Theme Of Conformity In A & P

The author of A & P, John Updike, uses the grocery store as a vehicle to represent conformity present in the 1950’s, and to show how the main character Sammy, and the three girls breaks this barrier of conformity. The story takes place within a small-town grocery store called A & P during a period where conformity is at an all-time high- which is shown throughout the various observations and decisions Sammy makes at work. Seeing how three girls were uninfluenced by society sparks Sammy’s intuition.
Conformity was common among all ages in the 1950s. Men were expected to work and support their family financially, while women, even though some worked, were expected to cook, clean, and take care of the family. This is best shown within A & P when Sammy describes how the costumers, he referred to as “sheep”, pushed their carts down the aisles in the same flow of traffic every day. He even refers to them as “house slaves in pin curlers” (Updike 354).
Distracted by the three girls, Sammy couldn’t remember if he’d rang up a costumer’s item or not. So, he rings it up again, and states, “the costumer starts giving me hell” (Updike 352). He shows the readers this theme of conformity when he says, “She’d been watching cash registers for fifty years and probably never seen a mistake before” (352). He reiterates the pattern and routine
He describes Stokesie as a married man with two children, and his dream to one day take Lengel’s place as the store manager. In Sammy’s eye’s he sees Stokesie and Lengel as unhappy and realizes that one day that could be him. However, Sammy doesn’t want to keep going through the stages to become manager, because Sammy see’s that there is more out there for him. Since, Sammy does not want to continue to the pattern, he is showing anti-conformity in the workplace. Sammy has been influenced by these three girls to have a different