Analysis of the Short Story A&P by John Updike - Essay Example

[English 102] [Dr. Barb Davis] The Temptation: An essay on “A&P; Short Story by John Updike The A&P is a work of art by the master author John Updike. He narrates his stories emphasizing mostly on American cultures and its norms. He deliberately chooses the settings of our everyday experiences and elaborates his points; he makes us ponder on his visions of the society in a way we never would have imagined on our own. He opens up our vision, broadens it and makes us learn about the societies, cultures, economics, religion and politics in a whole new shade. He makes us sit back and understand life in the most comfortable scenarios. In this particular story, the writer tells us the story in a form of a narration. The narrator is a young boy of nineteen, who is a clerk at the checkout counter in an A&P store. The writer chooses this unique setting of supermarket, which metaphorically depicts a society and make us realise how breaking the simple norms of the society can bring about a life changing experience. We as a society are accustomed to follow the rules and norms of the society without questioning it; we don’t even ponder or wonder about any traditional ways of living we are living. That is the main theme of the story, first it makes us realise that we are just followers, then it entices our temptations and then make us realise what good or evil will come out of it if we break the law (Wells 2). The story revolves around a young teenager, and how his temptations gets the better of him, and prepared him in making a decision which he instantly regrets. His job was to just sit behind the desk, where all he would do was to look at the people and analyse them. One fine day, three young girls of his age enter the store wearing nothing but the swim suits. Now this setting of characters is very unique, it is not very common in those days (1960s) for young girls to wander like this openly, which could be a common site nowadays, what is the writer trying to depict here. Probably, he is trying to prove that temptations are not something you see every day, they entice you, and allure you in there aura by being very attractive and new. Then, by sitting behind the desk, he kept his gaze entirely on those three girls, he analyses there every move, becomes infatuated by the girl in the lead, who he dubs as ‘queenie’, he already imagined himself being in her house with high society cocktail parties. He never addresses her in the whole story but he assumes, by the way she walks, talks to her girlfriends, the way she searches the aisles and the way she very lovingly keeps the money in her top that she would be a perfect companion. ‘Queenie’ becomes his main temptation, he visualize himself with her, assumes her to belong to the high end of the society, and pictured her parents to be all dressed up for dinner. She is a pure definition of temptations. It is presented to us in sexual manner because it makes us realise that we do not have control over our emotions where temptations, such as sexual encounters, are concerned. We assume lots of things in our heads without knowing the reality and then we, like any other person in a sexual setup, act on impulse and later regret it. This setting is probably inspired by the sin committed by Adam, who was tempted by Eve to eat an apple which he was prohibited to eat. Since the day one this has been a major inspiration of lot of writers to elaborate their views on how women allure the men in doing something they would not have done in the first place. Even in commercials and print media, all we can see is how an attractive, young and semi-nude woman tempts us in buying a property, a product we not necessarily need, but we end up buying it. This is the psychology of our society and it is surely not going to change anytime sooner (Gilbert 50) As for the matter of society itself, notice how the writer through the eyes of Sammy, the young clerk, identifies the people coming and going out of the store in a ‘sheep’ like manner, they come there with a pre-programmed mission, they are there on a told task, they follow the fluorescent lines, follow the instructions on the lists in front of them, and leave without making any ripple, this is our society, we are supposed to follow a set of rules under strict orders without making any changes and without questioning, any act against it is considered as a rebellious act. The representation of the followers of society is shown by ‘sheep’ probably because sheep represents weakness, and stupidity. The character of Mr. Lengel, the managers of the store, is an authoritative figure who makes rules and laws, his character is the depiction of the government, laws and order of the society, who defines everything that’s need to be done, who is the ultimate authority and we have to obey it in order to be accepted by the society (Mandell 70) The character of Stokesie is of significance too, Sammy reflects how Stokesie and he are quite exactly like each other. Stokesie also ogles the pretty girls but as Sammy described it, he is not as free as himself because he was married, he also believes that since he is only nineteen and Stokesie is twenty two married with two kids, he probably is going to end up like him, Stokesie’s life does not attracts him much and thus he was tempted easily elsewhere. His character describes how the norms of life define everything for us and there is no thrill and excitement attached to it, it’s probably the safest way but it surely is not a fun way. Young man implores to experience, and rebel beyond expectations, and thus the characters of semi-nude girls attracted him in doing something extraordinary and unexpected. The character of girls stimulates and sparks a feeling in him which he probably was longing for himself. In the conclusive scene of the story, the girls came to Sammy’s checkout counter, where Mr. Lengel confronted them and disciplined them on their clothing, telling them that’s its the store policy and next time they should at least cover their shoulders, girls were embarrassed, which flares up Sammy. After the girls left, Sammy acted upon intuition and without much thinking argued with Mr. Lengel for embarrassing the girls, and quit his job right then and there; Mr. Lengel stopped him from doing so, and warns him that his parents won’t approve of it. This point is symbolic too, society and our parents gazing pressure is what drives us; we are forced to live a life which is set by us by our elders and the system. In those years following ones intuition was not very common, and that’s what writer is defining; to break free. Sammy’s act of leaving the job was not an act of graciousness but it was an act of liberty. If he would have stayed quiet he would have become one of the ‘sheep’ which he was clearly not fond off (Saldivar 15). It is also noticeable how the characterization is made along with the setting of this story line. The girls stood out of the lot, and everyone notices them because of their attire in the scenario of the supermarket, other than that probably we would have not taken it more seriously if the narrator hasn’t pointed towards the monotonous functioning of the customers as ‘sheep’, we would not have realised it that it is all just a setting to elaborate the society, its norm and breaking free (Thompson 20). Moreover, Sammy quits his job and when he comes out in the parking lot the girls were long gone. In the last scene when Sammy looks back and sees Mr. Lengel standing in his position, he was taken aback and it suddenly hit him that he is now going to face the world, and how it’s going to treat him. Optimistically thinking it seems like he is now free to move on, he is ready to take on the world on his own terms and he stood up for something solid. However if you look at it more realistically he is now in a state of limbo; he has left the world of Mr. Lengel and his parent’s approval but he is has not entered the world of girls, they never knew he existed, he is not here not there, he is nowhere and that’s what worries him (Gilbert 50). Temptations seems to have that effect on our heads where we for a very short period of time think that we can take on the world, change it and be our own guide through the life, but in reality truth is always not so easy. Society is there for a reason, systems, laws, and rules are formulated for us to have as less hurdles as possible in the course of our lives, and we are very sensitive in this regard for our young ones. Thus society makes the rules and young ones, be it Sammy or the girls, tends to break it. Works Cited Updike, John, A&P. The New Yorker, 1961. Print Porter, M. Gilbert. "John Updikes A&P: The Establishment and an Emersonian Cashier." English Journal 61 (1972): 1155-58. Rpt. in Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anna Sheets. Vol. 27. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. 320-21. Print Thompson, Corey Evan. "Updikes A&P." Explicator 59.4 (2001): 215-16. Print Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell Updike, John. "A&P." Portable Literature.. Boston: Wadsworth Publishers, 2004. 74-79. Print Saldivar, Toni. "The Art of John Updikes "A & P"." Studies in Short Fiction 34 (1997): 215. Print Wells, Walter. "John Updikes "A & P": A Return Visit to Araby". Studies in Short Fiction 34 (1997): 127. Print Read More