Reflection of the North American Society in "A&P"

Reflection of the North American Society in “A&P” Throughout history, the desirable qualities that people wish to have changes within each generation. Born in 1932, John Updike was a famous American novelist, poet, short story writer, art and literary critic. He wrote several works that became famous including his two novels that won the Pulitzer Prize, Rabbit Is Rich (1981) and Rabbit At Rest (1990). According to one article, Updike once stated in a 1968 interview that “’Nothing that happens to us [novelists] after the age of twenty is as free from self-consciousness, because then we have the vocation to write. Writers’ lives break into two halves’” (Hunt 219). Also, in this article, Hunt says “[Updike’s] first decade of work…[are] nostalgic recollections of boyhood [that] are transmuted by an adult’s imagination” (Hunt 219). This gives readers an insight of part of the reason why Updike wrote in the fashion that he did. In his short story titled “A&P,” published in 1961, he chooses the setting to be in a convenience store because this setting will provide the interaction between the upper and working classes and between the older and younger generations. Unsurprisingly, the story “‘A&P’ has been established as John Updike’s most widely read story” (McFarland). Throughout the story, the evidence of two secondary characters, the three girls, and the confrontations that happen between the girls and the store manager, and Sammy and the store manager are used to represent this change from conformity to individualism that was taking place in the 1960s. One of the crucial secondary characters is Stoksie, who is also a checkout clerk at the A&P, just like Sammy. Even though Stoksie is just a few years older than Sammy, Stoksie already is married and has two children of his own. Although he is only a minor character, Stokie displays signs of ritualism: he has no intentions of going somewhere else to work, instead, “he is going to be a manager some sunny day, maybe in

Cited: Hunt, George W. “Reality, Imagination, And Art: The Significance Of Updike’s “Best” Story.” Studies In Short Fiction 16.3 (1979): 219-229. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Apr. 2013. McFarland, Ronald E. “Updike and the Critics: Reflections on ‘A&P’.” Studies in Short Fiction 20.2-3 (Spring-Summer 1983): 95-100. Rpt. In Short Story Criticism. Ed. Anna J. Sheets. Vol. 27. Detroit: Gale Research, 1998. Literature Resource Center. Web. 23 Apr. 2013. Updike, John. “A&P.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Ed. X.J. Kennedy, and Diana Giola. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. 14-19. Print.