A & P Rhetorical Analysis Essay

The Power of a Teen Desire In this short story “A & P”, John Updike uses setting, tone, metaphor, characterization, and simile as literary techniques to express the meaning of wrong desires of a teen boy. John Updike was one of the most successful authors. John Updike wrote “A & P” in 1961, the story was based on Updike experience at the actual A & P store in Massachusetts. The story talks about a teen boy name Sammy, he notices three girls who have walked into the A & P grocery store, only wearing bathing suits. Sammy gets so distracted by the girls that he cannot remember if he rang up a box of crackers or not. Sammy clearly notices the other customer’s reactions to the half-dressed girls, and the author uses literary techniques

The author used setting as a literary technique to provide a deeper understanding of the story. During the time of the story, ladies then still wore dresses, hats, and gloves as appropriate attire. The author made the readers aware that the store was located in the middle of town and so close to the beach. “We’re right in the middle of town, and the women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the street,” according to John Updike in his short story “A & P” (165). However, the girls made a conscious decision to enter the grocery store in an unpleasant way. The girls are aware that the men particularly Sammy, are watching them, but they pay his attention no mind. The story shows how a young man’s desire of girls can make him do crazy things or react in crazy ways. The girls attire is something that is clearly out of the ordinary, and that was not the norm for Sammy. “I bet you could set off dynamite in an A & P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oat meal off their lists,” according to John Updike in his short story “A & P” (164-165). Basically, if dynamite was to go off, the shoppers’ would ignore it, go about their business, and not have anything to do with the other shoppers’. The setting of the story is more modern, so the girls attire at the time was frowned upon.

“A & P is told after the fact by a young man now much the wiser, presumably, for his frustrating infatuation with a beautiful but inaccessible girl whose allure excites him into confusing his sexual impulses for those of honor and chivalry” (Wells 133). Sammy quit his job because of his manager’s action towards the girls’ attire lead him to be repentant the end of the story. The payoff of this short story should be Sammy’s lack of concern for his consequences of quitting his job. Sammy is like the young teen boy, who tried to impress a girl that he likes by doing something big to get her attention, but the girl does not notice. “Sammy is easily recognizable and, withal, sympathetic to anyone who ever fell in love at first sight and learned to see more clearly afterward” (Watson). By reading the entire story, the author sets a tone of romance, teen desire, and modern time with some wishful