Good Essay On John Updike's A & P

John Updike's "A & P" is an educated story that explores great ideas and themes from a critical viewpoint. The novel presents Sammy’s thoughts and feeling towards the people he is frequently interacting with at his workplace—a restaurant. The narrator takes time to think of the people in his community particularly the ones who attended the A& P store. He equates some people with the sheep and pigs while describing others as “blind followers.” He is concerned about people’s habit, dressing, and looks. He is longing for the day that he will successfully break out of his boring lifestyle especially at the restaurant; however, he has no idea how to so. Sammy presents varying attitudes and feelings towards the manager, the girls who walk in, and the people at the restaurant.
Initially, Sammy has a negative attitude towards the manager, who he sees as a blind and naïve follower of the social norms and work procedures. He describes the manager as an insensitive person who spends behind a door marked “Manager.” In Sammy’s view, the manager is less of a prisoner or a caged pet that can hardly engage in liberal thinking or independent actions. His freedom as a rational human being capable of making own decisions has been curtailed. Strict policies have been formulated that he must consult and follow at any time. Sammy views the manager’s state as boring and undermining condition that he is not willing to associate with. The manager at A&P is identified as Sammy’s family friend and he often encourages Sammy to try hard and cope with the situation at the restaurant instead of thinking of leaving his work. The manager seems genuinely concerned about Sammy’s welfare even when obliged with the challenge of enforcing store policy. He compromises his roles in several cases in favor of Sammy. However, Sammy despises the manager’s advice since he identifies him as a person of low ability who he cannot reason with.
Similar to the perspective towards the manager, Sammy sees every person who visited the store as stupid except the three girls. In Sammy’s view, the people who visited the restaurant were gullible and individuals of low reasoning ability who blindly followed the beliefs, policies and procedures without questing. In essence, Sammy marks the people at the restaurant to be of a lower class and limited ability. This is evident in the terms that he uses to describe the people he interacted with at the restaurant. For example, he describes them as “sheep” and “pigs” who lacked a rational reasoning capacity. With the exception of the three girls, Sammy cannot identify anybody else at the restaurant who he can reason with. Accordingly, he views everything that is happening at the store from a mocking and sarcastic perspective.
Contrast to his view towards other customers, Sammy presents a positive attitude towards the three girls who walks in the store. He feels that the girls are from an upper class, and he desires to associate with them. These girls created a unique scenario that attracted Sammy’s attention since he had not noticed any other customer visit the store half dressed as they were. He focuses his attention to these girls as he analyzes their every move. He even get impressed more on learning the name of one girls—“Queenie,” which he feels is royal and classy. In girls, Sammy sees people of his class and taste who would change his boring life to achieve his dream lifestyle. Following this view, he associates himself with the three girls who presents as “rebels” and he is desperate to attract their attention. He sides with the girls and confronts the manager openly that he eventually decides to quit the work for what he regards as the manager’s disrespectful acts towards the girls. In essence, he defended the girls because he wanted them to notice him by acknowledging his brave move. Unfortunately, the girls fail to recognize him, which leaves him disappointed.