A & P

The story A & P by John Updike is a story about conformity. In the story the town has certain social standards in which they find acceptable and they have unwritten “rules” about how the people in the town should dress. Sammy refers to all of the customers as “sheep” (221). As Sammy was watching the girls walk down the aisle he made the comment that they were walking “against the usual traffic” (221). This shows that even in the store there was a set standard by the way they walked down an isle in the store. They each followed each other in the direction they were going. As if it was an unwritten rule that you need to follow. Another example of the town having socially accepted standards is Lengels reaction to the girls’ appearance. He made it known to them that their outfits were only acceptable at the beach not in public. He felt so strongly about this that he repeated this statement twice. The town had such high standards as to what was adequate that when Sammy confronted Lengel about embarrassing the girls Lengels response was “It was they who were embarrassing us” (223). This showed that if you were different that others it was wrong and that everyone should act/look the same. Sammy quitting showed that he didn’t want to follow the standards that were set in the town and that he was no longer a follower. Sammy realized that because he turned against conformity he would have many struggles going off on his own. He displayed this in the text by saying “my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter” (224). The reasons that led to Sammy quitting were very good reasons. The first reason was that watching the girls acting rebellious made him want to be free too. He found their attitude and uniqueness intriguing. Seeing how unique they were compared to the other customers is shown in the text in the statement “The sheep pushing their carts down the aisle—the girls walking against the usual traffic (not that we have one-way signs or anything)—were pretty hilarious” (221). Another reason that Sammy quit was because he was upset with Lengel embarrassing the girls for dressing how they wanted to dress and because Lengel told him that the girls embarrassed “us” (as in the town) (223). Sammy also felt that nothing would ever change if he didn’t stand up for the change he wanted to see as shown in the sentence “But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it” (223). This was also Sammy’s epiphany. If he wanted to see a change in the standards that the town had he would have to stand up for them. It he didn’t quit he wouldn’t be giving in to the conformity. Sammy realized this after Lengel had embarrassed the girls for being different and while he was putting the herrings in a bag. If Sammy stayed he would be a follower to and he didn’t want that anymore.