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Stereotypes and their impact
Stereotypes and their impact
Stereotypes and their impact
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I. Introduction
Both Raymond Carver’s short story “Cathedral” and John Updike’s short story “A&P” contain two main characters that stereotype a group of people, but in the end this provokes them to have a revelation in the way they view themselves and the people around them. For Sammy in the story “A&P” it is the young, girls who bring about his change of heart and for the husband in “Cathedral” it is the blind man Robert. The two story lines relate as the two main characters view the stereotyped groups of people negatively. The girls and the blind man are viewed as intruders into the main characters’ daily lives. The two catalysts “the girls” and “Robert” are the cause of change, a real eye opener for the two main characters of the stories,
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This is demonstrated by the way the husband refers to Robert as “This blind man” (Carver) and “his being blind bothers me” (Carver). The thought of a blind man staying in his house made him uncomfortable. The husband uses sarcasm towards Robert is another clear indication of how he feels towards this blind man. He demonstrates no respect to the fact that Robert is blind and gives Robert little value. He said “maybe I’ll take him bowling” (Carver) just to bother his wife and make her feel bad. The similarity with the story “A&P” by John Updike is that Sammy, the main character, is that he believes he has the girls all figured out and that they are all just a piece of meat and he thinks that he can choose which ever one he wants, much like the husband thinks that he is above the blind man and that the blind man is nothing but a nuisance. Sammy also uses sarcasm to depreciate the girl’s worth as he refers to the one who he dubs as the leader of the girls as “queenie” (Updike and Delessert). Both characters show a sort of disrespect towards the other characters in the …show more content…
When the girls in bikinis walk into the A&P store, Sammy surprised by what the girls are wearing and how they act as if this is normal, Updike demonstrates Sammy’s surprised feeling when Sammy says “You know, it’s one thing to have a girl in a bathing suit down on the beach, but another thing in the cool of the A & P” (Updike and Delessert). Sammy then describes the usual patrons of the A&P as “women with six children and varicose veins mapping their legs” (Updike and Delessert). While working at A&P Sammy is accustomed to appropriately dressed customers who enter the store. Similarly, the husband in “Cathedral” is also overthrown from his daily routine when Robert comes to visit him and his wife. He is apprehensive about Robert coming because he is used to being alone with his wife, and the fact that Robert is blind throws his daily routine off balance. The husband says to his wife, “Maybe I could take him bowling” (Carver). This joke towards his wife, although obviously sarcastic, demonstrates his feeling towards any change in his day to day life. The random arrival of these people forces Sammy and the husband to re-evaluate their views on life and what these unexpected arrivals mean to
In, “A&P,” Updike depicts an unusual day for Sammy working in the A&P store. Sammy’s days are usually mundane but his day is changed when a group of scantily dressed girls walk into the store and they leave an everlasting influence on his life. Updike’s demonstrates these events through colloquial language and symbolism, allowing the reader to connect with Sammy and see his growth as a character.
Sammy is a 19-year-old boy conveying a cocky but cute male attitude. He describes three girls entering the A & P, setting the tone of the story. "In walk these three girls in nothing but bathing suits. There was this chunky one, with the two piece-it was bright green and the seams on the bra were still sharp and her belly was still pretty pale...there was this one, with one of those chubby berry-faces, the lips all bunched together under her nose, this one, and a tall one, with black hair that hadn't quite frizzed righ...
Before the girls enter the store, Sammy is unaware that the setting he is so judgmental of reflects his own life. Sammy feels that he is better than the rest of people at the A&P, referring to them as "sheep" and "house-slaves" because they never break from their daily routines. He also condescendingly talks about "whatever it is they[the customers]...mutter." Reinforcing his superiority above the people in the store, Sammy sees himself as a person that can seldom be "trip[ped]...up." Although he sees himself being superior to the store, the reality is that the store closely reflects Sammy's life. He seems to have a long-term commitment to the store since his apron has his name stitched on it, and he has been working at the store long enough to have memorized the entire contents of the "cat-and-dog-food-breakfast-cereal-macaroni-rice-raisins-seasonings-spreads-spaghetti-soft drinks-crackers-and-cookies." His day is also filled with the routine of working at the register, a routine that is so familiar that he has created a cash register song. Sammy also identifies with his co-worker Stokesie, "the responsible married man," and therefore wishes to someday be the manager of the store, like Lengel. Even the "checkerboard" floor represents a game of checkers, a simple one-directional game that closely models Sammy's life. Although Sammy is nineteen ...
