Work gives life a meaning. Whether working in an office or at a supermarket in your local neighborhood, it is one’s dream to find a well-paying job to please their necessities. The workplace can either turn out to be the most enjoyable or the most monotonous. This ultimately depends on the workers’ attitude towards their jobs. In Ray Miller’s short story “Work,” the protagonist, Davis, is very unenthusiastic towards his job. He works in a frustrating office environment. Conversely, Sammy, from John Updike’s short story “A&P,” works at a local supermarket named A&P where he is required to ring up groceries for all the customers. His job is rather disappointing until he meets three odd women dressed in bathing suits. The teenage cashiers are …show more content…
Sammy, the narrator of the story, describes an incident in the store in which a conflict takes place between the members of two different social spectrums. One, in which he is expected to support his manager Lengel about following the dress code of the store and another that, was in his mind about being able to do whatever one pleases to do. Lengel’s response to the girls dressed in bathing suits was quite simple; he tells them “girls, I don’t want to argue with you. After this, come in here with your shoulders covered. It’s our policy” (Updike 6). The manager is clearly claiming that he is more superior to the girls to decide what appropriate attire is. By arguing, “it’s our policy” he is representing the perspective of everyone in the store, or perhaps even the community. This frustrates Sammy, and he decides to quit his job. When looking back at the store after walking out, Sammy’s “stomach kind of fell as [he] felt how hard the world was going to be to [him] hereafter” (Updike 8). The author concludes his short story with that sentence to show that Sammy has realized how hard the world is always going to be for him. Scenarios such as walking into a store in the middle of town with only bathing suits on, going against all the followers of the community and actually standing up for what you believe in was not an everyday thing in this neighborhood. Therefore, what Sammy did was the right thing to do. Sammy shows that his typical dreary job at a supermarket turned into something that changed his life. Sure, it might be a little difficult for him to face his parents and the real world without a job, but Sammy will be able to overcome any obstacles from here onwards because he knows the kind of person that he
Character can be defined as the combination of qualities or features that distinguishes one person, group, or thing from another. Authors usually embrace a distinct choice of personality on a character to make them stand out in a story. In "A & P" by John Updike, Sammy starts off as a young man discontent with his ordinary adult surroundings and moves to his need to change it. Throughout the story, Sammy describes and interprets the scenes around him, consequently revealing his own character, by which can be related through the use of Thomas Chou's Ennegram, to distinguish his personality type.
William Peden once called John Updike’s “A&P” “deftly narrated nonsense...which contains nothing more significant than a checking clerk's interest in three girls in bathing suits” (Peden). While Peden’s criticism may be harsher than necessary, it is hard to find fault with his analysis. Sammy’s tale offers little more than insight into an egocentric and self-motivated mind, and while Updike may disagree with that conclusion, a close reading of the text offers significant evidence to support this theory. In “An Interview with John Updike”, Updike describes how Sammy quit as a “feminist protest” (153). However, I would argue that Sammy’s act of defiance was selfishly motivated and represents his inner struggle with his social class as demonstrated through his contempt for those around him and his self-motivated actions.
It is safe to say that work comes in many different forms. Whether it be a fast food or a corporate, the people that surround an individual make a great impact on the way he or she may work. Singapore, by Mary Oliver, is about a young woman working as a custodian in an airport who although works alone, enjoys her work and the people she meets. Dorianne Laux’s What I Wouldn’t Do, introduces another young woman reviewing the jobs she has had throughout time and reflects on those that she liked and disliked. Hard Work, by Stephen Dunn, exemplifies a young boy working in a soda factory during his summer break. Searching for happiness in life and work is just what these individuals are doing.
He expresses about his mother working at the restaurant is what made him and this article credible. He got to witness and experience his mom and her “waiting brilliance” up close and personal (Rose, 273). He also states, “I’ve since studied the working habits of blue-collar workers and have come to understand how much my mother’s kind of work demands of both the body and the brain” (274). In this statement he establishes his own credibility as a source of authority on this issue. Rose, the author, wants to open social minds by showing “mental activity” (279) required in blue-collar work is still under-recognized and undervalued by society. The blue-collar workers are not as valued as they deserve but the capability they have is not less than other high-level workers, even sometimes it’s more than
In “Marching through a Novel,” John Updike, conveys a complex relationship between the novelist and characters, by representing the author as a god-like figure whose characters are like his soldiers ready to take action upon his command. John Updike successfully portrays this characterization through his use of metaphors, diction, and imagery.
“A&P” is a short story by John Updike about a nineteen-year-old male named Sammy. Sammy lives in a small town five miles from the beach and works at a grocery store called A&P. Throughout the story Sammy reveals signs of agitation at his job. Things begin to change as he gazed his eyes on three girls that walk into the store. The A&P and the girls are important symbols in “A&P” that help reveal the conflict in the story.
