John Updike A & P Analysis

John Updike’s “A&P” is a short story, taking place in 1961. Throughout the story, Sammy, the protagonist, is a nine-teen year old boy working as a store clerk at a grocery store named A&P. Sammy constantly throughout analyzes how the adults and the young people go among their daily lives. His viewpoint magnifies the diversity between the two generations. His perspective on the situation and negative attitude towards how the manager handled the three young ladies clearly shows his immaturity and ignorance. This negative perspective gives the impression that growing up is a very undesirable aspect of life in Sammy’s eyes.
Initially, the young people in this story seem to all be extremely immature in their own ways. In the first paragraph,

Sammy states, “The one that caught my eye first was the one in the plaid green two-piece. She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs” (Updike). Sammy is clearly physically interested in these young ladies. He continues, “I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up or not” (John Updike). Sammy constantly analyzing these young ladies leads to him being distracted from his job. By these remarks, Sammy comes off as a young boy who is very hormonally driven. Sammy also later goes on to state, “’Girls, I don't want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It's our policy.’ He turns his back. That's policy for you. Policy is what the kingpins want. What the others want is juvenile delinquency” (John Updike). By this statement, he seems to dislike the fact that Lengel has authority. Although Lengel was just following the regulations of the store, Sammy seemed to strongly disagree with his decision on how to handle the situation. Once again, Sammy shows his immaturity by his negative view on authority. Finally, I think Sammy did not recognize the important of his job by his act of quitting. His reasoning was very juvenile in the fact that he quit over a disagreement on a situation with his boss.
Likewise, the three young girls were quite juvenile in their own ways. The story began with these young ladies walking into the store in nothing more than a two-piece bathing suit. “You know, it’s one thing to have a girl in a bathing suit down on the beach, where what with the glare nobody can look at each other much anyway, and another thing in the cool of the A & P, under the fluorescent lights, against all those stacked packages, with her feet paddling along naked over our checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor” (John Updike). Although Sammy was immature in his own ways, by this statement he reveals that he knows these girls were very juvenile in their acts. The young ladies made it clear they were dressing how they wanted to rather than dressing appropriately for the situation. “’That makes no difference,’ Lengel tells her, and I could see from the way his eyes went that he hadn't noticed she was wearing a two-piece before. ‘We want you decently dressed when you come in here.’ ’We are decent,’ Queenie says suddenly…” (John Updike). These young ladies obviously are not showing the manager the respect he deserves. Not only the fact that he has a managerial position but also because of him being their elder.
In contrast, the adults acted much differently than the young people did throughout the story.

Early on, Sammy states, “’Is it done?’ he asks, the responsible married man finding his voice. I forgot to say he thinks he's going to be manager” (John Updike). This statement may seem very unimportant but I believe it shows a deep contrast between Stokesie and Sammy. It shows how the older man is aspiring for a greater position in his career while in the end, the younger man had no appreciation for his job by quitting in the end. Sammy states, “I stood there with my hand on a box of HiHo crackers trying to remember if I rang it up or not. I ring it up again and the customer starts giving me hell. She's one of these cash-register-watchers” (John Updike). Throughout the story, the adults seem strict and uptight through Sammy’s eyes. “…when the girls touch his eye. Lengel's pretty dreary, teaches Sunday school and the rest, but he doesn't miss that much. He comes over and says, ‘Girls, this isn't the beach’” (John Updike). Lengel’s reaction to the young ladies shows his sternness and respect for the public decency. Finally, "’Sammy, you don't want to do this to your Mom and Dad,’ he tells me. It's true, I don't. But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it… ‘You'll feel this for the rest of your life,’ Lengel says” (Updike). Lengel believed that Sammy was making an astronomical mistake when quitting his job. He thought that Sammy’s job was much more important than Sammy was treating

it.
Moreover, Sammy seems to have an extremely negative outlook on growing up. He believed that growing up would lead to him becoming like his manager, strict and impatient. Sammy wanted to delay his adulthood as much as possible which lead to him quitting. “The girls, and who'd blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say ‘I quit’ to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they'll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero” (Updike). He wanted nothing to do with growing up and acted on impulse.
Overall, this story really makes the audience think about the diversity between this generation and the last. It emphasized the immaturity of the younger people and the sternness of the older people. It also added a very, unique perspective of a younger individual that most people do not get to view. The story touched on both sides of the spectrum in a very unique form.