Who Is John Updike's 'A & P'?

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In John Updike’s “A & P,” the store manager Lengel did not handle the confrontation with the three girls in an appropriate manner. Since Lengel was out negotiating with a deliveryman when the girls entered the store, they were checking out by the time he saw them. If Lengel had been in the store when the girls entered it, and asked them to leave then because of their inappropriate attire, it would have been different. Since, the other employees did not feel the need to say anything to the young women. So Lengel did not have to cause a scene, just to demonstrate his authority he could have simply told the girls as they were leaving, “After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It’s our policy” (204). He did not have to repeatedly tell

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