Currently, human beings are thinking more on the line of they need work in order to make a living. For that reason, work has become meaningless, disagreeable, and unnatural. Many view work as a way to obtain money and not a meaningful human activity that one does for themselves. The author states that there are two reactions of the alienated and profoundly unsatisfactory character of the modern industrial work. One being the ideal of complete laziness and the other, hostility towards work. Fromm believes the reason why people have animosity regarding work is due to their unconscious mind. Subconsciously, a person has “a deep-seated, hostility towards work and all that is connected to it” says Fromm. I believe what Fromm is saying to be true, after all I witness it everyday. Millions of people each day goes to a work which they are dissatisfied with and that can negatively impact their attitude
Clothing in general is an important symbol for rebellion in “A & P”. But, in the girls’ case, they are rebelling by ignoring the unwritten rule of wearing clothes and shoes in stores. “…The women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the street” (193). To Sammy, the bikinis represent freedom because the girls seem to be free of the rules that society forces on everyone—the girls are independent. Although the bikinis represent freedom to Sammy, to Lengel, the girls’ clothing, or lack thereof, represents disobedience. ““We want you decently dressed when you come in here”” (194). The girls are not conforming to the store’s dress code. Sammy’s own clothing becomes symbolic when he quits at the end of the story. “I pull the bow at the back of my apron and start shrugging it off my shoulders… I fold the apron, “Sammy” stitched in red on the pocket, and out it on the counter, and drop the bow tie on top of it. The bow tie is theirs…” (195). By removing the uniform, he is removing the conformity that is forced on him. He is becoming his own
Ordinary people are not often put into books, however, "prolific and acclaimed contemporary" author John Updike examines their lives with "intimate detail" (Krstovic). "many of John Updike's works... grew out of his own life and especially out of his relationship to a six-room sandstone farmhouse... Updike's mother was born in the house and died there" (Tuerk). One topic he examines in his books is how people cope with death. In a short stories of his entitled "The Cats," a man by the name of David travels to his mother's home after she dies. He constantly remembers the events with his mother from his past and they give him a sense of comfort in the difficult time he is facing. The next short story is "His Mother Inside Him," a story where Allen Dow realizes, by looking at events from his childhood, there is a part of his mother inside him. He forgets the death of his mother and compares his mother's actions with what he would have done. The third short story is "The Sandstone Farmhouse" where a man by the name of Joey prepares his late mother's house for sale. Again, he recalls the events from his childhood. These books share many common themes but one is strikingly obvious, coping with death. John Updike explores the theme death by focusing on the protagonist and how the character reverts to previous experiences as a way to cope with his grief.
We all know that most people hate their jobs. Work is seen as something we have to do, and very lucky few seem to find a job that we enjoy. How we feel about work, and what we do for a living, in many ways helps to define who we are and who we are going to become. Having seen actual people share their perspectives and view points on “working for a living” helps us see ourselves and rethink our future. Overall, Studs Terkel helps flash- back into America's history and see the changes that America ans it’s people have gone through.
In “Scrubbing in Maine”by Barbara Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich decides to work at the Maids Franchise so she can observe how the system was made for the maids. During her time being a maid she became emotionally impacted by the way her and the women were treated. Ehrenreich experiences in the article”Scrubbing in Maine,’’are the ones I can relate to even though both jobs don’t seem the same, the fact is my time spent working at Jewel is remarkably and depressingly similar to the time spent by Ehrenreich as a maid. In both instances employees are not really human, but are parts of a bigger machine and only Blue collar workers are stereotypes as uneducated unthinking individuals. As Blue collar jobs emphasized the routines, dehumanization of the employee, and loss of control over a person’s time. Workers do not engage in cognitive skills, but physical
Watson, T. (2008) The Meaning of Work. The Sociology of Work and Industry. London: Routledge.
John Updike's A & P and James Joyce's Araby share many of the same literary traits. The primary focus of the two stories revolves around a young man who is compelled to decipher the difference between cruel reality and the fantasies of romance that play in his head. That the man does, indeed, discover the difference is what sets him off into emotional collapse. One of the main similarities between the two stories is the fact that the main character, who is also the protagonist, has built up incredible, yet unrealistic, expectations of women, having focused upon one in particular towards which he places all his unrequited affection. The expectation these men hold when finally "face to face with their object of worship" (Wells, 1993, p. 127) is what sends the final and crushing blow of reality: The rejection they suffer is far too great for them to bear.
The obscure poem ‘I Love my job’, written by famous virtuoso Dr Suess, explores the truth behind a typical office job. Similar to his other works, Suess writes his poem with a twist; he decides to use the power of sarcasm to convey his message. The first five stanzas of the poem leads the reader to assume that Seuss is applying a level of sarcasm, alongside increasing levels of dramatism. The reader would substitute the word "hate" for "love" and it would seem accurate. Due to the formation of modern society, it is assumed that nobody realistically loves their job or doing chores. However, the end of the fourth stanza suggests something interesting: the narrator says that he would love his programmes and files more if they worked. Here, substituting
No matter how old someone is when their parents get divorced, their life is always affected somehow. In John Updike’s “Separating,” each child is affected individually by their parent’s divorce but the fifteen-year-old boy, John, does not take the news as well as his siblings do. When Richard and Joan Maples decide that it is best for their marriage to end, they agree to tell each child about the divorce individually (1426). Every family is different in their own way, which also means that each child within that family is different and handles life changing news differently than the siblings do. The family is throwing a party for their oldest, Judith, when she comes home from England and that is when each child finds out about the divorce.