Teenage Rebellion and Resilience in John Updike's A&P

John Updike’s A&P gives us an idea that the world isn’t always black and white by telling a story about a teenager who does what he believes in and quits his job because of a disagreement with his boss and to get the attention of a girl. The kid doesn’t get the girl and has to deal with the consequences of his actions but through it all he sticks to his decisions. Following the standard through life in any aspect can seem pretty easy at times, but seeing the grey, choosing to act and becoming resilient through it all displays what kind of character you are.
Parents use their experiences in life to help teach their own kids about how life works but teenage rebellion prevails and we make the mistakes ourselves. Whether we let that change us for bad or good is up to us. Usually the cliche things that parents sit their kids down to talk about are sex, drugs, alcohol, and how to bounce back from mistakes or difficult situations. Since there's no drugs or

One study of ages 18 to 25 years old found that “The typical men in this sample were thinking about sex once or twice an hour” (Mustanski par. 4) which the average was 34 sexual thoughts per day, almost double than young women presenting us with the information that sex is often thought about in young adults. Sammy in A&P was introduced to “three girls in nothing but bathing suits” (Updike 148) one which Sammy refers to as “Queenie” (Updike 149) and a critic refers to Queenie as “sexually and intellectually superior” (Shaw par. 3). The inference that Sammy thought about sex with her is very likely and maybe Updike was trying to prove how teenagers will do anything just for the idea of sex being a possibility or that some people know what they got and flaunt it just for attention. Attention from the other sex is often sought after for the sole purpose to build ourselves up in our own eyes or and sometimes people will do unordinary things for