A&P

The story A&P by Updike is a story about conformity. It takes place after the Second World War in a small town. It shows how each generation seems to have differences in opinions as far as how they want to dress. This small town is used to being more conservative, “the women generally put on a shirt or shorts or something before they get out of the car into the streets.” The girls feel there is nothing wrong with the way they are dressed and are just stopping to pick one thing, but the manager feels differently. He states to the girls “this is not the beach” defining that this attire should not be worn at the store “we want you decently dressed when you come in here.” The girl feels they are doing nothing wrong defending themselves by saying “we are decent.” The girls felt they were appropriate but the manager felt differently. “That’s policy for you. Policy is what the kingpins want. What the others want is juvenile delinquency.”
Sammy was getting sick of working at the A&P it seems he wanted out and this was his out. The monotonous of the store was one thing to make him want to quit, “Hello (bing) there, you (gung) hap-py pee-pal (splat)!” Sammy is annoyed with work mocking the customers several times in the story. “I bet you could set off dynamite in an A&P and the people would by and large keep reaching and checking oatmeal off their lists…” This was all an excuse and opportunity for Sammy to quit.
Sammy’s epiphany was realizing that it is not easy going against the “norm”. Sammy says “ … and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.”