His annotation of the “women with six children and varicose veins mapping their legs and nobody, including them, could care less” (Updike 159) and “the sheep” (Updike 162) in the checkout lines are an illustration of his everyday repetitious life working at the A&P. He compares these women to animals showing his undeniable sophomoric juvenile behavior. John Updike depicts Sammy’s character as a typical young boy who thinks he is invisible to the idea that consequences apply to him. However, Sammy is granted the harsh actuality that he will no longer be given slaps on the wrist for radical decisions. His coworker Stokesie is twenty-two, married and has two children. Generally speaking, Sammy may still have childish actions but he understands that he does not want to work at the A&P the rest of his life.
Along with Sammy, the other characters involved in this story are three girls shopping in the A & P in their bathing suits, whom Sammy names Plaid, Queenie and Big Tall Goony-Goony; Stokesie, Sammy's married co-worker; and Lengel, the A & P manager. The "A & P" is told from Sammy's point of view. Sammy presents himself as a nonchalant and flippant young man. He appears to be somewhat contemptuous of the older people shopping in the store. However, near the end of the story, we see that he does take responsibility for his conscience-driven behavior and decision, revealing his passage out of adolescence into adulthood through the courage of his convictions.
Interpretation of A & P This story takes place in 1961, in a small New England town's A&P grocery store. Sammy, the narrator, is introduced as a grocery checker and an observer of the store's patrons. He finds himself fascinated by a particular group of girls. Just in from the beach and still in their bathing suits, they are a stark contrast, to the otherwise plain store interior.
John Updike's short story “A&P,” centers on a young immature and morally ambitious teenager who faces down the generation gap and, rather than bending to the dictates of the elders, rebels against them, securing his rather insecure place as a young, unproven man. Sammy, the main character, describes the entrance of a group of young attractive girls into the supermarket, “In walk these three girls in nothing but bathing suits…They didn’t even have shoes on”.(864) Sammy is mesmerized by their presence that he cannot do his job. The supermarket manager, Lengel, scolds the visitors by exclaiming “Girls, this isn’t the beach”.(867) Within the few moments after Sammy dramatically quits his job in protest of the quite impolite treatment by Lengel he says to himself “…and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter”.(869) Because of his youth, and certainly because of the extremes of behavior that the young are prone to demonstrate, Sammy perceives that his life will forever be damaged by his actions. Though we certainly understand that this is not the case, that no one’s life is inexorably ‘ruined’ by the decision to do something momentous, it is certainly quite charming to transport ourselves into a time in our lives when such passions ruled us. This image awakens in us the expect...
Redemption can be explained as gaining possession of something in exchange for payment. In order to achieve something, one must do something in return. The end result of redemption may be unknown to the person and what their payment is may be a sacrifice. This motif is relayed in the short story, “Cathedral,” by Raymond Carver, by a man who gains new vision from an unlikely source.
At the beginning of the story Sammy complains about an older woman, a fifty-year-old "witch" with rouge on her cheekbones and no eyebrows, who is waiting to check out her groceries. She gets annoyed with Sammy because he is too busy drooling over the young flesh which has just walked in the door (Updike 1026). The first half-naked girl who walks into the A&P and catches Sammy’s eye is a chunky girl with a two-piece plaid bathing suit on that showed off her "sweet broad soft-looking can" (Updike l026). As if staring at this girl’s backside wasn’t enough, Sammy also noticed "those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit" (Updike 1026).
