Changing at the A&P

Conflict is Naturally occurring in every human that exists. It is something we all live with, in our journey in life. how we deal with it is what ultimately defines who we are as human beings. John Updike tells of the inner monologue of a young man named Sammy, who works as a cashier in a quiet supermarket. One day walked in three young ladies, half-dressed wearing only their swimsuits, and Sammy notices how he and everyone else views them. The story shows internal and external conflicts of Sammy.

As something that has never been seen before in this closed-minded supermarket happens, this person begins to think about how he views things and sparks something in him to change and in doing so he grows.

In the story, Sammy begins to view three women who walked into the supermarket in nothing but their bathing suits as sexual objects. He describes them with vivid detail from their hair to the sun burnt skin, to the way the bathing suit straps fell off the shoulders, even as far as to describe the “sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs“ (Updike 117).

His Descriptions of these three young ladies show immaturity in how he views them. He objectifies them and views them only on a physical level, judging them for how they look and what they wear. Updike, goes on to show how Sammy saw the way other people saw them when he refers to the other shopgoers as “sheep” saying, “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle… you could see them when Queenie’s white shoulders dawned on them…[they] snapped back to their baskets and on they pushed” referring to them as such because they were people who didn’t want to stray from the norm, anything outside of their views was frowned upon because it didn’t meet their standards and Everyone was willing to line up like they were being herded (119).

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He starts out objectifying, judging and gawking at them and it’s not until they end up at his register that his manager, who teaches Sunday school and probably has strict morals, catches sites of the girls and comes over and starts belittling them. When she speaks for the first time it catches him off guard and sends him fantasizing about being with her family in what he seems to describe as wedding attire, which is where he starts to view her as a person (Updike 120). ‘We want you decently dressed when you come in here…I don’t want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered…’ is what Lengel, the manager, says to embarrass the women, and Sammy starts to resent that Lengel and the “sheep” judge the girls simply by their choice of clothing (Updike 121).

The judging and outcasting of the girls by the manager and the “sheep” brings forth the external conflict between Sammy and Lengel. Initially, Sammy quits as a sign of rebellion or to be a “hero” to the young ladies to impress them, but quickly learned he was making a powerful statement to all the “sheeple” and conformists in this town and himself. In doing so he found confidence in himself to act on what he didn’t see was right and to act against it despite cowardly inner thoughts. He must now go through a change and “grow up” to deal with his actions, as Updike writes, “…It seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it” (122). Sammy comes to terms that there is more for him out there than working for someone who is as closed-minded as his employer and being another sheep in his town and he knows that it won’t be easy, these circumstances were the start of adulthood for him.

As Sammy grows and Changes two of the closed-mindedness of everyone there, he realizes there is more out there for him than what a job at that supermarket or the mindset of people in his town has to offer him. The story has something for everyone and is very impactful on anyone who reads it. Turns out it was never just about the girls, it was more about their reaction to everyone there’s closed-mindedness, which triggered him to his reaction toward those same views.

Work Cited

1. Updike, John. “A&P.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed.X.J. Kennedy and Diana Gioia. 9th ed. New York: Longman, 2005.117-122. Print.