John Updikes A&P

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Sammy’s Immaturity

Adulthood is an experience everyone has to go through. Being an adult means having freedom, but with responsibility. Through out the story “A&P” Sammy refers to his customers as sheep and as food products. This is signs of immaturity. John Updike uses Sammy’s actions, statements, and the way descriptions show Sammy’s immaturity. Sammy soon realizes he has got to grow up and assume his responsibilities when he quits his job at the A&P, a decision which forces Sammy into adulthood.

Sammy shows many signs of immaturity through out the story. At the beginning of “A&P”, Sammy should be concentrating on ringing up his customers, but his attention is caught else where when three girls walk in to the store wearing nothing but bathing suits. While staring at the girls, Sammy messes up an old woman’s ring up. The old woman does not appreciate this and corrects Sammy’s mistake immediately. Sammy then refers to the old woman as a witch. Sammy referring to the old woman as a witch shows Updikes readers a sign of immaturity. Being that it was Sammy’s fought for the mess up in the first place. As Sammy is still following the girls with his eyes, picking each part of the girl’s bodies apart the narrator mentions,” All that was left for us to see was old McMahon patting his mouth and looking after them sizing up their joints.” Sammy starts to feel ashamed and realizes what he has been doing was not right when he realizes the meat man is doing the same as he is. John Updike is showing readers that Sammy mat be showing some maturity and growing up. Soon after this incident Sammy goes back to his old ways. Towards the end of the story Sammy tries to become a hero as he tells his boss, “I quit” hoping to impress the girls. This is Sammy’s childlike instincts coming back into role. Quitting his job for no reason but to impress girls shows Sammy as still a child. We can definitely tell this as Sammy makes childish statements throughout the story.

Another difficulty Sammy faces is the understanding of how girl’s minds operate. This is noted when Sammy states, “You never know for sure how girls minds work (do you really think it’s a mind in there or just a little buzz like a bee in a glass jar).” Another sign of Sammys immaturity is sexists of girls in referring to their minds as jars with bees buzzing around. At this point Updike’s readers are wondering if Sammy is ever going to get out of his childish habits and become an adult. Sammy states, “Stokesie’s married, with two babies chalked up on his fuselage already, but as far as I can tell that’s the only difference.” Sammy is being sarcastic toward Stokesie saying that he has messed up his whole life because Stokesie is practically Sammy’s age and already has two children following him around. The irony is that Sammy is only a high school graduate with no responsibilities but to go and work at the “A&P”. It is childish of Sammy to say that Stokesie has ruined his life just because it is not the way Sammy pictures life.




Updike also uses character description to reveal Sammy’s immature ways. “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle.” Sammy is using an allusion as he refers to his customers as sheep because they all have the same routine going up and down the aisles mumbling to their selves about what to get next. He also objectifies the customers when he 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.” Sammy objectifying the customers as animals and food is another sign of immaturity. Readers are given the idea that Sammy has had a lost childhood when he states, “You wonder they waste the wax or six-packs of candy bars, and plastic toys done up in cellophane that fall apart when a kid looks at then anyway.” Updike maybe illustrating a lost childhood Sammy had and a reason why he is so immature is because he has not been able to experience his own childhood. Sammy is forced to grow up and go out into the real world as an adult when he quits his job to impress girls. Updike’s readers are able to see Sammy’s point of view as life as an adult when he is looking out in the real world in the following passage

I look around for my girls, but they are gone of course. There wasn’t anybody but some young married screaming with her children about some candy they didn’t get by the door of a powder-blue Falcon station wagon. Looking back in the big windows, over the bags of peat moss and aluminum lawn furniture stacked on the pavement.

In this passage Sammy realizes he is going to have to go out into the real world and be an adult. This is seen by the symbols Updike uses objects like, “screaming children”, “station wagon”, and “lawn chairs” all objects associated with taking responsibility and becoming an adult.

“My stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.” Sammy’s whole life revolves around the “A&P”, and this is the only responsibility he has to worry about. Sammy is forced to become a dynamic character when he quits his job and has to put away his childish ways to go out into the world of adulthood. Sammy does not know what to expect or do once he does step out of the “A&P”



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