A & P by John Updike - Essay Example

Critical Analysis Paper A & P is a short story by John Updike which is about his decision to take a stand on what he believes to be right and being ready to face the consequences. It is a first-person narration, with Sammy, a nineteen year old man, being the narrator (Updike). When looking at this story through a Marxist lens, one can see that there is the aspect of societal classification and the ethics of a society that is consumer conditioned (Newman 135). The Marxist Socialism school of though holds that those who earn a salary, also refereed to as the working class, are molded by the state they are in, that is, wage-slavery.

This leads them to seek their emancipation through the act of disowning the capitalist-led society (Marx and Engels 47). At the beginning of the story, Sammy is going on with his normal business which is serving the customers of A & P. though he is only nineteen, he is already immersed in the world of wage earning, something that has become a necessity in the modern society. Sammy’s daily routine is shortly disturbed by the arrival of three scantly dressed girls (Updike). The girls cause much distraction in the whole store as everybody stops to stare at them.

It is not normal for a group of girls to enter into a renowned store almost naked. Sammy describes how he follows their every movement, and how the sight makes him visualize how their lives might be. Lengel, the store’s manager, also seems perturbed by the sight of three semi-naked girls in his store, but he categorically lets them know that A & P is not the place for people dressed up the way they are. He tells them that “A & P is not the beach” (Updike). Sammy, having witnessed how Lengel talks to the girls, decides that his manager has embarrassed the girls and he chooses to quit his job.

Lengel tries to make him stay, but Sammy does not barge, even though he knows that what he is doing is wrong. To start with, Sammy represents the working class that Marx talks about in his socialist theories. Society has already made it a norm for people to work for other people in order to get money for personal upkeep, and Sammy is doing exactly that in A & P. Queenie, one of the girls ho comes to the store in nothing but bathing suits, represents the emancipated class. Lengel represents the upper class or what Marx refers to as the bourgeoisie (Newman 135).

Sammy decides to quit his job after witnessing what he terms as embarrassing behavior towards the girls. This act may be viewed as being irresponsible, but in the Marxist view, this is an act of freeing oneself. Marx in his theories pointed out that one did not have to rely on wage labor to be satisfied (Marx and Engels 167). Sammy chose to go against the norm and support what society would not have supported. He quit his job in support for what he believed to be right, even though doing so would have detrimental effects on his life.

Lengel is an owner of mean of production, and this position in this context gives him the power to set policies and rules which he deems right for his own survival and the survival of his business (Newman 135). When castigating the girls for their seemingly unladylike behavior, he tells them that policy demands that people should be decently dressed when coming to the store. In society today, policy makers determine what is right and what is not. If one goes against the set policies, then his actions are labeled wrong, even when they are not.

Sammy tells the girls that they are not in the beach, a statement that signifies that there is nothing wrong with how the trio is dressed. Lengel according to the narrator seemed to be taken by the presence of the girls, but since he wanted to protect his source of income, he chose to tell them off. The trio in bath suits represent the emancipated people in society, those who do not have to follow what the bourgeoisie demands of them. Queenie, in particular is in total control of her life and it seems that no policies or rules will make her do what she does not want to do.

She does not mind walking into a public store almost naked and neither does she mind all the attention she gets as a result of her actions. She could also be a representative of the upper middle class society (Marx and Engels 147). The narrator pictures her as being one of those who live in houses filled with swimming pools and fancy hors d’oeuvres. Her two companions appear to be quite uncomfortable in their present state but they seem to be under Queenie’s control. They could represent the class who are enslaved and used by the powerful bourgeoisie (Avineri 220) but they do not have the kind of strong personality needed to fight against this control and use.

Works Cited Avineri, Shlomo, The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1968. Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. Communist Manifesto. New York: Wordsworth Editions, 2008. Newman, Michael. Socialism: A Very Short Introduction. London: University Press, 2005 Updike, John. A&P. 1961. Web. July 29, 2011, http://www.tiger-town.com/whatnot/updike/