Initiation Into Adulthood In John Updike's A & P

In John Updike's short story A & P, a young man named Sammy takes witness to what he sees as an injustice happening to a group of bikini-clad teenage girls in the grocery store in which he works. He takes a bold step and decides he would rather not work for a manager that decided to embarrass the young girls in front of everyone instead of addressing them privately, so he quits. The bold step that he takes is part of his initiation into adulthood. Updike develops the initiation through the story and it becomes the central theme.

The theme of initiation can be very broad and viewed in many different perspectives. The teenage boy in the story could be seen as being initiated into the adult world. I can remember many times in my own life that