Of Choices And Consequences In John Updike's A & P

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Many times in our lives, we wish we were independent and we believe we can stand up for ourselves, especially during our adolescence. In “A &P”, a short story by John Updike, the protagonist, Sammy, decides to stand up for himself and go against the customary life style of his town. By doing this such act, he reveals the themes of the story, which include maturity and choices followed by consequences. Updike uses literary devices such as symbolism and tone to help enforce the theme. There are two major themes in Updike’s “A & P;” one being choices and its consequences and the other being maturity. Choices and consequences can be seen in the three girls, Lengel, and Sammy. “In walk these three girls in nothing but bathing suits” (Updike, 621). …show more content…

The consequence here is that all the males in the supermarket are eye-balling them and are seeing the girls as eye candy. However, the girls do not care and feel in control. This state of control is broken when Lengel, the store manager, addresses the fact that the attire of the three girls is inappropriate. This confrontation embarrasses the girls and their power of control begins to diminish. They bluntly reply with “We are decent,” hoping to regain that power of control. The consequence of the girls wearing bathing suits is that they are embarrassed and kicked out of the store by Lengel. This leads us to Lengel, whose choice was to embarrass the girls by stating, “Girls, this isn’t the beach” (Updike, 623). Upon observing the situation as the girls walk out, Sammy decides to stand up for them and quits his job. Evidently, the consequence of Lengel scolding the girls is that Sammy quits his job. Lengel attempts to convince Sammy to keep his job by bringing up his parents, “Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your Mom and Dad” (Updike, 624), but Sammy decides to quit anyways. Now we get to Sammy, whose choice was to quit, signifying that he was on the girl’s side. His consequence is that he now doesn’t have a job and is left

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