A&P by John Updike - Essay Example

The grocery store, especially at the time in which the story is set, is the pre-eminent symbol of consumerism, and the fact that this kind of store and no other is the setting is thematically consequential. No other type of store sells goods that will be consumed by people of every class. Everyone from sub-minimum wage workers to captains of industry needs what the grocery store sells and the fact the story takes place here is a clue to its theme. As Sammy describes it, “We’re right in the middle of town, and if you stand at our front doors you can see two banks and the Congregational Church and the newspaper store and three real estate offices” (2-3). In other words, the store is central to the town’s spiritual, financial, informational, and property centers. Had Sammy’s rebellion been the ultimate point of the story, Updike could have set it within a store that Sammy would have a much harder decision leaving. The fact that the story takes place within the center of consumer culture therefore must be considered very important.

Sammy’s descriptions of people, places, and things within the supermarket further underscore the importance of the setting by showing how American society reflects the capitalist economic system’s need to dehumanize everything and commodify it. Two sentences into the story and Sammy is describing the rear end of one of the girls as a “can” (1). Later he will describe shoppers as “sheep,” compare the grocery store itself to a pinball game, and even make a comparison between his fellow employee Stokesie and the fuselage of an airplane. These, of course, are just minute details that serve to paint the much larger picture at work. The story points forward to the momentous decision that Sammy will make. But what exactly causes him to make that decision? Sammy is less than thrilled at working at the A&P even before he sees the girls. So what is it about the girls that urge Sammy to do what he does?

Right from the time they enter the store, the girls lose their humanity and are objectified; beyond mere sexist objectification, however, the girls as objects also represent a symbol of status to which Sammy has been conditioned to aspire. Sammy describes the three girls walking into the store at once, yet the one who catches his eye is the one he describes as “chunky” and with the “sweet, broad soft-looking can” (1). In other words, Sammy’s immediate attraction is not tempered by advertised ideals of beauty. He makes an immediate consensus on which of the girls he finds attractive. The fact that Sammy only describes the girls’ physical features is probably not as important as it might seem; after all, he knows nothing about them and therefore could only describe their physical appearance. What is important, however, is that he decides to take this huge step in his life coming to the “rescue” of these girls that he knows only through their physical properties. In a sense, Sammy is making a decision very much like grocery shoppers make when they reach for a can or package of food they’ve never eaten before based simply on the very carefully composed picture on the cover of the can or package. For Sammy, the girls are no different from pictures of food on products that are sold in the store. This point is heightened when Sammy decides to give up his job in defense of the expensive product that is packaged better than the one he likes.

That the story will concern itself with status and being a sold bill of goods falsely promising what one should want instead what one does want is mandated from the point that Sammy’s attention shifts from the chunky girl he initially finds attractive to the one he will significantly turn into a queen. In doing so, he transforms her from just another pretty girl into the ultimate status symbol: royalty. The unspoken promise, of course, is that by attaining her he will become a king. Sammy’s vision of Queenie’s home life certifies that he assumes she is from a higher class than he is and nothing in her reaction to the store manager gives any hint that she is particularly in need of rescue. Queenie by this point has become just another symbol of upward mobility that drives the American economic engine and Sammy wants in. By quitting, he is giving up nothing since he didn’t like the job anyway and didn’t respect either his boss or his customers. Sammy is making a decision that will impact his life, though hardly in any momentous way, based solely on the desire to consume and attain status.

The events that take place in Updike’s story are mirrored a million times every day when people come to a decision based on the false hope and promises made to them by advertising and the media. Every day a million Sammies decide to pursue a Queenie not because they want Queenie, but because they’ve been convinced that they should want Queenie. Read More