An Analysis Of John Updike's A & P

What is it like to see the world through the eyes of a young man? What would it be like to let the wild imagination of a teenage boy tear into the tranquility of the written world? Like a stick being thrown in the spokes of a bicycle, John Updike’s short story, A & P, shows the mind of a young man. Updike puts this young man into a monotonous routine, and like throwing water on a grease fire Updike turns this young man’s world upside down by introducing three young women, as if coming of the beach, in bathing suits that are not really suited to a grocery store: “She kind of led them, the other two peeking around and making their shoulders round.” (Updike 331). But are those scantily clad young “ladies” really that big of a deal? To the store’s

Johnson, poking fun at the writing community. Ms. Johnson wanted to take a fresh look at the works of John Updike without all the preconceived notions that a first time reader would get from literary reviews. Johnson goes on to praise Updike’s work stating that his work may not have very much substance and is just a bunch of pretty words; however, sometimes stories do not really need a deeper meaning. (The Southern Review). Sometimes a story needs to Say what it is going to say to give a reader a real look at them self. John Updike writes his story in a simple format. First of all he introduces his character one at a time. Then he shows how the characters will interact before the interaction. He told the audience of the manager’s moral obligation before the manager had even entered the scene so that the audience will know what type of interaction will take place. Barb Johnson thinks that the characters within Updike’s stories are, “intellectually arrogant” (the Southern Review). All of his characters seem blind to logic will inside of a confrontation making those interactions seem jarring and uncomfortably