John Updike A & P Rhetorical Analysis

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The rebellious young hippies of the Cold War era had strongly proclaimed their opinion against the weak willed adults of the time. John Updike’s composition of A&P brings to light this rebellious time through his metaphorical description of the regular A&P customers, and the contrasting imagery used to describe the girls. The constant metaphorical description of the regular A&P customers as sheep sets the adults, in the era of the Cold War as a people that wouldn’t think for themselves and shut down when an anomaly occurred. The first time Updike describes the regulars as sheep is when they are “pushing their carts down the aisle”. These aisles are also described as narrow and very similar to blinders, or walled off passages that livestock would travel down before being slaughtered, so that the animals would be completely ignorant of what was to come. Even while there were no “one-way signs or anything,” the girls were defined as going “against the usual traffic” …show more content…

The most prevalent examples that reader can find are the unordinary color schemes worn by the girls, as well as the lack of clothing they wear. The colors of the girls bathing suits are like a lamborghini imbedded in a line of toyota corollas parading through A&P, similar to the bright colors that the protesting youths of the time would. Gray would be the most important color in relation to the girls flamboyant colors, however, as it was of the fancy herring snacks. While Queenie was being reprimanded for her attire, Updike explains that the fancy herring snacks “flashed in her very blue eyes.” The fact that this came up as “she remember[ed] her place” would put more meaning into the gray color, because it would have been the food that her parents have been feeding, presumably throughout her life, or the ideals her parents have been instilled since

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