From Childhood to Adulthood in Updikes A&P Essay -- A&P Essays Sammy

From Childhood to Adulthood in Updikes A&P Sammy is stuck in that difficult transition between childhood and grownhood. He is a nineteen-year-old storyteller at an A&P, the protagonist in a story with the alike name. John Updike, the author of A&P, writes from Sammys point of view, making him not whole the main character but also the first person narrator. The purport of the story is set by Sammys attitude, which is nonchalant but frank--he calls things as he sees them. There is a hint of sarcasm in Sammys thoughts, for he tends to crystalize crude references to everything he observes. Updike uses this motif to develop the character of Sammy, as some(prenominal) of these references relate to the idea of play.Sammy is no longer a child, but practically of what he observes he describes as the play that he did as a child. The way he thinks can also be described as childlike play, in terms of his being disrespectful and needing to show off. Updike demonstrates, however, that Samm y desires to be thought of as an adult, and many of his references are to the type of play that adults susceptibility engage in. Sammy, like many adults, does not think in what is considered an adult manner, but Updike uses the plots climax and conclusion to show that Sammy has learned a snarly lesson that will speed up his transition into adulthood.Sammy begins to play from the moment he lays eyes on three girls who enter the A&P i slow summer Thursday evening during the early 1960s. He comes up with a name, based on appearance, for each of the barely dressed girls. He nicknames them as children do to poke fun at one another. Ronald E. McFarland describes how this name-calling indicates his immatureness and lack of compassion (99). Sammy makes fun of customers as well McFarl... ...ammys case, it is provoked by this incident at the A&P, which he will probably never forget. His stomach kind of fell as he felt how hard the humanity was going to be to him thereafter (31). He lear ns that life is not a game and that people, especially superiors, cannot be played. Fun is certainly acceptable, but not when it is demeaning or disrespectful to other people.Works CitedDay, Frank. John Updike Revisited. stark naked York, NY Twayne Publishers, 1998.McFarland, Ronald E. Updike and the Critics Reflections on A&P. Studies in Short Fiction 20.2-3 (1983) 95-100.Shaw, Patrick W. Checking Out Faith and appetency Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown and Updikes A&P. Studies in Short Fiction 23.3 (1988) 321-323.Updike, John. A&P. Literature Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. fifth ed. New York, NY McGraw, 2002. 27-31.