John Updike's "A&P" analysis

Individualization in America as Shown in Updike's "A&P"

John Updike's short story "A&P" has been the subject of much scholarly debate over the decades since it first appeared. On the surface a simple tale of youthful lust and rebelliousness, there have been many attempts to read deeper meaning into the story and to assign certain symbolic importance to the adolescent protagonist and other elements of the story. Through an examination of previous criticism on the work and a close reading of the story itself, it will be shown that the character Sammy in Updike's "A&P" symbolizes the emerging individualization of America's youth and it's clash with established norms in post-WWII society.

Sammy is a nineteen-year-old clerk at the A&P grocery store in a town "five miles from the beachand the women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something" to cover their beach attire in the more modest society of mid-century America (Updike, p. 226). On this day, however, a small group of bathing suit-clad teenage girls come in, and the curves exposed on one girl in particular serve to arrest Sammy's attention and earn his immediate admiration. It is not simply lust at work, however; as the story progresses and the girls are treated harshly and talked down to for their state of undress, which is immodest and inappropriate in the eyes of certain authority figures in the store, Sammy finds himself siding with the girls out of what he feels as a sense of justice and righteousness, and he ultimately quits and storms out following the girls, though unseen by them. While the story can certainly be read as a character study of a somewhat foolish if typical adolescent who allows his libido and his youthful brashness to overcome his better judgment, but a more careful consideration yields other interpretations (Porter). A more careful considerations of other details in the story shows that Sammy's actions are more meaningful than this, however, possibly not exactly in the manner he consciously intended but certainly for the larger social implications of these actions in the context of the changing society of the era.

The girls wander through the store for some time before a the final confrontation with the manager, Lengel, occurs and causes Sammy to quit because Lengel embarrassed the girls by telling them they weren't allowed in the store dressed indecently (Updike). While the girls wend their way through the store and Sammy let's his eyes linger on the semi-exposed chest of the girl he nicknames "Queenie," meanwhile commenting on the other customers and aspects of the store in a manner that shows his growing dissatisfaction and disdain for the trappings and values of modern society. In the words of one critic, Sammy:

"rejects the standards of the A&P and in so doing commits himself to that kind of individual freedom for which, as Emerson said, "the world whips you with its displeasure "Sammy reveals trhough his descriptions of the store and its customers that implict set of values which will ultimately set him against community mores."

(Porter, p. 1155).

When Sammy quits, it is not just in defense of the girls or as a mark of displeasure with Lengel's actions and attitude, but rather is a reaction to his larger rejection of the morality and the sense of control that separates Lengel and the other older customers from Sammy, the girls, and the youth culture of the time (Hao & Gong). While Lengel was able to exercise some power over the girls, Sammy thwarts Lengel's authority and refuses to allow him the same control.