Innocence and Experience Essay

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Becoming mature is not our choice. Innocence and experience are the elements of life that make our lives more interesting and worth living. Innocence can mean immaturity and dependence. Experience is the same thing as maturity and independence. Starting out being at a stage of innocence and moving to a stage of experience is very long and difficult because of the different changes on the way that we experience in texts: “A&P” and “Experience”. In “A&P”, Sammy becomes more independent after he quits. In “Experience”, the characters become more mature by learning from their mistakes.
In “ A&P”, Sammy becomes a more mature individual because of his life after he quits his job. Sammy enjoys his job because of the girls and especially Queenie, who comes to the A&P in her bathing suit a lot because she feels she is important. Sammy overcomes his innocence (childhood, immaturity, and dependence) by quitting from the A&P. He really didn’t want to quit, but he did it to show off for the girls (Updike, 94). However, when he was not working at the A&P anymore he became more independent beca...

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