Comparing A & P And The Ball Poem

John Updike’s “A&P” and John Berryman’s “The Ball Poem” are both coming of age stories that approach the topic of growing old and the realizations that people have with regards to aging. Both works take on different tones, as well as structures, to express this common theme.
Tone is an element that is different in both works but serves for a similar purpose. Updike’s “A&P” is a very detailed short story that features a young adult man that has a realization about his adult life. Throughout most of the short story, the author takes on a detached tone, and the story is primarily an observation of the girls at the market through his eyes. There is then a shift towards the end when he quits his job, and this culminates with his realization regarding growing old. When sees himself replaced at the market by

Lengel, he feels disenchanted by life and the prospects that he could be where Lengel is at that age, and the tone shifts there as a result. In contrast, “The Ball Poem” takes on a more reflective tone throughout. Berryman is like an old man who is observing this young boy, but he is young enough to come to terms with his own situation and his eventual death.
In addition, both works feature different plot structures that change how coming of age is viewed.

In “A&P,” the story is mostly an observation of the girls in their multiple visits to the market. Sam is very much a young and immature adult, so the reader has insight into his thinking about life before the realization at the end of the short story. There is a climax with Sammy quitting his job, and he has his epiphany afterwards. There are two major shifts in the story, with the epiphany not making up a large portion of it, and coming somewhat surprisingly with its different scope in comparison to the rest of the subject material. In contrast, “The Ball Poem” has three major parts, with the epiphany being a much greater portion of the poem. The beginning of the poem merely describes the boy and his feelings. The middle section takes on a more introspective feel and goes beyond the idea of the boy losing the ball and its implications in the grand scheme of the world. The ending features the author’s epiphany just as in “A&P,” but there is a more forceful rejection of the earlier part of the author’s life as he comes to acceptance with what is to to come later

on.
To conclude, the differing tones and plot structures in the short story “A&P” and the poem “The Ball Poem” contribute to varying ways of expressing the common theme of coming of age.