John Updike's A&P

“Liberty is Worth Paying for. . .” Jules Verne

Can an individual break hierarchical associations to find freedom and at which point would enlightenment be validated by achieving freedom through conflict? William Faulkner writes in “Barn Burning” about the desire for the individual to tear away from family because of disbelief in values and morals portrayed by a father. Abner becomes powerless with the release of slaves and chooses to transfer his negative desire for power onto his son. Although Sarty breaks the bond of blood between he and his father, he walks away with a greater sense of enlightenment. John Updike portrays the same hierarchical break in “A&P,” but within this story, the break is between an employer and employee. The break of power is driven by ulterior motives of women and fame. Sammy chooses to defy the authoritarian figure with hopes of proving himself, but to his surprise, his actions are invalidated after he walks outside and the girls are gone. Dale Bailey writes of a hierarchical break in “Hunger: A Confession” between two brothers and the gradual manipulation causing Simon to ultimately murder his brother Jeremy. Simon’s enlightenment is achieved through unconventional methods and only after the death of his brother, does Simon grasp the magnitude of murdering Jeremy. The obvious cause of Jeremy’s death was Simon taking the tools and murdering his brother. Had Jeremy and his family treated Simon differently, he would have never been forced to ruthlessly murder his brother.

Simon and Jeremy’s relationship took many shapes. For one moment, Jeremy would treat Simon as though any brother would by exchanging baseball cards rummaging through unknown mysteries down in the basement. Jeremy would tell frightening stories of ghosts, Indian burial grounds, and psychopathic murderers just as a normal brother would, but the desperate attempts of frightening Simon drove his brother mad. Simon was never good enough for his parents and was always half the boy Jeremy was. His mother spoke of him as “the changeling” speaking of him as if he generated from somebody else’s gene pool. Simon spoke of himself as “scrawny, an unlovely kid, and forever peering out at the world through a pair of thick glasses that Jeremy used to light ants on fire” and looked upon his brother as “blond, handsome, broad shouldered, friendly, and the kid everyone wanted to sit with in the lunch room.