Lust makes people do crazy things. John Updike’s short story “A&P” provides a perfect example of how lust made a boy quit his job. In this short story, a boy, named Sammy, catches a glimpse of three under-dressed, attractive girls as they enter his workplace. The manager asks the three girls to leave. As a result, Sammy is outraged by the mistreatment of the girls and quits his job in protest. Sammy’s stand against the mistreatment of the girls makes him feel like a hero. Updike’s use of descriptive words and dramatic irony in “A&P” leads the reader to believe that Sammy’s heroic acts were not actions with rebellious intentions, but actions due to his lust for the three under-dressed girls.
From the beginning of his tale, the husband is quite bland on the subject of love. This is present when he tells the part about his wife's first husband, even going as far as to say the man doesn't deserve to be named because "he was the childhood sweetheart, and what more does he want" (348). When he tells of Beulah, Robert's wife, and her tragic death, he shows no compassion in mocking her for marrying a blind man. He even asks if the woman was a "Negro" because of her name. His materialistic views shine through when he feels actually pity for her because she could "never see herself as she was seen in the eyes of her loved one" (349). His lack of compassion for the tale of the blind man's marriage tells the reader that maybe the husband himself doesn't believe in love. When he refers to his wife's first husband as "this man who'd first enjoyed her favors" and "shrugs" when he thinks his wife is disappointed in his actions, it informs the reader he may look at relationships, even his own, as more of a business deal than a devotion of love (348, 350). His wry humor is major indication of his sarcastic character. He even makes a crack to his wife about the blind man befo...
The beginning of “A & P” starts with the main character, Sammy, at work when three girls in nothing but bathing suits walks in. According to Lawrence Dessner, the A & P check out counter showed Sammy a sample of insult and indignity of ordinary people (317). He may not have liked the people that shopped there, but he received insight of the real world. A woman that was currently at Sammy's counter was middle aged and brought Sammy no sympathy to the shoppers; he sometimes mention them as sheep. His names of the shoppers also include insight of Sammy's view of the ordinary shoppers; Sammy did not care much for others.
Richard Carver is well known for his stories which contains characters that are escapist, messed up, and unsociable. He is also well known for creating characters that “They are rarely attractive people, and often readers must work against a narrator's tendency to sound cretinous or Carver's propensity to reveal characters as bigots and dunces.”(Facknitz 292).The narrator in his short story “Cathedral” can be similarly described. Many critiques have the misconception that Carver’s characters do not change, that they remain stagnant in their stupidity and their bigotry. However the narrator in his short story “Cathedral” forces the readers to reconsider that statement as by the end of the story he has made a progressive journey to changing his
John Updike's A&P provides numerous perspectives for critical interpretation. His descriptive metaphors and underlying sexual tones are just the tip of the iceberg. A gender analysis could be drawn from the initial outline of the story and Sammy's chauvinism towards the female. Further reading opens up a formalist and biographical perspective to the critic. After several readings I began seeing the Marxist perspective on the surreal environment of A&P. The economic and social differences are evident through Sammy's storytelling techniques and even further open up a biographical look at Updike's own view's and opinions. According to an essay posted on the internet Updike was a womanizer in his own era and displayed boyish immaturity into his adulthood. A second analysis of this story roots more from a reader-response/formalist view. Although Sammy centered his dramatization around three young females, more specifically the Queen of the trio, it was a poignant detailed head to toe description of scene. I'll touch on that later.
In the story, “cathedral” Raymond Carver, is a story about bringing people together. This story has three main characters. However, the story mostly focuses on the blind man and the narrator. The narrator was a very narrow-minded and didn’t want to get involved or have any relationship with anyone else. However, through the course of the story, the narrator was able to make a friendship with his wife’s friend the blind man by using a cathedral, which brought them together. Carver uses exposition to develop his plot and characters. Exposition is used to introduce background information to the story’s audience. The tone of this story will lead into major character developments. The exposition will help the audience understand where each character