Analysis of John Updike's A&P Story - Essay Example

 A&P is a story of discovery John Updike’s short story “A&P” can be argued to be focused on a number of different ideas, which is perhaps why it receives such a great deal of attention in literary circles. The story is detailed enough to stand on its own as a simple entertainment for a few minutes but vague enough to be endlessly interpreted based on its setting, its action, its characters and its time period. Despite this, the primary theme of the story seems to be the growth of the main character from a mundane, everyday, unthinking experience to an enlightened viewpoint regarding the inner nature of the world as Sammy first sees the girls like the rest of the world does, as objects, then begins to appreciate the individual within the object and finally reaches a point where he is able to appreciate both the inner and outer nature of the girls as they leave the store. There is not a lot of action within the story, but a brief summary is necessary to understand how the main character, Sammy, goes from mundane experience to sublime. The story starts when three girls in bikini bathing suits walk into a grocery store where Sammy works as a checkout clerk. The entire story is told in first person, as if Sammy himself is talking, and in present tense so Sammy is telling the reader what is happening as it occurs. The girls are described in terms a teenage boy would use and the reactions of the other people in the store are also provided. These are generally that the men look at the girls as if they are meat ready to be eaten and the women, described mostly as sheep, ignore them except for a momentary jolt of surprise. As the girls make their way through the store, Sammy begins to feel more and more protective of them and more offended at the way his co-workers are ogling them. When the manager of the store embarrasses the girls just after they checked out at Sammy’s register, Sammy quits his job as a heroic gesture of protectionism that goes completely unappreciated as the girls are already gone before he leaves the store. As the girls walk into the store at the beginning of the story, Sammy sees them from the mundane viewpoint as simply objects to be looked at and admired. This is obvious in the way that he describes them, solely from their exterior image. “She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs.” As he watches the girls go through the different aisles, he continues to describe them in terms of their physical characteristics and outward behaviours – who leads who, how they walk, etc. The extreme physicality of the girls in Sammy’s mind comes to full measure when he asks “do you really think it’s a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar?” It isn’t until the girls reach the meat counter that Sammy begins to understand that there’s something more to the girls than just their outward appearance. After watching them walk all through the store before going to the meat counter to ask a question, Sammy has still not figured out that they have an internal purpose for being there. However, after they’ve been seen talking with McMahon, Sammy begins to understand there’s something deeper. “All that was left for us to see was old McMahon patting his mouth and looking after them sizing up their joints. Poor kids, I began to feel sorry for them, they couldn’t help it.” In this statement, Sammy is realizing that although the girls are something pretty to look at, this wasn’t necessarily their doing but was more an accident of nature and a combination of a strange setting for their summer attire. As Lengel the manager addresses the girls, Sammy gets an imagined glimpse of what her life must be like and understands that there are entire worlds hidden on the interior that he could only just barely guess at from what he saw on the outside. Having gained a sense of the inner nature of the girls enough to see beyond their pure physical nature, Lengel’s discussion with Queenie causes her to blush and refocuses Sammy’s attention on her exterior. While he hasn’t ever really forgotten it, he had been looking deeper at her and now could appreciate her more as a total person, inside and outside. As he listens to Lengel talking with the girls, Sammy realizes that Lengel is not seeing any further than the surface either and makes a sudden decision that he cannot align himself with a world that sees things so shallowly. When he quits his job, Lengel tries to talk him out of it, still thinking on a very shallow level, but Sammy has learned that things are deeper than they sometimes seem. When Lengel tells Sammy “I don’t think you know what you’re saying”, Sammy responds, “I know you don’t … but I do.” The problem with seeing things to a greater depth, though, is that you must pay the price of others not understanding your actions, which is also something Sammy recognizes as he stands outside of the store: “my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.” Sammy has gained the gift of deeper vision, but has lost his ability to co-exist with people who could not share it with him. Through the course of the story, Sammy grows from being a ‘regular guy’ who sees the world in terms of black and white and surface details to a person who sees things in multiple dimensions. Although his first sight of the girls is taken up with their physical attributes and particular behaviours, Sammy begins to recognize something deeper in them as they seek the store for something specific and the way that the outer world reacts to them. He begins to understand that they are innocent regarding the stir they’re causing but can’t help to cause a stir just because they are what they are. His moment of empathy with the girls is his moment of growth as he begins seeing the inner nature rather than the outward aspect. When he is finally forced to come to grips with the reality of both inner and outer nature, Sammy realizes he will never see the world in the same way again. It is for this reason that he quits his job and understands the world will be hard for him from now on. Works Cited Updike, John. “A&P.” Tiger Town. 2003. February 7, 2009 < http://www.tiger-town.com/whatnot/updike/> Read More