Rise And Fall In John Updike's A & P
“A&P: Rise and Fall”
John Updike’s “A&P” is a prime example of how standing up for one’s morals does not always reap a reward. As a young writer, Updike witnesses several young girls in their swimsuits cruising the aisles of his local grocery and thus became the short story “A&P.” Sammy, a nineteen-year-old store clerk in a small New England town, quits his job over an issue of principles, an action that both changes and defines his character. Bikini clad young ladies become somewhat a rite of passage for our young narrator and protagonist, which leaves Sammy feeling at the end both triumphant and sad, both a winner and a loser.
John Updike is an American writer whose preferred style is that of writing about his own limits or middle-class
John Updike’s “A&P” is a prime example of how standing up for one’s morals does not always reap a reward. As a young writer, Updike witnesses several young girls in their swimsuits cruising the aisles of his local grocery and thus became the short story “A&P.” Sammy, a nineteen-year-old store clerk in a small New England town, quits his job over an issue of principles, an action that both changes and defines his character. Bikini clad young ladies become somewhat a rite of passage for our young narrator and protagonist, which leaves Sammy feeling at the end both triumphant and sad, both a winner and a loser.
John Updike is an American writer whose preferred style is that of writing about his own limits or middle-class