is really right and what is really wrong. Updike’s “A&P” exhibits how prevalent sexism was in the 1960’s through Sammy’s point of view, how people can be ignorant to what sexism is, and displays how sexism still exists today. Updike presents the sexist ideas and comments that Sammy thinks to himself. When Sammy name calls the women that walk into the store, he is being sexist towards them. When he does this he is degrading them by making fun of

Updike comments on sexism in the 1960’s by having Sammy say things that everyone that is working at the store is thinking. Updike displays this when Sammy states, “A few house-slaves in pin curlers even looked around after pushing their carts past to make sure what they had seen was correct.” (Updike 3). Sammy’s use of the word house-slave implies that he believes that the housewives in the store were house-slaves and this puts them lower than the men of the house. Updike comments on 1960’s sexist society by showing how Sammy feels about what the manager said to the girls by quitting his job. Sammy tells his manager that he quits, and as he is leaving he thinks he is some type of hero. When he leaves the store he says, “I look around for my girls, but they’re gone, of course” (Updike 7). Sammy’s use of “my girls” already implies that he owns the girls and he feels he deserves some sort of reward for supposedly standing up for them. Updike illustrates how men are often sexist by thinking that women are theirs or that they deserve something from