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 adulthood. He is a nineteen-year-old cashier at an A&P, the protagonist in a story with the same name. John Updike, the author of A&P, writes from Sammys point of view, making him not only the main timbre only when also the prime(prenominal) person narrator. The tone 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 make crude references to everything he observes. Updike uses this motif to develop the character of Sammy, as many of these references relate to the idea of flirt.Sammy is no longer a child, but much of what he observes he describes as the play that he did as a child. The way he implys can also be described as childlike play, in terms of his being contemptuous and needing to show off. Updike demonstrates, however, that Sammy desires to be thoug ht of as an adult, and many of his references are to the slip of play that adults might 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 tough lesson that allow for speed up his transition into adulthood.Sammy begins to play from the moment he lays eyes on three girls who enter the A&P one slow summer Thursday evening during the former(a) 1960s. He comes up with a name, based on appearance, for each of the only dressed girls. He nicknames them as children do to poke fun at one another. Ronald E. McFarland describes how this name-calling indicates his immaturity and lack of compassion (99). Sammy makes fun of customers as headspring 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 up how hard the world was going to be to him thereafter (31). He learns that carriage is not a game and that people, especially superiors, cannot be played. Fun is sure enough acceptable, but not when it is demeaning or disrespectful to other people. deeds CitedDay, Frank. John Updike Revisited. New 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 disclose Faith and Lust Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown and Updikes A&P. Studies in Short Fiction 23.3 (1988) 321-323.Updike, John. A&P. literary productions Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 5th ed. New York, NY McGraw, 2002. 27-31.