In John Updike's "A & P," we find a world within a
world, or a microcosm. The supermarket is a small world where people come and go, where there are
rules, and where adult and youngsters are present. It is a place, also, where Sammy takes a big
step towards growing up.
Sammy notices the girls when they enter:
they could represent a variety of different kinds of young females, except one is obviously a
leader. Sammy describes her as queen-like, as she walks down the
aisles.
Sammy and his friend are typical boys: their attention is
completely focused on the girls when they enter, wearing bathing
suits.
The supermarket seems like its own world with aisles like
roads; air conditioning provides relief from the summer heat, but the doors that keep it in are
also the doors that create the boundaries of this small world; and, there are rules that define
the behaviors of those who enter, much the way the world at large
does.
When the girls reach the front, the manager chastises them for
wearing inappropriate attire while in the store. The "leader" of the group argues that they only
wanted one small item, but the manager insists that they follow the
rules.
Sammy is compelled to speak up for the girls, feeling that
perhaps the rules are too harsh (and, of course, he is enchanted by the "queen.") This is similar
to people who speak out against the establishment when they feel something is unfair or
censorship is unwarranted.
As in every day affairs, Sammy decides
that he must choose to conform or leave; on principle, he decides he must remove himself from
this "society," and he quits he job. The manager tells him he may be sorry, and Sammy believes
this may be true, but he also sees the world around him more clearly, and there is no turning
back.
In these ways, the supermarket is like a small world with
those who inhabit it: rules that must be obeyed, and there are people who see the need to change
the world and cannot reverse course once they have perceived the world in a new
light.
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