A&P Critical Analysis - Essay Example

John Updike’s ‘A & P’ Society and the set of norms prevalent in a place are at times very harsh for an individual who just wants to follow what is right for him or her and not what the society asks of that person. Thus society in times like these can merely do its fair bit in making the person believe that it stands right besides him or her in torrid and rigid times. Sammy within this story is one such character who is stuck in the somewhat precarious situation that engulfs literally every child or mature like when the transition has to be taken along the way of childhood and the eventual adulthood. Within the play the role of Sammy has been on the sidelines of being a conformist. Inevitable to state here that this nineteen-year-old cashier at A&P does not believe in playing around with his point of view and focuses on what is the right thing. More than that, he is proud to say what he sees and then judge in the light of the same which definitely distinguishes him from the rest of the lot in our society. (Saldivar, 1997) He is a non-conformist to start with and he is one that is not really appreciated by the society norms and customs that are so very religiously followed in the present times. The writer has made Sammy the main character in the play whereby he has written of him from the first person’s perspective. This essentially has made his character look a bit highlighted and one that could be seen as the main one during the course of the whole saga. Add to that, the tone with which the writer has penned down the same has been certainly set by Sammy’s rigid and stern attitude which can be rightly remarked as being nonchalant as well as frank as Sammy does clear the air when a question is raised on his calling the things as he sees them and quite rightly so he comes out as clean as a whistle. His wits are a mode of cynicism and this is an added facet when one speaks highly of the frank and vivid attitude related with the young man. (Lewis, 2003) Add to that, he has turned out to be pretty crude at times during the story which meshes along quite nicely with his attitude and ways that he has so very easily been showing. Another aspect that gives evidence to his non-conformist ways and attitude is that he loves to be taken as an adult by all and sundry and would really mind if someone, out of the blue, starts calling him like a kid as he is of the perception that he possesses wisdom par with no one and his thoughts and feelings have a deep embedded meaning that is not easily comprehensible by people of his age, let alone the ones who are older than him. Updike has been quite truthful at pointing out things related to Sammy where he has highlighted the latter’s strict and harsh references to each and everything that he comes across in his life every now so often. This in essence goes on to establish his hard and rigid character in the story where each and every action of his is witnessed under a microscopic eye and then people also comprehend that this young man is a hard nut to crack and in exacting not so easy to be chums with at all. His views have been further given importance by the fact that during the story Updike has shown him as being disrespectful as well as a show off that goes on to say he could have done anything to satisfy his own self and for that he would not have minded shutting up elders and young ones alike. For him no one mattered and this is a matter that must be given serious attention to courtesy his family and friends. (Ozick, 2003) For Sammy it did not matter a single bit whether or not he was showing any kind of respect to the other people but it is somewhat foolish on his part to expect for everybody’s respect and them terming him as an adult and not a child, which goes on to suggest that his understanding and insight of life is not at that level where he could be rightly called as a grown up and in that case, he needed to be taught the right manner in which he should be going about mending his ways as well as living the life within a proper frame. No matter what is said and written about Sammy, he surely is a young man who is on the path to achieve adulthood much before than his friends who are of similar age would do. This would happen because the lust for becoming an adult within him is endless and he wants to do something that is bound to tickle off a few of the adults already. (Blodgett, 2003) Even though the mannerisms adopted by him might just not be the exact ones that are needed of a young man of his age, but the attitude would help him in becoming an adult quite quickly and more than that he would not encounter any such problems with the passage of time as he would easily adopt to the ways in which adults deal and live their lives. Even though Sammy has been shown as being a rigid and a hard nut to crack, the writer has used the plots climax as well as the conclusion in order to show that Sammy did indeed learn a tough lesson that would eventually speed up his transition from childhood into that of adulthood. Society in the present times might not appeal much to the character of Sammy as people would really have second thoughts before they would appoint someone that rude and attitude driven as Sammy but on the other hand, these are the people who bring about a change in the society as well as in the thinking of the people, no matter where they hail from or where they put up every now so often. These kinds of people contribute in an indirect as well as at times in a direct manner to the existing norms and customs of the society where they defy all these and bring about a change that is apparent to each and every individual of the aforementioned society. The rudeness and shrewd ways of Sammy cannot however be taken for granted as what is wrong must be taken and said along as wrong from the offset. (Thompson, 2001) The society has had some rules and regulations on which Sammy seriously did not pay attention to but it is also the right of this very society to give him what he is lacking in the long run – a proper form of guidance and morals so that he could become into an adult only when his rightful time arrives and not before than that. In conclusion, it can be rightly stated that the character sketched by John Updike is of a sexist nature to say the least, as his thoughts related to the girls are pretty much objectionable as well as humiliating in essence. The women folk who would read this story might just get offended by what Sammy has actually been saying about them in each and every line within the text. The idea of his precession of calling the girls by what they looked like makes one to conclude that he indeed is a pig and nothing else comes to one’s understanding. (Billings, 2003) It is the manner and the way in which he goes about describing them that makes him look and sound sexist. Bibliography Billings, J Todd. John Updike as Theologian of Culture: Rogers Version and the Possibility of Embodied Redemption. Christianity and Literature, Vol. 52, 2003 Blodgett, Harriet. Updike’s A&P. June 2003 Lewis, Jared C. Setting & Character in John Updike’s A&P. 4 February 2003 Ozick, Cynthia. New York Times Book Review, 30 November 2003 Saldivar, Toni. The Art of John Updikes "A&P". Studies in Short Fiction, Newberry: Spring 1997 Thompson, Corey Evan. Updikes A&P. The Explicator, Washington: Summer 2001 Word Count: 1,299 Read More